Good morning. Apologies for the slight delay in providing some recent sightings, I have had a busy week.

Fortunately, the reserve has also been busy with wildlife as well! Starting on Monday, a great white egret was on the washland along with three wigeons. A drake pintail was also present, which is the first record of this species on the reserve for over a year.

Suzanne was lucky enough to see a red kite over the Washland…

Please note that if you are planning to visit the reserve next week, the B1112 just north of the reserve entrance will be CLOSED 9am-3pm on 3 February for four days, weather permitting. Suffolk Highways will be resurfacing the road during this time.

This will affect access to the reserve from the north (Hockwold direction). Access from the south via Lakenheath village and the Wangford Road will not be affected. 

If you…

For once, I haven’t got much to say this week so it’s over to Emma Cuthbertson, our new Warden for her very first Lakenheath Fen blog post. Enjoy!

As ever, there is always plenty of work to do here on the reserve. Last Thursday once again saw the volunteers out in force. Lots of pairs of hands meant we could split into groups and crack on with various jobs on the reserve.

Katherine took a team to the west…

Many of you may already be wishfully thinking of the summer ahead during these long winter nights. To be honest, it’s no different for us working at the reserve or in the Brecks!

We are already thinking ahead to the up and coming busy spring and summer months.  One aim we are particularly keen to achieve is to get more children connecting with nature.

The RSPB already does a fantastic job at getting more children…

We have almost reached the end of Big Garden Birdwatch weekend 2015 so here is a quick summary of how we got on here:

As I don’t have a garden, I did my hour yesterday morning 09.23-10.23 on the feeders behind the visitor centre. Here are my scores:

• Goldfinch: 12
• Blue tit: 4
• Great tit: 2
• Reed bunting: 4
• Chaffinch: 2
• Greenfinch: 3

We also had a ringing demonstration from local ringer Simon Evans. A total…

Good morning. Although the majority of the reserve has been frozen up all week, there has still been plenty to see.

On Thursday, a water rail was skulking around at the edge of the visitor centre pond and two bitterns were chasing eachother around on the washland. It was work party day and the team were treated to the sight of around 60 whooper swans flying over. More about them later though!

Suzanne went for a walk…

Good morning. It has been really rather cold this week so wildlife watching has been limited to short forays out onto the reserve. However, you don't necessarily need to be out for very long to see something good!

I went out briefly on Tuesday morning and here is the view that I had of the washland in the morning light:

If you look carefully, you can see five white dots. Here is a slightly closer view of…

Good morning. This is just a quick note to say that if you are planning to visit Mere Hide tomorrow morning, there will be a school group in the hide from approximately 11.30am until Midday. 

Good afternoon everybody. Slightly later than planned, here are some recent sightings from the last couple of days.

I will start where I left off on Thursday. Ex-Site Manager Norman went down to Joist Fen viewpoint for the afternoon. He saw at least 18 marsh harriers and a male hen harrier.

One of the pairs of cranes re-appeared on Friday and they spent most of the day in Humphrey’s Paddock, the grazing marsh near Joist…

Good afternoon! Apologies for two posts in a day but I am going into a local school to talk about the Big Garden Birdwatch tomorrow morning so I won’t be able to blog then!

I will begin with some pictures from Sunday:

The washland in the morning sunshine with a great white egret just about visible:

A close up view of the aforementioned great white egret:

A female marsh harrier hunting:

Image credits…

Firstly, belated Happy New Year to you all.

For us here at Lakenheath Fen, the New Year started much as last year ended with volunteers and staff out burning up the reed that had been cut with the excavator.  The machine driver could cut much more than we could clear in a day and he had four full days of cutting.  We are therefore still playing catch up!

Before Christmas, we had cleared up most of the larger of the two…

Good morning. The weather has been a bit wild for the last couple of days so I will start with a few more pictures that were taken hear last week, in (mostly) calmer conditions:

A chiffchaff that was ringed in Brandon Fen last Monday:

Image credit: Lee Gregory

A great white egret and a little egret side by side on Thursday:

A sparrowhawk over Brandon Fen on Thursday:

The smoky sunset on Thursday evening:

Good morning! Gulls and egrets have definitely been the flavour of the week this week. Local birdwatcher and bird ringer Lee Gregory spent three hours up at the washland viewpoint on Monday afternoon. There were over a thousand gulls present, including two Caspian gulls:

This included a second winter bird, which is the individual in the shot with the black tip to the beak and the black tail:

...And an adult, which…

So now the festivities are over and all the mince pies have been eaten, it’s a perfect time to don your walking boots and get out exploring your local landscape. Many of you reading this may be aware of a unique landscape on your doorstep, the Brecks.

