Wildlife review of 2018 at the Mid Yare Valley reserves

This year has seen vast contrasts in weather conditions, from the freezing cold March right through to the (joint) hottest on record, these conditions have affected the resident and migrant bird populations in 2018. Below are a list of the highlights and a couple of lowlights of the year.

First of all to the breeding season; on average the breeding birds decreased…

Since the last update we have had a series of changeable weather systems bringing warm windy conditions and more recently cold frosty spells. This week in particular the broad in front of reception was completely frozen over Monday to Wednesday, while just a mile away conditions were far more mild. We also flooded over the last weekend, up to a foot of water was rushing over the paths in places, luckily the water seemed…

The 'taiga' bean geese have returned to Buckenham Marshes.

Sunday afternoon saw the first returning four birds, by lunchtime on Monday there were 8 and on Monday afternoon 16 were reported.

The birds are usually seen feeding in the ditch edges around the centre of the reserve, viewable from the footpath towards the hide or the mill.

The flock is usually on its own, but at times they can mingle into the white fronted…

The past week has seen the onset of a period of cloudy and damp conditions with easterly winds.

The highlights this week have been the vast numbers of regularly occurring birds... The starling roost has had a rise and fall, it appears that the flock peaked at around 8000 on Sunday, but in the past couple of days it has all but fizzled out. It seems as though we will not get our sustained starling roost this year,…

The past few weeks have seen the subtle change in weather edging closer to winter, although we are looking at a nice mild week with warm southerly airflow.

We have seen the usual shift in species, with large numbers of winter thrushes such as fieldfare and redwings passing south as well as an increase in finches. There appears to be a growing finch flock located between the car park and the meadows feeding on alder…

Gannet by Elizabeth Dack

A largely fine and dry week with cool nights and early mornings, with some decent early autumn heat to be enjoyed when the sun shines.

The star bird of the week has to go to the immature gannet that flew over the Reception Hide towards Brundall then veered North and presumably went North to the coast again. This was only the second record for the reserve, so quite oddly was far less common…

A quick update today…

A small flock of bearded tits has been seen along Sandy Wall on Tuesday and Thursday, perhaps eight birds in total. While nowhere near the numbers of last year, it does give us hope that there are birds out there to recolonise the reserve.

2 pectoral sandpipers have spent the whole week at Buckenham Marshes, favouring the pool in front of the hide. These waders have travelled from either…

With mixed conditions in early autumn now the norm, this past week we have had a large variety of weather, culminating in a beautiful sunny day on Thursday!

The great white egret remains local, although it seems to be spending more time away from Tower Hide recently and has been spending time over the river at Surlingham Church Marsh. An osprey has put in a few appearances in the past couple of weeks, but has not been…

Hi All,

Sorry for lack of update this week...so much to do!

I have attached a photo of the sightings board from today.

Highlights- great white egret still being seen, waders still from Tower Hide and Buckenham, red kites still performing nicely, weather still very nice.

All paths still open and in good condition, meadow trail diversion in place.

The hot weather has finally broken and now we have a slightly more autumnal feel to the weather (at least at the time of writing).

The great white egret has remained at Tower Hide all month, being joined by up to four more on occasions. Tower Hide has also boasted a decent wader list thanks to the earlier drought conditions exposing lots of mud; wood, green and common sandpiper, ruff, lapwing, ringed plover, common snipe…

The view from Tower Hide (with two distant great white egrets)

A poor photo of the Honey Buzzard taken with my mobile phone (shows how close it came over!) it shows the long thin tail and pointy head well

A slight break in the weather at the weekend provided a little respite and some much needed rain!

The highlights of the past week or so have included a group of up to five great white egrets remaining at Tower…

The hot dry summer continues! Rain narrowly missed the fen last night as thunderstorms came up from the south. No rain here since mid-May now as far as I can remember!

The highlight of the week flew into the Reception Hide Broad this morning; a rather fine looking great white egret, it is still present at lunchtime on Saturday, happily feeding in the relatively shallow water. I have just been told that there are four…

The hot dry summer conditions continues!

