Unfortunately, the recent stormy weather has had quite a significant impact on the reserve. Over the course of Friday night, almost 40 trees blew over in East Wood, the closest poplar wood to the visitor centre. Although they don't do the damage justice, here are some pictures that I took this morning:

Image credits: David White

As a precaution, the reserve paths west of the visitor centre were closed at 09…

Fortunately, the strength of the wind has lessened slightly and the forecast is for it to drop to a safer level tomorrow. Therefore, I am pleased to announce that the reserve paths will be open again tomorrow. Please note that the roadside barrier is still being closed overnight. Please see Ali's blog post from earlier on in the week for more details. The roadside barrier will be open before 8am tomorrow morning and…

Please note that due to high winds, the reserve paths west of the visitor centre are currently CLOSED until further notice. Yesterday evening, around 40 trees blew down in East Wood, the closest poplar wood to the visitor centre. Unfortunately, the reserve paths will remain closed until the wind has dropped.

The nestbox building event today and tomorrow is still going ahead and there are plenty of nestboxes available…

The sightings we've had since David's last blog feature quite a nice mixture of birds, despite the bad weather.  I think because we're all still compiling our 'basic' year lists we're looking out for many species that might otherwise be glossed over!  We've also been sent some amazing photos, which follow below.

With the water level so high out on the river Little Ouse, the washland has flooded…

I’m finally allowed back to work after breaking my thumb!  It's not exactly post-apocalyptic here at Lakenheath but lots have things have changed since my last working day - what a difference a month makes.  We've had 124mm of rain during the past four weeks and we've already had over 100% of the average rainfall for February!  The reserve looks very different and the river and washland have just about merged…

Due to recent anti-social behaviour in our car park during the evenings, we will be closing the main gate to the reserve for a few nights.

The gate will be locked when the reserve facilities close at 5pm and will be reopened as early as possible in the morning, 8.30am at the latest.  We'll let you know when we'll be leaving it open again at night.

Work has also started on the paths between the visitor centre…

I will begin with a bit of fun this morning: I have been really lucky with owls on the reserve recently. On Friday evening, just as I was leaving to go home, a little owl flew over my head flying west towards the poplar woods. Yesterday morning, as I drove along the entrance track, a barn owl flew off from a track side post and flew along right in front of me as I progressed steadily towards the gate to the staff car…

It's been another great week for sightings on the reserve and since I last blogged about such things on Sunday morning. I have received a fantastic variety of photos of some of our iconic wildlife. The first four pictures come from Sunday, so here they are:

The winter plumaged slavonian grebe:

Image credit: Ron Smith

Our two resident crane pairs up on the riverbank just west of Joist Fen viewpoint:

Image credit…

Good afternoon! The majority of today's post comes from Katherine, our Warden who has the following important news about changes to the reserve paths: 

"I do want to do a bit of forewarning to people who may want to come and visit in the next few weeks though, as we're soon to be making tweaks to the paths surrounding the visitor centre.  These will be quite major tweaks, particularly if you come regularly…

Happy World Wetlands Day everybody! This special day is celebrated every year to emphasize the importance of wetlands. For more information about it, please click on the link above. I have celebrated World Wetlands Day so far by getting down to the reserve for first light. Although this may not sound like everybodies' cup of tea, it was definitely worth it, as I saw one of these from the washland viewpoint:

Image…

I find it hard to believe that its a whole week since the Big Garden Birdwatch! Due to a combination of technical issues and the fact that I wasn't in the office for most of last week, I haven't had a chance to  tell you all about our Big Garden Birdwatch event! I did "my hour" watching the feeders behind the visitor centre between 10am and 11am on the Saturday morning. Here is what I saw:

Blue tit: 6

I am pleased to say that after all of the hard work, Mere Hide is now open to the public! I will now pass you over to Dave Rogers, our Site Manager who will tell you about putting the final touches to the hide:

Ali and David have been keeping you all informed about progress on the new hide and the access to it via the boardwalk, but with Ali off work, I’m writing the blog today.  We have had two work parties this…

Its been a funny old week: Its either been very wet or very cold. These two weather conditions conspired together to create an interesting extra element to my morning walk this morning: Frozen puddles! As I had my wellies on, I shamelessly spent my morning walk jumping in such puddles. It was great fun!

