The strong winds have once again returned to Lakenheath, though thankfully it’s not brought the snow that America has had recently! As I sit in the office listening to the wind howling (also keeping a watch out for any birds being blown past the window that could top up my year list!), it’s good to report plenty of sightings from the last few days.

Our barn owls are still being seen on a regular basis, with…

We’ve enjoyed some lovely frosty mornings recently; an ice covered reserve glistening as the winter sun shines down on it. Unfortunately today has seen a slight change in the weather and whilst it’s a little warmer it’s also a little wetter!  

An icy washland on Sunday morning - Image credit Emma Cuthbertson

I ventured down the reserve this morning to check on a few things and was halted by the sight…

Good morning all. This will be my last recent sightings blog post for a while now so without any further ado, I will begin!

Saturday afternoon proved to me a very eventful afternoon. A male sparrowhawk dashed low over the visitor centre and I had a pleasant surprise when I popped up to the Washland viewpoint at lunchtime: A family of six Bewick’s swans flew west over my head before landing briefly on the washland…

Good morning. It has certainly been a lot chillier than usual over the last couple of days, hasn’t it?! It wasn’t too bad on Wednesday and the work party in New Fen North, the first area of reedbed, were lucky enough to see four cranes flying over towards the visitor centre. Unfortunately, they didn’t get as far as the visitor centre so those of us that were in the office didn’t see them.

I went…

Please note that the Talon Spotting guided walk tomorrow afternoon is now FULLY BOOKED. Unfortunately, we can only accommodate those that have booked places in advance. We are very sorry for an inconvenience caused. 

Good morning. I have attached Simon Evan’s latest ringing data, this time from last Monday. As you can see, it shows that there are still plenty of bramblings and lesser redpolls on the move. This suggests that the recent chillier weather has encouraged them to move further south for a bit more warmth.

I will start off where I left off on Saturday. I took a walk around the interior path of New Fen North in the…

Good morning. I thought that I would take this opportunity to provide an update on how many places we have on some of our guided walks between now and the end of March:

• There are currently two places available on the Talon Spotting guided walk on Sunday 17 January, 2pm-5pm
• There are currently 11 places available on The Long Walk on Sunday 7 February, 9.30am-3pm
• There are currently 10 places available on the Crane talk &…

Good afternoon. Well, we have had some typical January weather over the last couple of days haven’t we?! It has been damp, wet and cold. However, there has still been plenty to see nonetheless.

Katherine went up to the Washland viewpoint on Wednesday and she saw an unidentified wader. It was either a golden plover or a grey plover. Unfortunately, she wasn’t certain though.

I went up to the Washland viewpoint…

As the sun begins to set a spectacular scene unfolds here at Lakenheath Fen; an eerie sight and sound, once experienced, never forgotten...

...And it’s all down to the thousands of rooks, crows and jackdaws that congregate to roost in our poplar woods. It starts off slowly, a few birds appearing quietly and dropping in to the trees, the first few scouts checking the area out.  Then, before you know it, the sky is…

Good morning. Now that the twelve days of Christmas are over, things have gone back to normal here. I will begin this morning’s recent sightings post with some pictures of the eight cranes that were photographed here on 29 December and seen again on 31 December:

Image credits: John Dixon

Thank you very much to John for sharing these great images with us.

Closer inspection has revealed that the three were…

Good morning. We have had a good start to 2016 so far. I took a couple of trips up to the Washland viewpoint on New Year’s Day to look at gulls. There were at least four herring gulls present at lunchtime and by mid-afternoon; at least three yellow legged gulls were present. A group of four shelducks were also present.

