Last week we carried out our second booming bittern survey, to work out how many male birds we have on site.  I’ll immediately pass on the amazing news that we recorded seven males across the reserve, which equals the reserve record from 2011.  We all switched positions from the week before, as it is very useful to have different ears taking on the different locations.  I positioned myself at the point where Norfolk…

I was at the RSPB Fens Area Office in Swavesey on Friday morning so I didn't get a chance to get out for a walk around here. The lucky visitors that did though heard our first grasshopper warbler of the year reeling between here and East Wood and saw two otters sunning themselves on the riverbank. How lucky is that?! 

Meanwhile, further down the reserve, Ali heard and saw a blackcap and a treecreeper in Botany Bay…

Good morning, you can definitely tell that the breeding season is now well underway. There seem to be bitterns booming all over the place and the volume of birdsong from the reedbeds seems to increase every day! 

The weather was a bit patchy on Sunday but it was mostly dry. An osprey was seen from Joist Fen viewpoint and there were at least two green veined white butterflies on the wing along the riverbank. 

A swallo…

Carrying on from last week’s blog, planting of our raised plant beds outside the visitor centre continues.  They are already drawing the attention of our visitors and it’s great to see people wandering over to take a look at the developments.

Last Thursday the Wildlife Friendly Gardening bed outside the office window was finally planted up.  Suzanne and volunteer Janet did a grand job of this, supervised by…

Good morning. Here is some late news from Thursday: Our first sedge warbler of the year was singing at the west end of the reserve. Here is a photo of one:

Image credit: Tim James 

I have to admit, sedge warblers have always had a place in my heart. This is mainly because they remind me of me: Loud, eccentric and rather unpredictable! 

Katherine and I headed north of the river on Friday afternoon to have a meeting…

I really love this time of year, as the reserve really seems to come to life. There is jut so much going on and all I want to do is spend as much time out on the reserve as possible. Of course, as I have a job to do, I can't........but I can still enjoy the reserve when I can nonetheless! 

On Tuesday morning, I walked down to New Fen viewpoint and spent a glorious 45 minutes out in the sun before work:

Image credit…

Exciting news at the reserve this week - the raised plant beds are finally getting some plants in them!  We started work on these plant beds over a year and half ago so you can imagine how good it feels to finally have reached this stage.  Last Thursday at our volunteer work party we took on the fun task of filling up the pond and the bog bed with water.  And we didn't just use a hosepipe attached to the outdoor tap, we…

Good afternoon. We have been treated to some nice, warm weather over the last couple of days which has been very welcome indeed. There was plenty to see on the reserve on Friday and our first green sandpiper of the year flew over Joist Fen viewpoint.

Barry, one of our regular visitors had a very productive walk down to the far end of the reserve on the same day. He saw a kingfisher north of East Wood and two cranes from…

Good morning! I will begin today with a tale of three men who will be starting something truly epic at the reserve tomorrow morning: They will be walking all the way from here at RSPB Lakenheath Fen to RSPB Saltholme in Cleveland, which is around 300 miles. They are doing it to raise money for Operation Turtle Dove, which raises awareness for the worrying plight of the turtle dove. 

What an incredible thing to do! In the…

If you’ve visited recently you will no doubt have noticed the changes between the car park and the visitor centre.  The direct path between the car park and the washland has been removed, so access to the washland viewpoint is now through the visitor centre during opening hours, or through a barrier to the side of the visitor centre out of hours.  We like to see and speak to all our visitors, whether you’re a first…

Good morning! One of the things that I love about this time of year is the element of unpredictability that is increased by the fact that some of the earlier summer migrants are starting to arrive. There were several sand martins whizzing around over the washland on Friday morning. However, they didn't stick around for very long. By the time I had a chance to head up to the Washland viewpoint, they were long gone.…

Good morning! Its been one of those weeks when things have either been turning up in odd places or behaving a bit oddly. Take Sunday for example, this barn owl spent most of the day perched up in full view in Trial Wood, the middle poplar wood:

Image credit: Ron Smith

There was also a bittern "throwing some shapes" at the edge of the pool in front of Joist Fen viewpoint:

Image credit: Ron Smith

I think…

Good morning. It has been an interesting weekend so far but I will start with a couple of sightings from Friday. Two cranes were seen from Joist Fen viewpoint and there was plenty going on from Mere Hide. Two water rails were skulking around at the edge of the pool and a kingfisher whizzed past. Bearded tits have also been showing well and here is a photo from regular visitor Matt Walton from last weekend:

Image credit…

Good morning! I will begin this morning with an unusual view of secretive bird:

Image credit: Lee Gregory

Its a woodcock and it flew into the bird ringers mist net in Brandon Fen last week. Its fantastic to get such a close up view of a bird that we rarely see.

