Please note that the bird ringing demonstration on Saturday 16 August has been CANCELLED. We are very sorry for any inconvenience caused. We are looking to reschedule this event in the autumn. Please keep an eye on the Lakenheath Fen events page for more details.

As the weather has been decidedly dodgy for the last couple of days,  I will tell you about an exciting discovery that was made on the reserve last week. A recent sightings post will follow on Tuesday morning. 

Botany Bay, at the west end of the reserve has been home to a rare species of solitary bee for several years. Its given name is Macropis europeaea, or the slightly more user friendly moniker of the: yellow-loosestrife…

Entries are coming in for the Race for wildlife here at Lakenheath Fen on Sunday 19 October, with 5k and 10k courses plus a 2k family fun run.

Walk, jog or run around our beautiful nature reserve and help raise money that will go towards our vital conservation work. 

See our dedicated Race for wildlife blog page for full details.

Good morning. It has been another warm week which has meant good news for our local invertebrates. Here are a few pictures that have been taken here this week:

A dor beetle:

A mint leaf beetle:

Image credits: Richard O'Brien

A migrant hawker:

Meanwhile, "back to the birds", water rails have also been rather photogenic from Mere Hide. Here is one scuttling across the pool:

Image credits: Matt…

After nearly two and a half years here at Lakenheath Fen, the time has come to say “au revoir” – until we meet again.  I’m moving on to pastures ‘old’, back to the Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust (BBOWT) where I started my career in conservation, to take on the role of Berkshire Reserves Officer.  This is an exciting move for me but I’m also very sad to be leaving Lakenheath.…

Good afternoon. Along with two colleagues, I will be representing the RSPB at the Wayland Agricultural Show tomorrow. Here, therefore, is the recent sightings post that would usually come on Sunday morning!

Local photographer Matt Walton was out and about early yesterday morning and captured some striking images of the great white egret:

Here it is having a tussle with one of the local grey herons:

Here it is coming…

Good morning. It has been another great week at RSPB Lakenheath Fen. I have been sent some fantastic pictures this week so here are a few that have been taken on the reserve. Here is a painted lady butterfly taken by Tim James:

Image credit: Tim James

Local photographer Matt Walton captured these two lovely images this week:

Two red eyed damselflies:

Two juvenile bearded tits on the boardwalk approaching Mere…

Cast your minds back to June and you’ll remember the RSPB held the Big Wild Sleepout – a national camping event urging everyone to spend the night in nature’s home to raise money for wildlife.  Here at Lakenheath Fen our Big Wild Sleepout lasted for two days and nights, with all sorts of activities going on.  We also held a raffle, with the fantastic prize of a brand new four-man tent, kindly donated by…

Good morning. It has been lovely and warm here this week so there has been plenty to see. The Washland viewpoint was clearly the place to be on Tuesday. The great white egret was present for most of the day and there were more waders than I have ever seen during my (almost) six years here. Over the course of the day, there were 19 lapwings, seven black tailed godwits, four green sandpipers, one greenshank and one red…

Good morning. Again, its been a while since my last update as I haven't been here for the last week. As is often the case, I will start off with some lovely pictures that we have been sent over the last couple of weeks:

Some large-flowered hemp nettle, which is a bit of a local specialty...

Image credit: Keith Waterfall

...And here is a great selection of invertebrates from volunteer Richard O'Brien:

A

Phew!  I hope you're all doing ok in this rather oppressive heat.  Apologies for the lack of updates this week, there have been a number of training courses taking place that have kept us away from the reserve.  Luckily our volunteers, visitors and the staff who have been in, have been updating the sightings sheet.

On Monday we received this photo of a lovely Essex skipper, from Ann and Terry Smith who visited the reserve…

Good morning! The unpredictable weather has certainly kept us on our toes for the last couple of days. There was plenty to see from Joist Fen viewpoint on Friday including a bittern and at least four bearded tits. A stoat  was seen along the hard track and garden slugs were conspicuous in the damp conditions. 

Yesterday morning, I went bug hunting with the Lakenheath Fen Kingfishers Wildlife Explorers club. We found plenty…

Please note that the moth camp out tonight has been CANCELLED due to the poor weather forecast. We are very sorry for any inconvenience caused. The next camp out will take place on Friday 8 August. Details on how to book places can be found here. We hope to see you soon. 

