The clocks have changed and all of a sudden the evenings are dark, however it does mean that there is more light before work for wildlife watching.
Birds are certainly on the move at the moment; there has been a fairly steady stream of chaffinches, siskins and redpolls over the reserve over the past few mornings, add to these a handful of grey wagtails, yellowhammers, fieldfare, redwing and song thrushes and you get the picture that the skies have been a superhighway of migration. On the ground other winter migrants have been noticeable too; stonechats have been seen at fen hide and at the pumphouse regularly. A short eared owl was hunting over the meadows on Tuesday, while 11 whooper swans flew over the fen a little earlier in the day. One of the great grey shrike stayed until Monday, but has not been seen since. The riverbank has seen an increase in goldcrest numbers as these amazing migrants are streaming in from the continent for the winter.
Bitterns have been seen with some regularity from all three hides, but reception once again is providing some amazing views for a lucky few, this morning a male put on an amazing show. An hour after the bittern came out in the open a dog otter started hunting in front of reception, after 5 minutes it caught a large eel and disappeared into the reedbed for a feast. Kingfishers have been showing well from Fen Hide and along the river, bearded tits are still being seen regularly, however they can turn up just about anywhere in the fen at the moment. Marsh harriers are still evident, particularly at dusk when up to 17 have been seen coming into roost, three wing tagged birds have now been seen with another individual not yet confirmed, please let us know if you get any birds with wing tags
Tower Hide is still boasting a good selection of wildfowl, with at least 450 teal, good numbers of shoveler and lesser numbers of mallard and gadwall, up to 15 snipe have also been regularly feeing on the small island in front of the hide.
Buckenham and Cantley have started to gain more winter interest too; the pinkies are now up to 800, while the white fronted geese are now numbering somewhere in the region of 50 birds. Wigeon are yet to arrive in numbers but 190 were present on Monday. A peregrine was keeping watch over the marshes all afternoon and a short eared owl came and perched on a gatepost near to the mill at Buckenham.
There are a few dragonflies just clinging on, mainly common darters, but there are also a small number of migrant hawkers to be found when the sun shines; I did see the shrike catch a few of these whilst I watched it last week. Butterflies are also few and far between, but this week we have seen red admiral, brimstone and even a comma.
The river levels have been quite high so far this week and have overtopped the banks in places, so I’m afraid we are back to wellies advisable for all trails, particularly the river bank and Lackford Run. If flooding is encountered please turn back and follow any on site signage.