It was a rare sunny morning on Tuesday so I went to join Suzanne at New Fen viewpoint to look for bitterns. Suzanne had already seen one flight so hopes were high of seeing another. Although I didn’t see one, we had superb views of two juvenile bearded tits feeding on the grit tray in front of the viewpoint. This is the first time either of us had ever seen these charming little birds using grit trays here (I had seen them previously at RSPB Leighton Moss). We also saw two kingfishers whizzing around over the pool which was great to see.
On the way back to the visitor centre, we spotted this large skipper feeding on some viper’s bugloss alongside East Wood:
Image credit: David White
I also saw a drinker moth caterpillar on the track south of Trial Wood:
There was a moment of great excitement when somebody came in reporting a clouded yellow butterfly on the wing near the Fen pools. This provoked a minor “insect twitch” but unfortunately, most if us didn’t see it. If you are wondering what all of the fuss was about, these beautiful creatures (please see link above for a picture!) are only scarce migrants to Britain and most of us hadn’t seen one before. I have only seen them on the Isles of Scilly. We did see a hobby over the Fen Pools though which was nice.
There was a real Giving nature a Home theme to our wildlife on Tuesday as not only did a cinnabar moth spend a happy 20 minutes in the office but a grass snake also spent some time in the workshop! I photographed it for posterity just before Ali managed to coax it back out into the wide world:
This is perhaps not quite what the RSPB had in mind when they launched the Giving Nature a Home campaign!
Also on Tuesday, two cranes were seen from Joist Fen viewpoint and a scarce chaser was on the wing in Brandon Fen.
I went for a walk around Brandon Fen on Wednesday morning and although I saw a lovely barn owl hunting over the riverbank, the moths I saw actually stole the show. I saw a clouded border resting on some nettles and there was also silver-ground carpet and garden carpet on the wing in the Fen Pools.
I also managed to sneak out for a rare walk at lunchtime to look for dragonflies. I saw an emperor dragonfly patrolling around near New Fen viewpoint and I managed to get a photograph of this blue tailed damselfly near the viewpoint:
Karen, one of our volunteers went down to Joist Fen viewpoint and saw a bittern fly across the pool and a marsh harrier was flying around with an unfortunate small mammal in its talons. Four cranes were also seen from the viewpoint later on in the day which probably included a strange pair judging by their behaviour.
The reserve staff did a bittern survey yesterday morning. A colleague from Natural England was lucky enough to see a honey buzzard over New Fen viewpoint. Hopefully some pictures will follow soon! Suzanne saw two kingfishers from the viewpoint and a red kite drifted over Joist Fen viewpoint later on in the day.
One of our volunteers found this odd looking creature out on the reserve:
Its a species of longhorn beetle but its more commonly known by its Latin name which really rolls off the tongue: Agapanthia villosviridescesns. It's really rather impressive isn’t it?!
I went and helped our local bird ringer Simon out this morning while he went to ring some of our marsh harrier chicks. My role was as follows: to guide Simon and Katherine to the nest. Now that sounds rather easy I hear you say! The spanner in the works as it were was that they were in a boat and were surrounded by ten foot high reeds. I had a line on the nest so every time they raised a paddle; I had to radio them to say whether they were on the right track. They got there eventually and three healthy chicks (two girls and a boy) were found. This was not before they took several chunks out of Simon with their rather sharp talons though! We will also be wing-tagging young marsh harrier chicks later on in the year in order to try to work out where they go once they fledge. Don’t worry, the tags aren’t very big and they are only visible if you have a close look at them.
While I was performing my directional duties, a bittern flew across in front of me and I saw a rather spectacular marsh harrier food pass where the female almost didn’t catch the prey that the male had dropped to her! A bearded tit also flew over the reeds and a common tern was feeding in one of the pools just west of Joist Fen viewpoint.
We hope to see you soon!