Good morning. It's been a bit of a mixed bag weather wise this week with some warm sunshine, but also a lot of rain. Monday was the nicest day of the lot. Ali and Dave went to check the water levels in New Fen North, the first area of reedbed. They saw three kingfishers while they were there along with two bearded tits. On the subject of bearded tits, lots of juveniles have been starting to appear recently and here…

How does your garden grow?  Very well, thank you!  Those of you who follow our blog will know the story of our raised plant beds outside the visitor centre.  We built them from scratch (over quite a long period of time) and finally got to the planting stage back in early April.  And what a difference three months makes - they look fantastic, even if we do say so ourselves!  The 'wildlife friendly gardening' bed outside the…

Good morning! I have already told this story on the RSPB Suffolk Facebook page, but for the benefit of those of you who don't "do" Facebook, here is what happened to me on Friday morning: I was manning the reception desk in the visitor centre and just as I got to the desk to speak to the first visitor of the day, I noticed a bright blue blob that was perched at the edge of the visitor centre pond. That bright blue blob…

Good morning! Although we have had some rain this week, it has been pretty warm which is great news. I went for a walk on Sunday morning and saw two cuckoos in Brandon Fen which was very nice, as they will shortly be heading back to Africa. Meanwhile, further down the reserve, Darren, one of our volunteers, was in Mere Hide for five minutes and saw a bittern. Now that's what I call good luck! He also saw two juvenile…

I’ve had a question on my mind for a while that required some investigation.  It all started back in late April when I heard our friend the ‘willow-chiff’ again.  This is a willow warbler that can be found down in Botany Bay, who likes to throw in the odd “chiffchaff” at the end of his willow warbler song.   I believe it is not uncommon for these two birds to weave the song of the other into…

Good afternoon. Once again, I must apologise for the lack of updates recently, I have not been in the office much. I will begin with an update from Wednesday. After much deliberation and head scratching, the mystery damselfly from last Saturday has been identified, it was in fact an aberrant female emerald damselfly.  This species has been recorded on the reserve before but not since 2010, so it this was still a great…

The past weekend was the RSPB's national Big Wild Sleepout event and here at Lakenheath Fen we packed a lot into the two days!  Camping took place not just on Friday night but Saturday night too, with a day full of activities on Saturday and on Sunday morning as well.  The aim of the weekend, as well as being lots of fun, was to be a 'Bioblitz' style event which means recording every species seen.  The hope was…

Good morning. It has been another good week here at RSPB Lakenheath Fen so as I often do, I will start off with some images. The first image is not a photo though. Several weeks ago, local artist Trevor Richardson visited the reserve and was inspired to paint this lovely painting of three bearded tits.  Please click on the link above to view it. Thank you very much to Trevor for sharing it with us. 

Thanks must also go…

Please note that ALL of the events this weekend are now FULLY BOOKED. This includes all of the following:

Friday 20 June

The Big Wild Sleepout event

Saturday 21 June

The dawn walk

Marvellous moths

Dazzling dragonflies

Tiny but tremendous

The dusk walk

The Big Wild Sleepout event

Unfortunately, we can only accommodate those people who have booked and paid (in the case of the camp outs) in advance. We are very…

This weeks’ blog covers a couple of weeks here at Lakenheath so I’ll try and be succinct and pack a lot in!  Last Monday I took the opportunity to volunteer at RSPB Minsmere for the day, to help out during the busy period that was Springwatch.  Dave had already done this and David did it a couple of days after me and we all agreed it was a great way to spend the day.  In the morning I was located in Bittern Hide…

Please note that the Big Wild Sleepout event on Saturday 21 June is now FULLY BOOKED. There is still space for one tent on Friday night on a first come, first served basis. To book, please follow this link.

Good morning! After Friday's blog post that focused mainly on invertebrates, I promised to focus more on bird sightings today. Well, here we go:

While I was writing Friday's blog post, I kept being distracted by a great spotted woodpecker that was feeding it's recently fledged chick by the visitor centre feeder. A common snipe flew over the visitor centre which is quite unusual for this time of year and a…