The highlight of the past fortnight has been the (re)discovery of white-letter hairstreak butterfly on the reserve, with three seen together on the bramble patches in the woodland. There was a single record 6 years ago and before that it was the 1970’s, so the re-emergence of a population is most encouraging. The hairstreaks have possibly eclipsed the confirmation that silver…

It is national insect week and I think we have done very well for them on the reserve this week!

Swallowtail butterflies are still being seen across the reserve, today, while cutting the trails I saw one in the meadow, two along the riverbank near Tower Hide, at least three along Lackford Run and finally one in the nectar garden by reception, they were also seen in the woodland glades (due to the shelter from strong…

Apologies for the lack of updates recently (again), we are currently short staffed and do not have any full time land management volunteers so I have had to prioritise other work streams to ensure the reserve management is happening.

The reserve has been looking fantastic this summer with very good numbers of swallowtails across the reserve. The swallowtails are currently still showing in the warm sunny conditions…

Apologies for lack of recent updates!!

Headlines:

Savi's warbler still singing from Reception and Fen Hide, best heard at dawn or dusk.

Swallowtails have started to emerge now, so pick a nice warm day and you may be rewarded, warm weekends are likely to be busy, so if you can make it during the week it would ease any potential car park issues.

Migrant birds all here now, currently there are 8+ hobbys hawking…

Early summer at Strumpshaw Fen reserve can be a magical experience. The fen wakes up from its long winter and life flourishes in abundance wherever you look.

The star attractions are the magnificent swallowtail butterflies; they are the largest butterfly in the UK and this subspecies is only found in the Norfolk Broads. The butterflies can only be encountered for a brief period each year, most reliably being seen on…

Well, what a difference a week makes! Fine warm weather has finally arrived and with the forecast southerly winds, migrants have been arriving in large numbers. Spring is here at last.

This week has really seen the migrant floodgates open up. Wednesday in particular saw a large increase in migrants such as willow warbler, chiffchaff, blackcap and sedge warbler. Reed warblers are also just starting to increase and at…

A relatively cool and overcast week, with very un-spring like conditions, however the migrants are certainly arriving and the forecast weather for next week should most certainly see the migrant flood gates open!

Since my last update the spring migrants have been arriving slowly but surely. The first migrant chiffchaffs appeared on 14 March, with sand martins returning 28 March, these are often the first to return from…

This week has at last seen a rise in temperatures and has been largely dry and bright.

The highlight of the week has been hearing the first bittern booming of the year. On Thursday evening I headed out to check on bittern progress and was pleased to hear a male just starting to warm up his neck muscles, he produced at least one soft boom in each of his grunting boom trains.

On Thursday the sky was filled with birds…

Another week of fairly mixed weather, we have seen some bright and warm days such as Wednesday and some more grey and drizzly days like Friday. The forecast is set to turn cold with possible snow again this weekend, which is not such good news for the birds that have already started breeding.

This week has seen a steady movement of redwings and fieldfares passing over the fen, presumably they are migrating east, back…

After the snowy conditions of last week, the weather has been far more pleasant with temperatures of ten degrees rather than minus five! The reserve was completely frozen apart from a very small patch of water that the coots were keeping open at Reception hide.

Last week’s cold conditions brought a few less frequent visitors to the fen with the undoubted highlight being my first grey plover at Strumpshaw Fen…

A very brief roundup today due to time pressures….

The cold weather may be approaching us in the coming week and looking at the movements of birds I believe the cold is on its way. The tell-tale signs of cold weather movements have been seen over the fen this morning; large flocks of woodpigeons and lapwings have been heading west, these species often gather together and move in groups away from the cold conditions…

A cold week with frosts and very low temperatures to start followed by bright and breezy conditions on Thursday with a pleasantly warm sun.

This week’s highlights have included a fine female hen harrier, which has been seen on Monday and Thursday, this bird looks like it is roosting at the fen so is most likely to be encountered towards the beginning and end of the day. The marsh harrier males are increasingly…

 A cold week with a mixture of snow showers, bright sunny days and dull wet conditions on Friday.

This week has seen a couple of standout species; on Monday a lesser spotted woodpecker was briefly observed in the woodland behind the overflow car park, a female goshawk was also seen from reception hide on Thursday. These two species are more associated with Breckland than Broadland so, if confirmed would be fantastic records…