There’s been no winding down to Christmas for us and our volunteers - since last weeks blog we’ve held three work parties!  Last Thursday was a particularly strenuous day, cutting and treating willows in one of our reedbeds.  This was the area of reedbed in which our new hide is located so we needed to get these done in conjunction with boardwalk work.  Once the boardwalk is complete we’ll then be able to bring…

Well, its time for my last blog post of the year. One of my last duties of the year came on Sunday when I did the coordinated harrier roost count at Joist Fen viewpoint. Although it was very windy and counting wasn't exactly easy, there were lots of marsh harriers around. In total, there were two males and 14 females. As the afternoon went on, the hen harriers started appearing and eventually, there were three males…

Although the weather was a bit dull on Friday, there was still plenty to see. The local harriers were out in force in front of Joist Fen viewpoint with at least 15 marsh harriers and five hen harriers (three males and two "ringtails"). There were also lots of swans around and the two whooper swans on the washland in the afternoon were positively dwarfed by the large flock that was feeding north of the river…

Good morning! I might as well start where I left off on Sunday. Once again, there was a fantastic sunset (sorry, my pictures weren't good enough this time round!) and  there was plenty to see. At Joist Fen viewpoint, three hen harriers were seen at dusk. This included two males and a "ringtail." A bittern also flew right in front of the lucky participants of the "Festive Foray" guided walk.

Tuesday…

Here at Lakenheath Fen we’re continuing with our boardwalk construction.  Our work party yesterday was highly productive, with almost twice the amount of sections put in compared to last week – the team is clearly getting the hang of it!  The boardwalk was being appreciated by a lovely stonechat this morning, perched right at the end as if surveying the progress. The decking boards are being hammered into…

One of things that I love about the Fens are the wide open skies, as they provide fantastic views of sunrises and sunsets, especially at this time of year. The last couple of days have been fantastic for landscape photography and here are a few that I have taken. Enjoy!:

The "red sky in the morning" on Thursday:

The sun rising shortly after over the railway line:

The visitor centre and the moon…

Good morning. First things first,  we hope that you have not been too badly affected by the adverse weather  yesterday. Apart from a few willow bushes blowing across one of the paths overnight, fortunately the reserve has weathered the storm. 

I will begin with some lovely photos that volunteer Les took on Sunday of some of our regulars. We hope you like them!:

A green woodpecker looking warily at the photographer:

And so it begins! We’ve been boardwalk crazy here at Lakenheath over the past week, with many different volunteers and staff getting involved. Much of the work has been focused on the preparation of frames and boards but excitingly, yesterday saw the first sections being constructed down at the hide. But I’m racing ahead....

Last Thursday our work party volunteers Phil and Nigel got a full days work in with…

My blog post on Friday had several definite themes, and birds of prey were very high on the agenda. Friday afternoon continued in a similar vein when a male hen harrier was over Joist Fen viewpoint along with the juvenile peregrine that has been present for a while. However, the local owls seemed to be out yesterday morning to try to steal the show. I got in extra early to try and catch the Bewick's swans that have…

If you read our blog regularly, then you will know that we call one of our pairs of cranes "Little & Large". Here they are:

Image credit: Dave Rogers

They are known as Little and Large because Large, the male (on the left) is a bit bigger than Little, the female (on the right). This pair reappeared on the reserve on Sunday after an absence of over a month (nobody knows where they went to be honest!)…

Here’s a good puzzle for you – Dave, Katherine and I have just returned from a trip to another RSPB reserve.  See if you can work out which one and leave a comment at the end – we’ll see who guesses first!  (Any of our volunteers who know where we went, please don’t give the game away!)

It’s always good to visit other reserves and share management best practise and ideas and that’s what…

Good morning! I shall start where I left off with some sightings from Friday. The main theme of the bird sightings for the day was definitely birds of prey. One of our locals photographed a "ringtail" hen harrier over the washland at lunchtime. Closer scrutiny of the photo showed that it was a juvenile as it was very streaky. The juvenile peregrine was seen over West Wood later on and one male hen harrier sneaked…

Please note that the barn owl walk tomorrow is FULLY BOOKED. Unfortunately, we can only accommodate those people who have booked places in advance. We are very sorry for any inconvenience caused. For details of similar events in the future, please keep an eye on our events pages. 

