A snowy start followed by a mild and sunny end to the week with the promise of a mild dry weekend ahead.
This week has seen many of our more regular birds showing well. Marsh harriers have been talon grappling, displaying and calling well in recent days; the first few sticks have been seen being carried around to impress the females. Snipe have been seen in good numbers with a rent a warden walk on Thursday notching up at least 45 birds, the Jack snipe has been seen most days from Fen hide, but is always hard to track down. Bitterns have not yet been heard booming, or even grunting yet, but as far as I know not many people have been listening at dawn or dusk. Bearded tits have been seen frequently from Fen Hide, although they are now pairing up and seemingly not staying in one place for long.
One of the rarities of the week was a great white egret, I saw it fly east over Strumpshaw Fen early on Friday morning, it was later seen feeding at Buckenham.
Wildfowl numbers are doing well at the fen with pochard, tufted duck, gadwall, shoveler and teal all in good number, a bonus came in the form of a female goldeneye on the broad just past the sluice on Thursday.
The woods are full of bird song with bullfinch, siskin, song thrush, mistle thrush, marsh tit, goldcrest and treecreeper the top picks of the week.
Two otters were seen at lunch time on Wednesday, they appeared to be the same size, so possible siblings from last year. A single was also seen from reception on Monday morning. Chinese water deer have been regularly seen in the meadows and from Fen Hide.
The wet grassland at Buckenham and Cantley have seen the first 9 avocets pass through as well as small numbers of ruff, dunlin and oystercatchers. Also present on the marshes on Friday were; 918 lapwing, 1110 golden plover, 45 curlew, 1137 wigeon and the first returning pair of redshank.
The paths are much the same as last week; all open, but a diversion through the meadow is still in operation. The riverbank work looks like it will be finished soon, so hopefully it will reopen in the next couple of weeks. The riverbank and Lackford Run are quite muddy after the slushy snow on Monday and overtopping of the river in the latter part of the week, as always wellingtons are recommended.
The milder weather for the weekend ahead may push some early returning migrants such as chiffchaffs our way and increase wader numbers at Buckenham; it may just produce ideal weather for a nice walk.