Good morning. We haven’t seen the sun much this week but as usual, there haven’t been many dull moments!

The last day we saw the sun properly was on Sunday. There were still some summer migrants around with two blackcaps and a chiffchaff feeding near the visitor centre. A late tree pipit also flew over.

It was warn enough for a very late grass snake to show itself in front of New Fen viewpoint and a bit…

Good morning. Our annual Race for Wildlife is almost upon us! The event will take place on Sunday and here is some more information including the route maps.

The two kilometre fun run

This will start at 10am and the start will be just west of the visitor centre. The route will partly be on grassy paths and partly on surfaced tracks:

The five kilometre route

This will start at 11am and the start will be near the…

Good morning. It is definitely beginning to feel very autumnal here, especially in the mornings. However, on Friday afternoon Site Manager Dave and I showed a colleague from the Norfolk Wildlife Trust around the reserve. It was really rather warm! There were plenty of migrant hawkers and a red admiral butterfly on the wing. 

We went down to Joist Fen viewpoint and shortly after we got there, a kingfisher flew across the…

Good morning. Things are definitely starting to change here and a lot of species have now started moving. Before I get into that properly though, as promised, here are a few more pictures from last weekend:

Long tailed tit:

Marsh harrier:

Image credits: Dave Rogers

Bearded tit:

Image credits: Charles Whitfield King

Thank you very much to Dave and Charles for sharing these great images with us.

I decided…

Good afternoon. It was a lovely day on Sunday and there were plenty of people out with their cameras. I have posted five of them below and there will be more to come the next time I blog:

Kingfisher: 

Image credit: Dave Rogers

Bearded tit:

Image credits: Charles Whitfield King

Stoat:

I might as well start with stoats as individuals were showing well from New Fen viewpoint and near the visitor centre.…

Good morning. Although we have had some chilly (and foggy!) mornings recently, we have seen plenty of sunshine which is very welcome at this time of year!

I will begin with a brief detour back to two weeks ago when Harpenden Photographic Society came for a walk around the reserve with Steve, one of our volunteers. 

They kindly sent us some of the photos that they took on the day. We hope you like them:

Joist Fen viewpoint…

Good morning. As Katherine mentioned in her blog post from last week, I have been away in sunnier climes. I therefore had to put my hat and gloves on when I ventured out on the reserve for the first time yesterday morning!

I will try and pick things up where Katherine left off but I will start by sharing some great pictures that Matt Walton took here while I was away:

Bearded tits:

Great white egret:

The Washland…

Our annual Race for Wildlife is now a mere few weeks away and the countdown is officially on!

For those that haven’t heard about this event, it is your chance to run, jog or walk around the reserve taking in the beautiful scenery and wildlife of Lakenheath. Maybe spotting a bittern, bearded tit or otter as you go...

Photo credit - Dave Rogers

There’s something for all runners (or walkers!) out there; multi…

Firstly, I'd just like to apologise that it's been such a long gap since we last blogged.  With David away in sunnier climes, it has fallen to the rest of us to blog, and it's just been one of those really busy weeks!

On Saturday, the osprey was seen several times cruising over the river and washland and perching up on the willows near the Wilton Bridge. It has been seen most days since, including earlier…

Good morning, although I said that yesterday’s blog post would be my last recent sightings blog before I went on holiday, but I have a first record for the reserve to report, which is very exciting indeed!

I was checking the RSPB Suffolk Facebook page this morning and noticed that regular visitor Bob Greef, who is also a volunteer at RSPB Strumpshaw Fen had posted a picture of a male willow emerald damselfly that…

Good morning. There has been plenty going on here over the last couple of days so here is one more recent sightings blog post from me before I disappear for a couple of weeks.

An otter was photographed on the washland on Friday and bitterns were seen from both the Washland viewpoint and Joist Fen viewpoint. Three hobbys were seen over New Fen viewpoint and a kingfisher was seen from Mere Hide. 

I went for a walk in the…

Good morning. Our Race for Wildlife is almost here! There are still plenty of spaces available on the event so here is some more information about it:

Two multi-terrain courses take you around the beautiful nature reserve, with distances of 5k and 10k. The 10k course follows routes normally closed to visitors so this is your chance to enjoy different views. Run, jog or walk-the choice is yours! There will also be a 2k…

Good morning. We have had a lovely couple of days here at RSPB Lakenheath Fen. If I start where I left off on Tuesday, a lesser redpoll flew over the visitor centre and a stoat was rampaging around the visitor centre veranda. All of its hard work paid off, when it caught an unfortunate rabbit in front of the visitor centre. 

