If you are planning to visit this weekend, it is forecast to be very windy tomorrow so similar to last Sunday, certain parts of the reserve may not be accessible. Again, this especially applies to paths alongside the poplar woods.

On Sunday, Lakenheath railway crossing will be closed all day. If you are planning to visit the reserve, you will need to access the reserve from the north. This is via the villages of Weeting…

Good morning. So, the, short, dark days of December are finally with us! I will begin with a couple of sunset pictures that were taken earlier on in the week:

Image credits: Dave Rogers

Image credit: David White 

In terms of recent sightings, I will start with a brief detour back to last Thursday when a peregrine was seen at the far end of the reserve.

It was pretty wild here on Sunday afternoon but before the…

Good morning. It has been a bit wild here recently! Before I get into what has been seen over the weekend so far, here are some great pictures that were taken here on Thursday, in slightly better weather conditions:

Flying bittern:

Perched kingfisher:

Image credits: Brian Edmonds

Thank you very much to Brian for sharing these fantastic pictures with us.

There were a couple of interesting bird of prey sightings…

Good morning. Unfortunately, due to very high winds forecasted from 11am onwards tomorrow, certain parts of the reserve may not be accessible. This includes the majority of the paths west of the visitor centre (towards Joist Fen viewpoint), especially around the poplar woods. Please ring the reserve office on 01842 863400 or e-mail lakenheath@rspb.org.uk; for more information. 

The barn owl walks have also been cancelled…

Good afternoon. We have had an interesting week here. As ever, I will start where I left off on Tuesday when some visitors braved the wind and rain to see a bittern from Joist Fen viewpoint.

It was a nice day on Wednesday and there was plenty to see. A water rail was seen at the edge of the visitor centre pond and 12 siskins were feeding in the alders next to the pool. Two great white egrets were seen from the Washland…

Good morning. Please note that due to the high winds that are forecasted on Sunday 29 November, certain parts of the reserve may not be accessible. This especially applies to the paths around the poplar woods. Please ring the reserve office on 01842 863400 or e-mail lakenheath@rspb.org.uk; for more information.

Additionally, if you are booked on the barn owl walks on Sunday afternoon, a decision will be made at 9.30am…

Good afternoon. Finally, we have had some cold weather! I escaped down to Dorset for the weekend this past weekend so thank you very much to Emma for here fantastic blog post from Sunday. If you haven’t read it yet, it can be found here. 

A bittern swimming across the pool in front of Mere Hide:

Image credits: Mali Halls

Two otter cubs playing on the riverbank on Sunday morning:

Image credit: Ian Gilli…

What a difference a day makes! Yesterday was mostly spent sheltering from the rain, sleet and wind, with only a few people braving the elements. Fast forward to this morning and whilst there was a definite chill in the air, it was a perfectly calm sunny morning – great for being out and about on the reserve.

Saturday’s view from the centre – it doesn’t quite capture the strength of the wind (Image: John Wightman…

Today was a day of fixing, repairing and moving tons of material.  This morning Emma split our trusty volunteers into three teams.  Team one - Nigel and Phil went down the reserve to repair a key piece of fence to prevent the cattle escaping from a section of our wet grassland.  From the sound of it fixing the fence was a big job and ended up getting more or less replaced rather than repaired.  The second team of Rob, Roger…

Please note that the following events are now FULLY BOOKED:

• Barn owl walk (1) 29 November 2pm-4.30pm
• Barn owl walk (2) 29 November 2pm-4.30pm
• Barn owl walk 6 December 2pm-4.30pm

Unfortunately, we can only accommodate those people who have book places in advance. The next barn owl walk will take place on Sunday 20 March 2016. Please follow this link for more information about how to book places. 

Please note that…

Good morning. Without any further ado, I will start of where I left off on Thursday. Simon Evans, our local bird ringer had another successful ringing session in Brandon Fen. I have attached his ringing data to this blog post.

One of our locals saw three cranes from Joist Fen viewpoint during the morning and Suzanne saw a common buzzard on the entrance track. As the day went on, a bittern and a kingfisher were seen from…

With the recent spell of mild weather we’ve been enjoying you wouldn’t really think it was November! Not that I’m complaining, it makes a nice change to be getting stuck in to the winter work programme without having to don about five layers of clothing before heading out...

Yesterday saw the work party heading down to Mere hide to cut back some of the reed surrounding the pool edge.  

