Good afternoon. There have definitely been plenty of signs of bird movements over the last couple of days. There was an impressive count of 97 mute swans on the washland on Monday. These are mostly non breeding birds that begin to congregate in large groups before dispersing to their wintering grounds.

I went for a walk this morning and there were plenty of birds on the move. I flushed a juvenile green woodpecker near…

Good afternoon. I will begin today with a selection of great images that were taken on the reserve recently by Tanya Carlile:

Common lizards:

Ruddy darter:

Bee feeding on teasel:

Ladybirds: 

Image credits: Tanya Carlile

Thank you very much to Tanya for sharing these great photos with us.

It was really foggy on Friday morning and I went for a walk around Brandon Fen before work. A willow warbler was…

Between the 27 July and the 9 August 2015, I worked at RSPB Lakenheath Fen on a work experience placement. During my time at the reserve, I was lucky enough to spend time with all the fantastic staff and volunteers at the reserve.

Throughout my time at the reserve, I learnt a tremendous amount about the constant management that the reserve requires. Also, spending time with Dave- the Site Manager- gave me an insight…

Good afternoon. It took a while, but I have now finally recovered from our two Big Wild Sleepout event! Also, thanks to regular visitor John Gamble, I have managed to identify the mystery beetle that I posted a picture off in my blog post on Sunday. It was a four-banded longhorn beetle, or Leptura quadrifasciata to give it it’s full name! Here are some  pictures of it: 

Image credit: David White

I will begin…

Hello there! We have just finished a very successful two night Big Wild Sleepout event so just before I go and have a long sleep, here are some recent sightings for you:

It was a lovely day on Friday and local photographer Matt Walton was out and about early. Here are some of his pictures:

Dawn over the washland:

Some juvenile bearded tits in front of New Fen viewpoint:

Image credits: Matt Walton

He also saw…

Good morning. Our Big Wild Sleepout events begin tomorrow evening here at RSPB Lakenheath Fen! If you are booked on the event, a proposed itinerary for the weekend is attached to this blog post. We currently have room for one more tent on both evenings. Details on how to book places can be found here for Friday night and here on Saturday night. We hope to see you there! 

Good morning. We have had an interesting couple of days here at Lakenheath Fen. I took a group of American cub scouts out on the reserve on Saturday afternoon. Reptiles were very conspicuous. We saw a grass snake near the railway line and at least six common lizards near New Fen viewpoint. 

I was out and about representing the RSPB at the Wayland Show on Sunday. Meanwhile, back here, volunteer Norman saw eight green …

2 July

On a plot, I find a stone- curlew chick I ringed four weeks ago. I recognise it by the unique combination of colour rings I put on its legs. I am so delighted, as it is now easily old enough to be able to fly – and is so much safer. Even better, I find one of its parents sitting on two eggs. This chick has fledged early enough for them to go for a second brood. Perfect! All possible because the farmer has kept…

Good morning! This coming weekend, we have our two night Big Wild Sleepout event on the reserve. There are still spaces available on both Friday and Saturday nights, so here is a run down of what we will be getting up to.

Friday 7 August

The theme on Friday is a bat and moth night. Participants can set up their tents from 5pm onwards. A guided walk to listen for the species of bats that call the reserve home will commence…

Good morning. The weather has been gradually improving all week and it’s a lovely morning here at the moment.

I had a walk around the reserve on a rather gloomy Thursday morning and heard a greenshank calling as it flew over the visitor centre. I also heard two kingfishers between the visitor centre and New Fen viewpoint.

The reserve team were out pulling ragwort once again and they were lucky enough to see all…

Good afternoon. It felt really autumnal here this morning! Sadly, for those of you who like summer, autumn isn’t too far away.

However, it isn’t quite here yet! Since the last time I blogged, both pairs of cranes with their young were seen last Thursday and two turtle doves flew over Joist Fen viewpoint.

Although most of last Friday was a washout, volunteers Simon and Pete were out ringing in Brandon Fen…

Please note that The Long Walk tomorrow is still taking place. Rain is forecast in the afternoon so if you are booked onto the event, please bring waterproofs. In the event of sustained heavy rain, the walk will be cut short. If you have any questions or queries, please do not hesitate to get in touch via 01842 863400. 