Anyhow, that's enough of my nonsense! Despite the "challenging" weather conditions, there has still been plenty to…

The bird feeders behind the visitor centre have been really busy recently. Instead of staring at my computer like I usually do, I spent my lunch break watching the feeders. In around 20 minutes, I saw the following:

Goldfinch: 6

Blue tit: 5

Reed bunting: 4

Great tit: 2

Greenfinch: 2

Robin: 1

Chaffinch: 1

Now, that isn't too bad at all if I may say so myself!

I should really make the effort to do this more…

Before I tell you whether yesterday afternoon's "Winter wildlife spectacular" guided walk was indeed spectacular, I just have to tell you about my walk around Brandon Fen yesterday morning. I walked up to the Washland viewpoint but before I got up there, a male barn owl flew right past me which was a great start. It was hunting, so it looked a bit like this:

Image credit: Phil Hacker

I scanned around…

Please note that both Winter wildlife spectacular guided walks this weekend are FULLY BOOKED. This includes the event today and tomorrow.  Unfortunately, we can only accommodate those who have booked places in advance. We are very sorry for any inconvenience caused. For more details about future reserve events, please visit our events page.

The great thing about this week is that we have had some nice weather, which has been great news for our visiting photographers. I will start with a selection of lovely of images that I have been sent:

A pair of greylag geese:

A male stonechat (the photographers first!):

A male hen harrier in fading light:

Image credits: Matt Notlaw

Here are some lovely reed bunting images that were taken behind the visitor…

“...if all goes according to plan...” – cast your mind back to those words in my blog last Wednesday and my concerns about tempting fate.  The good news is that in terms of the boardwalk construction, the remaining frames were attached and connection with the footpath made which is excellent news.  The decking board team made great progress and volunteers Janet and Karen kept pace with getting the non…

Good morning! Friday turned out to be a lovely day and there was plenty to see. Two water rails kept making furtive forays out into the open behind the visitor centre and bitterns kept popping up in various places on the reserve. At one point, one was skulking around right in front of Joist Fen viewpoint. There were plenty of raptors around later on in the day with five hen harriers over Joist Fen at one point. This included…

What has been nice this week is that we have actually had a few (at least half) days this week! On Monday, regular visitor centre volunteer John Wightman kept making quick dashes up to the Washland viewpoint to try and boost his reserve year list. He came back saying there was a probable adult yellow legged gull on the washland. Ali and I went up there and eventually spotted it with it's bright, white head shining out…

Our hardworking volunteers were back out with us yesterday continuing with the boardwalk.  The usual team was joined by a fresh face - event volunteer Mark G who received a crash course in putting down the frames and using the post basher.  Having tempted fate with regards to the weather after our glorious day last Thursday, it was inevitable that we would be greeted by rain yesterday.  It’s lucky that we have the hide…

This reserve never ceases to amaze me. It seems that the amount of birds of prey roosting on the reserve seems to be going up and up. It was a lovely day on Thursday and there were plenty of visitors enjoying the sunshine. Joist Fen viewpoint was definitely the place to be in the afternoon with at least 19 marsh harriers and seven hen harriers. This included four "grey males" and three "ringtails". A …

Happy New Year to everyone who follows the Lakenheath Fen blog!  I hope you all had an enjoyable festive season.  This is my third day back at work in 2014 and we’ve got right back into the swing of it here at Lakenheath.

We hit the ground running on Thursday with our first volunteer work party of the year.  We were straight back down to the hide, cracking on with the boardwalk and what a lovely day for it!  We were…

I hope you all had peaceful and enjoyable festive seasons. Despite the often wet and windy conditions, there was still plenty to see. As predicted, hen harriers featured high on the bill and a male was photographed on the ground in Humphrey's Paddock near Joist Fen viewpoint:

Image credit: Tim James

On 20 December, Joist Fen viewpoint was clearly the place to be with four male hen harriers and one "ringtail" …

Happy New Year to you all! Some of you may be aware that here at Lakenheath Fen, we have a "reserve year list challenge" between the staff and some of the volunteers. The idea is very simple: To see as many species of bird on the reserve in a year as possible. There are a few rules though! Firstly, as long as you were standing  (or sitting!) somewhere on the reserve, you can count what you saw. Secondly, it is…