It's been a slightly odd week of weather, with a balmy 12 degrees on Wednesday night followed by t shirt weather on Thursday (for working outside at least) and now we are warned of cold air coming to East Anglia over the weekend. This weather could push some more wildfowl south during the weekend, we certainly are missing a lot at the moment!
The weeks bird sightings have remained similar to the past month. As mentioned above the wildfowl numbers are down on what the should be for late December, but the is mild weather and better conditions further North this is the reason behind this. The best area of the reserve for the density of birds is still at Buckenham. Here there are still 1000 wigeon with similar numbers of Lapwing, 250 golden plover with a few ruff mixed in for good measure. The goose figures are similar too, with between 32 and 47 taiga bean geese as well as 20 white fronted geese, 50 Canada's, a barnacle and 47 Egyptian geese also present.
At Strumpshaw Fen; kingfishers have been seen fishing along the river and at the sluices, bitterns have been seen regularly in flight from reception and occasionally seen hunting in the reeds, which is a real treat. Three otters are still being seen daily from reception hide as well as up to 17 marsh harriers at dusk. On Thursday I saw a jack snipe fly up from my feet while a water pipit called over my head and a bittern flew along the riverbank, a bit of a sensory overload, but most welcome. Water pipits have been feeding in the wet area opposite fen hide track as well as the cut plot opposite and next to fen hide, learn the call and you will hopefully be able to hear them in that area. Bearded tits are still present at the fen in small numbers, I last saw them along Lackford Run on Wednesday.
The woodland has still got a couple of roaming tit flocks allowing good views of the resident tits along with nuthatch, treecreeper, goldcrest and bullfinch occasionally. Check out the alder trees for the goldfinch flock, which also contains at least one lesser redpoll. At dusk woodcock can be seen flying over to their night time feeding areas if you are lucky.
Path conditions- The riverbank to Tower Hide is quite muddy and slippery in places. The Lackford Run is now open but there is deep mud in places which may be hidden by standing water, flooding of the path can happen on any high tide so turn back if the path is flooding, if you plan to walk this trail please check on the tide times at reception. The Sandy Wall/FenHide/woodland circuit is all open and in good condition.