Thursday is our regular volunteer work party day and we had various jobs to complete today so we split into two groups.  Emma took one group to continue with some of the ragwort, Senecio jacobaea, pulling whilst Darren and I headed down to Botany Bay with chainsaws and brushcutters to clear a fallen tree and open up a section of path in preparation for the long walk on Sunday.

Whilst driving through the reserve we were…

Good morning. I am not going to be here much for the next couple of days so here are some more recent sightings:

It turned out to be quite a nice day on Tuesday. Emma and Suzanne went down to Botany Bay at the west end of the reserve to look for marsh carpet moth caterpillars during the morning. Although they didn't see any, they saw four cranes and at least six juvenile marsh harriers.

Meanwhile, closer to the…

In my last guest blog post, I talked about this year’s star species that were caught on camera as part of the Wings over the Brecks project. I am pleased to say that the goshawk chick, named Boudica, successfully fledged, so hopefully we will see her again some day with young of her own.

Image- goshawk chick.

The two stone-curlew chicks from our Weeting Heath nest camera (or sock cam!) successfully fledged on…

Good morning. If you read our reserve blog regularly, you may have realised that I have been away for a week. Well, I returned to work this morning to look at our staff and volunteer sighting sheet this morning and there was nothing on it for the last week! Don’t worry though, there has been plenty going on while I have been away!

The big news is that both of our pairs of cranes have fledged young! Please read…

It has been a very exciting, record breaking few weeks here at Lakenheath.  After 12 weeks of worry our crane parents finally got their recalcitrant youngsters into the air.  As I'm sure most of our regular readers know we provide a home for two pairs of cranes here at Lakenheath.  One pair, known to us as A2 are very secretive, the other pair,  Little and Large are the more visible cranes to visitors, volunteers and…

If you are a regular visitor to the reserve, you'll probably be quite familiar with the paths between the visitor centre and Joist Fen viewpoint.  But how many of you have made the long three mile trek down the Public Footpath to Botany Bay?  If you have, then you'll know what a fantastic wilderness it is, home to lots of interesting, and some rare, wildlife. It is an area of washland that has been designated a Site…

Good afternoon. This is just a quick note to say that the Wangford Road, that runs between the A1065 and the B1112 just south of the reserve, will be CLOSED from today until next Friday (24 July). Please read this notice for more details. If you are planning to visit the reserve, you will need to access the reserve on the B1112 via either Lakenheath village or Hockwold village. Please ring 01842 863400 or e-mail lakenheath…

Good morning. It was a lovely day on Friday and there were plenty people out and about enjoying the weather and the wildlife. Local photographer David Capps took this picture from New Fen viewpoint, which caused a bit of a debate when I posted it on our social media pages (which are RSPB Suffolk on Facebook and RSPB Fens on Twitter, just in case you were wondering)                                                                  :

Image credit: David…

Good morning. I love this time of year as everything is so colourful! Our raised plant beds are a riot of colour at the moment and there are some lovely plants out on flower. In the bog bed, it is currently possible to admire both native species of loosestrife together:

Purple loosestrife and yellow loosestrife:

There have also been plenty of ringlets on the wing, favouring the yellow flowers of the common ragwor…

Good afternoon. There has definitely been a dragonfly theme to this week here so far. Yesterday, we were lucky enough to be joined by writer and dragonfly ambassador Ruary Mackenzie Dodds, who lead a workshop about our “tooth jawed” friends for RSPB staff.

In recognition of these beautiful creatures, here are some wonderful images of a selection of species from last week, courtesy of Richard Jones:

A banded…

Here is another blog fix from our guest writer Jo Jones, who works with the RSPB Brecks Team as a stone-curlew field worker. Find out what June was like for her.....

5 June

Again, a tractor driver rings me. He is planning to cultivate a game strip tomorrow. I know the eggs are about to hatch and ask if he can bring forward the work to today. He readily agrees. I go to check the state of the nest. I find the adults both…

What a difference a day makes – beautiful hot weather yesterday, to heavy showers and a definite drop in temperature today! Whilst we’ve all been enjoying the summer sunshine, the rain was a welcome relief as the reserve is certainly in need of a little extra water!

The hot weather hasn’t put the wildlife off however and there’s plenty to report from the past few days. Kingfishers have been making…

Good morning. I mentioned in my blog post yesterday that the RAF's Red Arrows display team would be displaying over nearby RAF Feltwell tomorrow afternoon (Saturday 4 July). Sadly, the display has been cancelled due to a security alert. Please read this article for more information.