The Brecks spans approximately 1,000 square kilometres and encompasses South Norfolk and North Suffolk in its boundary, with the towns Thetford, Brandon, Watton,…

Good morning. It turned out to be a lovely day on Friday and there were plenty of people out and about enjoying the first sunshine of 2015.

There was plenty to see from the Washland viewpoint and the most unusual sighting of the day was of a water shrew swimming around close to the viewpoint. There were also at least three yellow legged gulls and a Caspian gull in the same area. 

Meanwhile, closer to the visitor centre…

Good morning. Now that I am back at work, I better at least try to get back into at least some kind of routine. I will therefore blog recent sightings today and then on Sunday.

The weather wasn’t exactly ideal yesterday and it got windier as the day went on. However, I still braved the Washland viewpoint to try to add some gulls to my list. I was not disappointed as there was at least one adult Caspian gull present…

Happy New Year to you all! We hope you all had peaceful and enjoyable Christmases.

 I will start the New Year the way I usually do: by announcing the results of our staff and volunteer year list challenge!

Well, inevitably, after Katherine won by one species in 2012 and I won by one species in 2013, it was a draw this year. Katherine and I tied on 124 species a piece. I have attached the full list below of all 131 species…

Well, hasn’t this year gone quickly?! Too quickly for my liking. The last few weeks have been exceptionally busy for us down the reserve, mainly because we’ve had a contractor in doing some reed cutting!

Our contractor uses a digger with a special bucket on it, called a Bradshaw bucket. This is one which cuts the reeds either underwater or at ground level using the reciprocating blades on the front of the…

It’s my last day in the office before Christmas so here are some recent sightings from the last couple of days along with some information about our Christmas opening times.

 I will start of with another picture from Monday followed by some exciting bird news.

 A lovely view from New Fen viewpoint:

Image credit: Matt Walton

 Matt also saw a jack snipe alongside the big willow near the visitor centre. This species…

Good morning. I was going to wait until tomorrow to do a “recent sightings” post but circumstances have dictated that today is the day instead!

Although the weather was a bit patchy on Sunday, there was still plenty to see. A barn owl was hunting at the edge of the car park first thing.

I had a quick walk around Brandon Fen before work and saw a great white egret feeding with a little egret in front of the…

Good morning. Now that the technical issues have (hopefully!) been solved, here are some recent sightings from the last week:

On Tuesday, Dave headed down the reserve before work and saw 47 whooper swans leaving their overnight roost at the far end of the reserve. He also saw at least four marsh harriers, a common buzzard and a barn owl in the same area.

Later on in the day, there was a great white egret showing in…

Please note that the Christmas party on Sunday has been cancelled due to a lack of bookings. We are very sorry for any inconvenience caused. 

There will be a Christmas themed Wildlife Explorers club meeting tomorrow morning (Saturday 13 December) which will begin at 10.30am and end at Midday. The cost is children £3 (Non-members) Children (£1.50) Wildlife Explorers members. All children must be accompanied…

Good morning. Unfortunately, technical issues have been hindering us all week so recent sightings will have to wait until Sunday. However, we still have plenty of news to share with you.

The main part of this post is about what was going on last week, so over to Dave Rogers, Senior Site Manager:

Since Ali moved on, we have struggled to write a regular blog keeping you all informed about the work being undertaken on…

Sometimes, it’s very easy to get caught up with paperwork in the office, and lose track of what is happening down the reserve. Luckily, there are several jobs that do get me out and about, mainly volunteer work parties (what a lovely day we have planned this Thursday...!), bird surveys and tree safety surveys!

Tree safety surveys involve walking the edges of all of the woodland on the reserve, making sure all the…

Good morning. I will start where I left off on Friday with some more sightings. Dave and Emma went down to the far end of the reserve and saw a treecreeper on Botany Bay and a bittern in flight near Joist Fen viewpoint. They also saw a sparrowhawk flash across the hard track near the visitor centre.

Meanwhile, closer to the visitor centre, two great white egrets were seen in various places throughout the day along with…