Meanwhile, further down the reserve, a bittern was seen from Joist Fen viewpoint and two great…

Good morning. Happy New Year to you all! The last couple of days have been great here so I will pick up where I left off on Tuesday. Two lucky visitors saw two pink footed geese flying east along the river, which is a great record for here. They also photographed a total of eight cranes, which were also flying east along the river. This consisted of a group of five and a group of eight. They all appeared to be adults…

Happy New Year to you all! As some of you will know, each year, we have a staff and volunteer year list challenge. The idea is very simple: to see as many species on the reserve in a calendar year as possible. The results of "last year's" competition are as follows:

1. David White, Visitor Experience Officer: 133
2. Katherine Puttick, Warden: 125
3. Emma Cuthbertson, Warden: 119
4. Suzanne Harwood, Administrator…

Good morning. I thought I would post Simon Evans’, our local bird ringer’s last ringing report of 2015. The data is from 23 and 28 December. It is attached to the bottom of this blog post. I have also included an excerpt of his ringing report, which I hope you find interesting:

“A few landmark figures were met in this last period of the year. Our busiest year at Lakenheath Fen with 2907 birds ringed, taking…

Good morning. It’s time for my last recent sightings blog post of 2015 so without any further ado, I will begin.

I will begin with some late news from 26 December. One of our regular visitors was down at the far end of the reserve and had great views of an otter. He also saw a juvenile peregrine.

I was out armed with my camera yesterday morning and took a couple more pictures of the fungi growing outside of the…

Good morning. I hope you had a good Christmas and are enjoying the festive period! There are plenty of interesting sightings so without any further ado, I will begin!

Simon Evans, our local bird ringer was ringing on Monday 14 December and Friday 18 December. I have attached the ringing reports from both days at the bottom of this blog post. Highlights included only the third ever bullfinch to be ringed here and this…

Today is my last day at work before the Christmas holidays.  I thought I would just post one last management and sightings blog before closing up the visitor centre.   Last Saturday I was working at Lakenheath Fen and we had really good sightings of goldcrest with at least 3 birds flitting around in the gorse and bramble in front of the visitor centre along with some blue tits. 

Goldcrest - by Dave Rogers

We have had…

As Emma said last week we have started cutting and burning reed in New Fen North and after a week of solid raking up, pitchforking piles of cut reed and lighting fires I can say I have burned off a few calories as well as quite a bit of reed.  The 360 excavator started cutting last week but we have to give the machine some working room before we start burning so we only managed a little bit of clearing up last Friday.

Good morning. It’s time for my last recent sightings blog post before Christmas so without any further ado, here we go:

I have attached some ringing data from last Wednesday to the bottom of this blog post. It includes a new reserve record catch of 40 bramblings, which is great news.

I have also included some images, one serous and four not quite no serious (but festive nonetheless!):

Bittern: 

Image credit…

Good morning. Although the weather hasn’t been particularly festive recently, it is almost Christmas! I will start by posting these excellent pictures of some our wintering finches, that were taken near the visitor centre at the end of last week:

Lesser redpoll:

Siskin:

Bramblings:

Image credits: Ian Goodall

Thank you very much to Ian for sharing these great images with us.

It was a lovely day…

Nothing says it’s nearly Christmas like burning reed, and so, we have begun our annual reed cutting programme. It was one of the first jobs I was involved with when I started here last year, time certainly does fly by!

This year we are working on New Fen north, the section of reedbed closest to the visitor centre. Those of you who have visited us over the last few months will have noticed that the water levels…

Good morning. It has been an interesting week so I will launch straight into some recent sightings. On Sunday, two great white egrets were on the washland and a kingfisher flew across the visitor centre pond.

We had a very successful barn owl walk on Sunday afternoon, although we did have to be quite patient! The first one we saw was hunting over Field 5026, which is the area just east of East Wood. We had our best views…

With the help of our brilliant team of volunteers, we’re always busy on the reserve throughout the year; whether it’s working in the reedbed, tackling willow scrub, fixing fences, checking water levels or undertaking various wildlife surveys to name just a small proportion of what we do!

However, there is often little mention of another group that also works hard to help keep our habitats just right – our…

Good morning. I will begin with a detour back to next week, when local bird ringer Simon Evans was ringing in Brandon Fen on both Wednesday 2 December and Thursday 3 December. I have attached a comparative report from both days to this blog post. I hope you find it interesting. Also, here are a few details from his report that you might find interesting:

• One of the “control” (a bird ringed previously elsewhere) …

Good afternoon. Christmas is not far away so I have attached our Christmas opening times to this blog post. I also couldn't resist posting a picture of our lovely Christmas tree with a waxwing on top!:

Image credit: David White

We hope to see you over the festive period!