It’s one of our…

Good morning. Despite the fact that it is still very mild for the time of year, there is now definitely a wintery feel to the wildlife that is calling the reserve home at the moment. On Monday afternoon, Emma saw a female stonechat near Mere Hide.

A male hen harrier was photographed at Joist Fen viewpoint on Tuesday lunchtime. We then saw it again later on in the day. It was hunting over New Fen North, the first area…

Good morning. The weather hasn’t been great this week so I thought take a brief detour back to last Saturday when I lead the twentieth birthday Long Walk in glorious sunshine.  Here are a couple of pictures that Emma took on the way round: 

Image credits: Emma Cuthbertson

There was plenty to see on the visitor centre pond on Thursday including a kingfisher, a grey heron and a lapwing.

I had a surprise when…

Good morning. Due to work commitments, this will be my last recent sightings blog post until the beginning of next week so here we go again.

This post will follow a similar format to Tuesday’s post, beginning with a ringing report followed by some recent sightings and pictures.

I have attached local ringer Simon Evan’s latest ringing report from Brandon Fen and here is an excerpt from his report. I hope you find…

It seems to me that a lot of the work we do out on the reserve involves cutting things down or mowing things, from mowing all the grass paths through the summer to the large scale reed cutting that Dave talked about a few blogs ago.  Some of the mowing we do to try and improve wildlife viewing opportunities for visitors, for example the annual strimming of reeds at the viewpoints. This generally works quite well as it…

Good morning. It has certainly been mild for the time of year recently, hasn’t it?! I will start off with a detour back to Saturday, when ringed Simon Evans was ringing in Brandon Fen. I have attached his ringing data below. 

I have also included a short except of his ringing report, which I hope you find interesting:

“Four stunning adult male bramblings were amongst the catch with one equally impressive…

Good morning. I will start off where I left off on Thursday with some recent sightings. Emma saw a sparrowhawk from Joist Fen viewpoint and ex-Site Manager Norman saw a selection of egrets on the washland pool north of East Wood. This included the great white egret and 10 little egrets.

Volunteer John Ingham also took this picture of the great white egret:

Image credit: John Ingham

Thank you very much to John for…

Good morning. Here is some information about our forthcoming events.

The barn owl walk on Sunday 29 November is FULLY BOOKED and we are actually doubling the walk up on the day, so there will be two walks taking place on the day which will follow different routes around the reserve. In order to cater for unprecedented demand, we will be organising an additional walk on the following Sunday. This will take place on Sunday…

Good morning. It’s been another busy week and there have been some interesting sightings out on the reserve. Over the weekend, a lucky couple saw a barn owl and a short eared owl hunting in the same area over the riverbank.

There was also a lovely sunrise on Sunday morning:

Image credit: Peter Sharpe

Thank you very much to Peter for sharing this great picture with us.

There was also some excitement on Monday…

This Thursday we split up the volunteer team into two groups and with Katherine and Emma tied up on a training course I joined the volunteers to help out.  With the weather feeling decidedly autumnal it was time to change over all the seasonal interpretation panels so Darren and Nigel got cracking with that job.

Phil, Rob, Roger and I headed down to Mere Hide to cut back the vegetation along the boardwalk.  With Phil strimming…

Good morning. There has been plenty of evidence of migration over the last couple of days. Simon and Pete were bird ringing in Brandon Fen on Tuesday morning and I have attached their report to this blog post. As you will see if you open the attachment, they ringed good numbers of bramblings and siskins along with some redwings.

Also of interest, Simon received and interesting ringing recovery when he got home that day…

Good morning! We all now fully recovered from our Race for Wildlife and if you haven't seen them yet, the results can be found here. I have posted some photographs of the event below, I hope you like them:

The start:

Image credit: Dave Rogers 

John Stewart, first male in the 5k:

Lilly Plumb, first female in the 5k:

Judith an David Cuthbertson (Warden Emma's mum & Dad!):

Mark Bartley, first…

Good morning. Apologies for the lack of updates this week, the Race for Wildlife took up all of my time over the weekend and as a team we have been recovering from the event since! 

I will start where I left off on Friday and volunteer Denise had a walk around the reserve. She photographed this interesting looking beetle, which caused a bit of a stir when she showed it to us in the office:

We had not encountered…

Good afternoon. I am very pleased to say that our Race for Wildlife today was a great success! A total of 64 people took part and we raised a fantastic £680 towards the management of the reserve. We also raised £100 from the sale of homemade cake. I have attached the results below. We will post some photos of the event later on in the week.  Thank you very much to everybody who took part and we hope to see…