Good morning all. It has remained dry and mild all week which has been good news for the wildlife that calls the reserve home.  I will begin with some pictures that were taken here on Tuesday:

A lovely male bearded tit:

Two female bearded tits:

A kingfisher:

Image credits: Matt Walton

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

There was the welcome sighting of three cranes on Tuesday. They…

Just a (fairly) short post from me today. I have been visiting my parents on the south coast this weekend and migration was well on the way down there. We saw hundreds of swallows and meadow pipits migrating over Portland Bill yesterday. There were also good numbers of clouded yellow butterflies, which were lovely to see. 

I drove back "up" here this morning and it seems there has been a similar story here recently. Local…

Good afternoon. The local hobbys have been out and about this week and here are a few pictures that were taken here earlier on in the week:

Image credits: Matt Walton

Thank you very much to Matt for sending these great images over. 

I have been elsewhere for most of the week but I returned today to lead a special guided walk for a couple who wanted to see the kingfishers that are currently calling the reserve…

Please note that the bearded tit bonanza event on Sunday 5 October is now FULLY BOOKED. Unfortunately, we can only accommodate those people who have booked places in advance. 

Good morning. I went and did a recce for yesterday's "Long Walk" on Saturday. Although it was quite damp, I heard lots of bearded tits and saw plenty of roe deer. There was also a very damp ruddy darter resting on some riverbank vegetation:

Image credit: David White

I lead the Long Walk proper yesterday, which is a roughly circular 10 kilometre walk around as much of the reserve as possible.

Things…

I haven’t managed to blog for a couple of weeks on the management work we have been up to on the reserve recently but as I’m helping out in the visitor centre this Sunday, I have a little time to sit down in front of a computer between visitors arriving to put together bit of a story.

 Since I last wrote a blog we have had three Thursday tasks with our trusty volunteers.  Two days have involved path repair…

Good morning. Two species have definitely dominated the headlines this week: kingfishers and hobbys. Both species have been showing very well and have also been performing in front of the cameras. Here are some great pictures that we have been sent this week:

Some action shots of kingfishers:

Image credits: Clive Bowley

Two images of hobbys:

Image credits: Matt Walton

Thank you very much to Matt and Clive…

I last blogged on Saturday afternoon, just before I had a very successful evening looking for bats with the Lakenheath Fen Kingfishers Wildlife Explorers club. As I said in my post, I had already been lucky enough to see an otter earlier on in the day and a lucky visitor had also seen one from New Fen viewpoint. Sadly, no photos of it were forthcoming so here is a picture of one that was taken very early one morning in…

Good evening. We have had a nice couple of days here at RSPB Lakenheath Fen so here is an update on what has been going on.

I went for a walk around Brandon Fen yesterday morning and it was a lovely, sunny morning. The Brecks part of the reserve looked really rather autumnal:

Image credit: David White

There was plenty of activity over the washland with singles of green sandpiper and common snipe flying over. There…

Good morning. I won't be here for most of the day tomorrow so this week, you get Friday's update earlier! 

It definitely feels like autumn outside and reserve sightings have reflected that. There were at least three hobbys over the washland and Brandon Fen on Monday. Katherine did her first Wetland Birds Survey (WeBS count) of the autumn on Monday morning. Volunteer Mark also spend some time up at the Washland…

Good morning. It turned out to be an interesting day here yesterday. Things started well when  a yellow wagtail flew over the visitor centre, calling as it went. A chiffchaff was also singing in the car park, which was nice to hear. 

I went for a walk around the interior path of New Fen North, the first area of reedbed. This path is only ever open in the winter months, so it was good to reacquaint myself with it. I saw…

Please note that the Kingfisher quest event tomorrow has been cancelled due to lack of bookings. We are very sorry for any inconvenience caused. 

Please note that the kingfisher quest event tomorrow has been cancelled due to a lack of bookings. We are very sorry for any inconvenience caused. At present, the kingfisher quest on Sunday is still taking place. Please click on the link above for details on how to book places.       

