Happy New Year!
The Christmas period saw a mixture of very wet weather with a few nice days thrown in for good measure. The rain has caused all river systems in the area to utilise their flood plains, the flooding has penetrated in land as far as Fakenham I am told!
The wildlife highlight of the Christmas period has to go to the roosting marsh harriers, with up to 33 in view at once on some evenings, it makes quite a spectacle. A waxwing has been seen along Sandy Wall today (4th) feeding on guilder rose berries, it would be nice if a few more of its friends join it in the coming days! A male goosander flew past Tower Hide on 29th, but unfortunately did not land. The starling roost which peaked at around 45,000 has now left us and is unlikely to return again this season, but was great while it lasted!
The usual suspects have been showing throughout the Christmas period with otter sightings coming near daily from Fen and Reception Hides, kingfishers and bitterns have been seen from the same locations too.
Throughout the woodland and the scrub surrounding the fen we have seen good numbers of goldcrests, bullfinches and tit flocks containing all resident species. A willow tit was reported on new years day, which would be the first record for eight years if confirmed.
At Buckenham and Cantley the 17 taiga bean geese remain just about viewable as well as 1000+ golden plover, 1000+ lapwing, but relatively low numbers of wigeon. I am told that there is a cold snap expected on the continent next week with easterly winds heading for our shores, so we can hope for an increase in wildfowl numbers as a result of the freezing weather…we’ll see what happens.
As mentioned previously the combination of heavy rain, high tides due to a full moon and a large storm crossing the UK has resulted in some fairly large scale flooding. The current state of play is that the riverbank to Tower Hide and beyond to the Lackford Run is closed, the fen hide track is under water, but currently passable with wellingtons and the woodland loop is fully open. We do have the sluices open, so will try to get the water out as fast as possible, however the water in the river will need to lower before any positive movement can take place. Please take note of the signage on the reserve, if a path says it is closed, it is closed either because it is flooding and dangerous or it has flooded and is staying closed to protect the path surfaces.