A rather overcast week with mild temperatures, however Thursday was a beautiful calm day with blue sky throughout as well as light winds.
This weeks star bird has been the showy Jack snipe from reception hide. This snipe is still continuing to play peek-a-boo with many visitors, it is usually in front of the hide, but at times it hides in the uncut reed.
Kingfishers continue to be seen from various points around the fen, on Friday I saw them at reception, Tower Hide and the broad after the sluice as well as the river.
A bittern flew past the Thursday work party at Tower Hide and have been seen regularly throughout the week, however we do not have the pleasure of the continental birds increasing our numbers this year.
The female hen harrier has been seen throughout the week coming in to roost, last seen on Wednesday at dusk from reception.
Bearded tits were quite vocal on Thursday along Lackford Run and Sandy Wall, but it did not sound like a particularly large flock.
Starlings are still coming in to roost, but are still very random in both appearances and numbers, on Wednesday around 200 were seen.
At Buckenham the wildfowl numbers have increased and on a good day, the marshes are looking packed with birds. I did not have time to do a full count on Wednesday, however 1090 pink footed geese, 144 white-fronted geese and 1300 lapwing were counted as well as an estimate of 1800 wigeon. As well as these regular species on Sunday 18 December a brent goose (very rare inland) and up to 5 tundra bean geese were seen as well as the 18 taiga bean geese.
A flock of 13 lesser redpolls at Buckenham also contained a fine cold backed mealy/common redpoll, this scarce visitor is always hard to track down on the reserve so was very nice to see.
The trails at Strumpshaw are a little muddy in places but currently quite passable with wellingtons, of course this does change quickly with weather and flooding so always ask at reception for the latest information.
There will not be an update next week as I will be on Christmas leave.
In the new year I will do a review of 2016, looking at some of the highlights of the year.
Many thanks for reading these updates from the Mid Yare Valley and all of your continued support. From myself and the team here: we wish you a very merry Christmas and a happy new year.