I went for a walk before work yesterday morning and there were several chiffchaffs singing between…

If you are planning to visit the reserve this Sunday, please read this note:

This will mean that it will be necessary to access the reserve via the north .i.e. via Brandon, Weeting and Hockwold as the railway crossing at Lakenheath station, which is immediately south of the reserve entrance, will be closed all day. Please use the above contact details for more information or contact the reserve office by ringing 01842…

Good day to you all. Although we haven’t seen the sun much in September, it has certainly encouraged a wide variety of wildlife to show itself when it has been shining.

The reserve team had their management plan pathfinder meeting on Friday, when they discussed an overview of the management of the reserve for the next five years. They spent the afternoon out on the reserve and saw two bearded tits on the grit tray…

Good afternoon. I am not going to be around much for the next couple of days and there have been a few interesting sightings recently so here is another recent sightings blog post.

Although the weather did cheer up a bit on Tuesday afternoon, the view out of the visitor centre window wasn’t particularly inspiring:

Image credit: David White

I went for a walk up to the Washland viewpoint after lunch and the

Good morning. Unfortunately, August ended in a bit of a whimper with lots of grey skies and rain. There are still quite a lot of recent sightings so without further ado, here they are:

The Cambridge Conservation Forum had their first outing to a reserve on Thursday evening. They went to look at an old crane nest and while they were there, two green sandpipers flew over. 

I walked up to Joist Fen viewpoint on Friday morning…

Good morning. It is really rather wet today so this morning’s blog post is more going to be about the breeding season that was rather than recent sightings. Dave did mention some recent sightings in his blog post yesterday and I will post some more recent sightings later on in the week. 

It is that time of year when we have to submit the results of our breeding season here. I will therefore use this opportunity…

It has been a busy week with two work parties.  On Tuesday Emma, Phil and Mark went to Joist Fen viewpoint to open up the view there whilst Dave M and I got to cut in front of the New Fen viewpoint.  We hope you like the more open vistas and there have been good sightings of kingfishers at New Fen subsequently.  Here is a photograph of New Fen I took today in the drizzle...

On Thursday the team were back out tackling…

Good morning! Next weekend, we have our history themed family fun day to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the reserve. 

There will be a trail around the Brandon Fen family trail, which will provide an opportunity to learn more about some of these old pictures of what is now the reserve:

If you would like to learn more about any of these pictures, please come along! 

As well as the trail around Brandon…

Good afternoon. We have had an interesting couple of days here at Lakenheath Fen. Shortly after I finished blogging on Sunday, a crossbill flew over visitor centre and a great white egret was photographed in front of the Washland viewpoint.

Katherine, one of our Wardens, went up to the Washland viewpoint on Monday. She saw a great white egret and nine common snipe.

Yesterday turned out to be something of an unforgettable…

It has been a pleasure to be able to feature as a guest blogger on the Lakenheath Fen reserve page. I hope you have enjoyed reading them and learning something new about the unique Brecks landscape.

Sadly though my time in the Brecks is drawing to an end. At the end of September, I will be leaving my post and starting a new job with the RSPB in Devon at the Exe Estuary reserves: a very different habitat to the Brecks…

Good morning. I wasn’t intending to do another recent sightings blog post today but as yesterday turned out to be such a great day, I couldn’t resist.

There were several regular visitors around early yesterday morning and Matt Walton took these fantastic photographs:

Sunrise over the river:

Little grebe:

A pair of common darters:

Kingfisher:

Image credits: Matt Walton

Thank you very much to…

Good morning! It’s a lovely sunny morning here so it’s time for some more recent sightings.

I went out pulling ragwort with the reserve work party behind Mere Hide on Thursday and despite being followed around by a male sheep (it’s a long story!) it was great to be out on the reserve. While I was hard at work, three common buzzards were circling high overhead and at least four yellow wagtails flew over…

Sammy Fraser joined Robert Hawkes, our Heathland Project Officer in the Brecks to find out more about the work being done on heathland in the Brecks and what makes them so important.....

The RSPB Brecks team works on a landscape scale across the Brecks, which spans approximately a 1,000 square kilometres and encompasses south Norfolk and north Suffolk in its boundaries. The Brecks is a home to a vast wealth of wildlife…