A week to forget weather-wise. A cool bank holiday weekend followed by torrential rain and strong winds in the early part of the week making way for cool cloudy conditions at the weeks end…flaming June?
Despite the weather conditions there have been some good sightings throughout the week; an osprey has been present since Friday 27 May, it has been commuting between each body of water at the fen as well as Buckenham and Rockland. The bird has been showing very well if you happen to be in Tower Hide while it’s fishing. The osprey is most likely to be a first summer bird, which will not be breeding this year. Bittern have been showing frequently over the reedbed as have the many nesting marsh harriers. Warblers are still singing from around the fen with reed, sedge, blackcap, garden and cettis warblers present. Kingfishers are busy feeding their young and can be seen best from reception going back and forth across the broad. Bearded tits are becoming easier to see as there are now several new generations of young throughout the reedbed.
Insects have been hard to come by considering it is now June, however on Monday a good selection of odonata was noted including; four-spotted chaser, scarce chaser, banded demoiselle, Norfolk hawker, azure, variable, red-eyed, blue-tailed and large-red damselflies.
The most abundant insect by far this week has been the migrant diamond back moth (see photo above); I counted 526 in the first compartment of the meadow trail on Wednesday with another 312 in the moth traps on Thursday morning. These small moths migrate from the near continent and it seems as though this will be a very good year for them, to put it into context I saw less than 10 all year at Strumpshaw Fen in 2015!
Swallowtails were seen on Sunday, but not at all throughout the past week due to adverse weather conditions. With the forecast set to be better over the weekend I would hope that many more will be seen and more will emerge too.
An Otter has been showing on and off throughout the week at various locations accross the fen, mostly from the hides and near the sluice.
Southern marsh orchids are beginning to flower along the meadow trail as are the beautiful bog bean flowers, the patch of common twayblades near reception are in full flower and the bee orchids are just about to flower.
The coming week should see a vast increase in all insect life including swallowtail butterflies and Norfolk hawker, given the wet conditions many flowering plants will come into bloom and many birds will be singing for their next brood.