The highlights this week have included the continuation of the starling roost, multiple marsh harriers and a hen harrier.
The starling roost was a feature throughout the week, numbers were quite variable each night, between 500 and 2000 have been roosting most nights this week, however on Friday evening there were none at all, so it may well have moved to an alternative location for now. The marsh harriers have also been quite spectacular, with up to eight in the air at once trying to catch the starlings quite close to the Reception Hide. A bittern has also caught wind of the starling roost and can be seen flying into their roost location about half an hour before the starlings arrive, priming itself for an easy meal. A female hen harrier has been seen a few times this week, but showed amazingly well for a lucky volunteer group in Tower Hide on Wednesday evening.
Other noteworthy species this week have been a nice mixed flock of siskin and goldfinch around the Reception Hide for the majority of the week, a few redpoll have been seen throughout the woodland too. A woodcock was seen while walking through the wood on Wednesday, also in the wood are a good selection of resident species. Two Jack snipe were seen in front of Reception Hide on Monday, but not since, common snipe have been seen all over the reserve, particularly in flight, hopefully these should be seen more now that the water is receding. The kingfisher/s are still being seen regularly from all hides, but show particularly well from Reception if you are lucky.
Buckenham has seen the return of the ‘taiga’ bean geese, this morning I counted at least 18 as well as two waxwings in the station car park. Also at Buckenham this week have been about 500 pink-footed geese, hundreds of wigeon, peregrine falcons, buzzards and of course the large rook roost.
We currently have up to three green wing tagged marsh harriers in the area, these are LN, TV and another which we have yet to confirm. The black letters on the green wing tags let the BTO and Hawk and Owl Trust keep track of individuals and see how far and wide they travel. Both LN and TV have not travelled too far, they originated at Haddiscoe and another location in South East Norfolk, please let us know if you manage to read any of the tags, the reception hide is keeping a list of letters and corresponding dates which are being passed onto BTO and HoT.
The paths are in a fair condition at the moment, I would recommend wellingtons to get to Tower Hide and the Lackford Run, however as long as the tide is not in flood mode good waterproof walking boots will be ok, but check the tide tides.