Good morning. Its been nice and mild here this week (once the morning fog has burnt off that is!) Here are a few pictures that have been taken here this week:

A grass snake swimming:

Two common darters omniposting in an extremely graceful manner:

A lovely male bearded tit:

Image credits: Matt Walton

Thank you very much to Matt for sharing these great pictures with us. 

On Monday, volunteer Paul spent some time…

Good afternoon. I am not going to be here for most of this week, so I thought I would provide an early afternoon update of what has been going on here over the weekend so far.

When I arrived yesterday, I was unlocking the date and a marbled orb weaver landed on my hand which was lovely to see. As the morning went on, a barn owl was seen from the Washland viewpoint and a kingfisher was seen from New Fen viewpoint.

It…

Good morning. The weather has been fairly kind this week which is good news for everybody enjoying the last week of the summer holidays. There has been plenty to see over the last week and here are some great images that we have been sent:

A red admiral:

A female common darter:

Image credits: Matt Walton

A juvenile water rail:

A male roe deer:

A kingfisher:

Image credits: John Gamble

Thank you very much…

As I walked along the riverbank in Brandon Fen this morning, I kept walking through spiders webs. This is definitely a sign of the times, as this is a great time of year to look for our (mostly) eight-legged friends. I am going to use this opportunity to introduce you to some of the species that you might find on a walk around the reserve. 

I will start off with one that you may have heard of, the garden spider. Despite…

Good morning. I hope you are enjoying the long Bank Holiday weekend! I will begin with a selection of photos that have been taken here in the last week. Thank you very much to local photographer Matt Walton for sharing them with us:

A cryptically camouflaged roe deer:

A lovely barn owl:

A female kestrel:

Two lovely shots of kingfishers:

Image credits: Matt Walton

I will start where I left off on Friday…

Good morning. I will start a sequence of action shots of the great white egret catching a fish that were taken earlier on this week:

Ready to pounce:

Pouncing in a blur of white:

Success!:

Lunch on the wing:

Job done, looking rather proud of itself:

Image credits: Ken Allsebrook

Thank you very much to Ken for sharing these great images with us!

The great white egret has now been present for over a month…

Last Thursday was our first volunteer task without Ali and it was back to pulling ragwort.  Katherine had us all organised for what we hoped might be the final push to finish off clearing the fields on Cowles Drove.  Helping us were Darren, David M, Rob and Roger.  After all the heavy rain, the fields were holding quite a lot of water. I flushed two common snipe as I walked across the field collecting up a few ragwort plants…

Good morning. I will start of where I left off on Friday. Two adult kingfishers were perched up at the edge of the visitor centre pond and a water rail was skulking about in the same area. The great white egret was seen from New Fen viewpoint along with two kingfishers. A common buzzard flew over and a bittern was seen from Joist Fen viewpoint. Dave popped down to Mere Hide during the afternoon and spotted a water ra…

Good morning. The weather has continued to be rather unpredictable over the last couple of days but there has been plenty to see nonetheless.

If I start off where I left off on Tuesday, volunteer Paul counted 124 coots on the washland which is a pretty good count for this time of year. I lead a guided walk in the evening and we were very surprised to see an albino house martin feeding in amongst several other "normal…

Please note that the fenland wildlife bonanza event this Saturday has been cancelled due to lack of bookings. This includes:

Marvellous moths

The bird ringing demonstration (which had already been cancelled)

Brandon Fen nature challenge

Going bats

We are very sorry for any inconvenience caused. 

Please note that the mini beast safari and the monsters of the deep pond dipping session will still go ahead and you do…

We have an event on Saturday which is a real celebration of the reserves wildlife. Although the bird ringing demonstration has been cancelled, we still have a selection of exciting events on offer.

The event begins with the marvelous moths session,  when we will be looking for colourful moths, like the brightly coloured canary shouldered thorn:

Image credit: Katherine Puttick

We will then have a mini beast safari

Good morning. I will begin this morning with a correction from Friday's blog post. The dragonfly image is actually a migrant hawker as opposed to an emperor dragonfly as I originally stated. Apologies for this mis-identification and many thanks to Ian Tulloch for putting me right. 

The weather has been really rather unpredictable recently but there has still been plenty to see. I lead a guided walk on Sunday morning…