I had a pleasant surprise on Sunday morning when I opened the visitor centre shutters: I found one of these beauties hanging on the window:

Image credit: Tim James

Its a four spot-orbweaver. As the link says, this species holds the record as being the heaviest British spider. As you can see, they are almost all abdomen! Incidentally, another fascinating fact about this species is that adult females can actually change…

What a dreary day it is outside!  Putting our trust in the weather forecast (something I like to do, even though sometimes the best option is just to look out of the window....), we’d already planned an office day for today and a good job too.  I got a little damp doing my morning reserve checks but now I’m drying nicely in the office, writing this blog and getting on with data entry (a never-ending task).…

One of the most important things about watching wildlife is to take the time to stop, wait and watch as often as possible. I am the first person to admit that I am not very good at this (as you will hear about later on!)

At this time of year, Mark, one of our volunteers can often be found up on the washland viewpoint in the afternoons watching and waiting for the wildlife to "come to him" so to speak. On Friday afternoon…

It has been a good week for sightings here at Lakenheath Fen. There was plenty to see on Sunday. Things started well when two grey partridges flew south over the railway line and the great egret was showing well in front of the washland viewpoint. A female pintail was on the washland pool and a total seven Bewick's swans flew west over the reserve (two family parties.) Katherine and Paul struck it lucky when they…

I arrived back from my holiday in a hot and dry Andalucia to find the reserve looking distinctly wetter than it was when I left!  We have to balance the water levels here at all times of year  – during the spring and summer months it’s the breeding birds that dictate how we manage the water but at this time of year we have to take into consideration any winter work that we need to carry out.

One area of the…

Those of you who read our blog regularly may have noticed that all of the posts have a) come from me and b) have had a specific "recent sightings" theme.  This is mainly because a) Ali has been on her "luna de miel" in Spain and b) recent sightings posts are what I do best. However, this morning I thought I would take a slightly different tact and tell you a bit about my working weekend!

After having…

I know this may seem a slightly optimistic proclamation in November, but it certainly felt like Spring is just around the corner this morning! Although it was fairly chilly, there was some warmth in the sun as it rose and this encouraged several of "our locals" into song. This included the strident, two note song of a great tit and the "flat, merry burble" of a dunnock. Several wrens were blasting…

It was a classic November day on Sunday and the weather was really rather unpredictable. Dave was out on the reserve for most of the morning and he saw a great selection of wildlife. Although he saw at least three marsh harriers over Joist Fen viewpoint, most of the action was going on in front of New Fen viewpoint. At least four bearded tits were showing well in the reeds and a bittern poked its head up and flew right…

Despite the fact that the wind is still coming from the south, it was distinctly chilly as I stood shivering up at the Washland viewpoint this morning! I was hopping to see an otter to be honest, but instead I found lots and lots wigeons, my favourite ducks!:

Image credit: John Bridges (rspb-images.com)

There were also plenty of shovelers, sifting around their spade shape beaks:

Andy Hay (rspb-images.com)

Although…

The reserve celebrated a very significant Birthday yesterday: It is now 18 years old! The first sod was dug to begin the creation of the reserve on 31 October 1995. Reserve staff celebrated in style by working on our brand new Mere Hide (which is now built by the way!): 

Here it is from behind

Here it is from the front (with volunteer Karen peaking out of the window!)

This is what it looks like inside

Here…

I am pleased to say that luckily, the reserve weathered the storm that came on Sunday night and Monday morning and there is no damage (thank goodness!). The increment weather did alter the reserve staff's plans somewhat yesterday though. The plan was for our new hide to be delivered yesterday but because of the weather forecast, the big moment was postponed until today! As I type, Katherine, Phil and Nigel are busy…

I would like to start this morning by thanking local photographer Ken Clegg and volunteer Les Bunyan for sending in these cracking pictures of our great white egret:

Image credits: Ken Clegg

Image credits: Les Bunyan

As you can see from these pictures, it has continued to show very well although it does have a habit of being quite distant at times. 

The weather gradually improved through Friday and Les headed…