A much cooler week with icy Northerly winds and a few very light snow flurries amongst sleety showers. The reception broad has been 80% ice for the majority of the week, however the deeper channels have remained unfrozen.
The fen has seen otters on most days with two being seen from reception yesterday afternoon, bitterns and kingfishers have been a little more elusive, feeding in the deeper internal channels of the fen. Bearded tits were heard from reception this morning, a small flock pinging to the background of cetti’s warbler, water rail and alarm calling tits alerting me to a fine male sparrowhawk flying overhead. Duck numbers have increased in the fen; a flock of teal, gadwall and mallard can be seen from Tower Hide. A hen female harrier was seen on Tuesday morning and the marsh harriers continue to perform their aerial acrobatics over the fen. The best sightings of the week included a male goosander, present on the river or in front of Tower Hide, until mid week at least and secondly a small murmuration of starlings, perhaps 200 seen at dusk on Wednesday evening.
Buckenham and Cantley still have large numbers of wildfowl; 2500 wigeon, 470 lapwing, 170 white-fronted geese and two taiga bean geese remain on the marshes. Subtle hints of spring include 11 curlew, two shelduck and two dunlin.
All paths are currently open, however the riverbank loop past Tower Hide is still very muddy. With easterly winds from Siberia predicted for the next few days I would hope that there would be an increase in some of the more common winter finches such as bramblings, we could see a further increase of wildfowl, possibly an increase in geese and the outside chance of waxwings or a white winged gull such as Iceland gull... I’ll certainly be looking!