Generally a very nice week with warm sunny conditions interspersed with rain showers and the odd overcast day like today (Friday).
The highlight of the week will have to be the swallowtails once again. When the sun was shining we had plenty of sightings from all over the reserve, including; five at the nectar garden by reception, two at Fen Hide, one along Sandy Wall, two in the meadow, up to five along the riverbank and anything up to ten along the Lackford Run and fen boardwalk area... so they seem to be doing pretty well at the moment.
Other butterflies that have emerged throughout the week include meadow brown and common blue, alongside a further nine species.
Birds have been notable this week too; the marsh harriers are still providing good views as they continue to bring food for their young. Warblers continue to sing well throughout the reedbed and woodlands. A grasshopper warbler has started singing again in the triangle of reed at the river end of Sandy Wall, a garden warbler was singing on Friday just beyond Tower Hide and lots of willow warblers, blackcaps and chiffchaffs in the trees while the cetti’s, sedge and reed warblers sing well from the reedbed.
Three or possibly four hobbys have been seen hawking dragonflies over the reedbed, while bearded tits and bitterns and the odd cuckoo are also present underneath them in the reedbed. Kingfishers are still heading back and forth feeding their young, we could hope for some young kingfishers to be on show soon.
Dragonflies have been seen in good number throughout the reserve with Norfolk hawker and scarce chaser still on the wing. New species reported this week include emerald damselfly on Friday as well as common darter and brown hawker on Thursday (so check the Norfolk hawkers carefully from now on!)
Mammals; the highlight of the week was three red deer in the meadows, these are very scarce at the fen so a good record and reward for and early start. Also on the mammal list includes regular sightings of the male/dog otter throughout the week from Reception Hide and Tower Hide. Chinese water deer in the meadows, roe deer was reported on Thursday as well as weasel and fox.
Grass snakes and lizards bring up the reptile numbers with fairly regular sightings of the former and many regular sightings on common lizard, mostly around wooden structures and the fen boardwalk.
Finally plants; Our fen plants are really starting to get going now that we have had some warmer temperatures, these include marsh pea, milk parsley and marsh cinqfoil to name just a few. The meadow has many orchids throughout it including common spotted and southern marsh orchids, marsh helleborine should be starting to flower next week, close to reception we have bee orchid and common twayblade. My personal highlight was finally tracking down the odd fern like adders tongue in the meadow.
Path conditions: all paths open, the fen trail, Lackford Run and woodland trail are both in good condition, the meadow is quite boggy in places, but passable with walking boots.
With decent weather (warm sunny, still), in the coming weeks I would expect the swallowtails to remain active, especially since they were late emerging. All of the above should continue to show throughout the next week and hopefully dragonfly and butterfly numbers will continue to improve too.