Its been a good week here and there were plenty of signs of spring on Sunday afternoon, our first common lizard of the year was seen near the visitor centre…

Just a quick blog from me this week, as usual we've been quite hectic with multiple tasks - and that's with RSPB volunteer Tom helping us out on a daily basis!  With the best intentions to finish the boardwalk screening last Thursday, we unfortunately ran out of reed bundles with 12 sections left to fill.  Katherine, Tom and Dave were out yesterday cutting some more reed scallops in Brandon Fen, with bundling support…

As the sun was shining this morning, I decided to walk down to Joist Fen viewpoint before walk. It been so long since I've done it, so it was such a treat for me. On the way down, I got a couple of pictures of the rising sun:

Image credits: David White

In the warmth of the early spring morning, I was completely blown away by the sound and the volume of the birdsong. As I walked along the riverbank, good numbers…

It has been another one of those weeks when I have been sent lots of great photos of our fantastic wildlife.

I mentioned in my post on Sunday that a bittern was showing in front of Mere Hide for about 45 minutes on Saturday morning. Here is a photo of it doing what it does best...:

...And here is one doing, well, we don't really know what it is doing!:

Image credits: Ron Smith.

If anybody has any suggestions…

The washland path alterations have been completed here at Lakenheath Fen. It all looks a bit stark at the moment but the vegetation will soon start growing and will soften things up a bit.  Culverts have been taken out, ditches dug and banks created.

 Photo credit: Ali Blaney - view from visitor centre mound towards car park

The photo above shows a new ditch and bund curving round to the left and a new sandy bank on…

The main roadside gate to the reserve will no longer be closed in the evenings.  The car park will therefore be accessible for early morning and late evening visits.

We apologise for any inconvenience that has been caused during the short period that we have been closing the gate in the evenings and thank everyone for their patience and understanding.

Good morning. I will begin this morning with an interesting ringing recovery that we heard about about last week: A lesser redpoll that was ringed here on 7 November 2012 was re-trapped last Sunday (23 February) in Balvraid, Scotland. This is  between Aviemore and Inverness, which is a whopping 674 kilometres (or 418 miles) from here.  It never ceases to amaze me how far some of these birds travel. 

This just goes to show…

Good morning! Apologies for the lack of recent sightings today. I have been on my travels recently and I will return to the office on Saturday. As I write this, it’s Thursday morning and I am at the RSPB’s annual People Engagement Conference.

 Although its somewhat of a departure from my “day job” working on a nature reserve, its always good to come to things like this as it provides an opportunity to hear…

Nope, we've not been piling on top of each other this week but rather putting a concerted effort into cutting reeds and bundling them up for the boardwalk screening. It's great to be putting our cut reed to use. Both the work party last Thursday and the one yesterday were focused on this and we're making excellent progress. Yesterday alone the team made 153 bundles of reed and got the vast majority down to the hide…

Good morning! It has been an interesting week in many ways. The weather has been fairly mild so it has felt really rather spring like at times. As Ali mentioned in her blog post on Wednesday, there were two cranes in the grazing marsh in Brandon Fen, which is only a stones throw from the car park. This really helped to set the tone for our sightings this week, as cranes have very much been in the headlines. 

If you read…

The path alterations between the visitor centre, the washland viewpoint and the dipping pool are progressing well here at Lakenheath Fen. So far the new trails have all been dug and a long length has been given a layer of crushed concrete. The old trail to the dipping platform has been dug up, so access to it will now be via our new trail from the visitor centre. Hopefully the waters will recede before the dipping season…

Please note that we have plenty of nestbox kits left from our nestbox building event this weekend and they are available to buy from the visitor centre for £7 per nestbox. 

Its half term this week and there are plenty of self-guided activities available for children. They include a nestbox quiz, a guess whose nest activity and a winter wildlife bingo activity. There will also be a Wildlife Explorers half-term club…