This week has been quite mild, but as is the usual story the wind has been quite relentless at times. The stand out days of the week were Wednesday and Friday where the sun shone all day and the temperature of around 13 degrees felt quite mild.
The week’s highlights have included many of the usual, but special, suspects including bitterns, bearded tits on Tuesday, kingfishers have been seen on and off all week and there are still at least 28 marsh harriers coming into the fen to roost. An otter was seen on Tuesday from reception, a marsh harrier was most intrigued by it and was swooping down every time it came up for air; a very nice 'double'. The feeding station near the reception has been attracting nuthatch, jay and all regular tits on the feeding stumps offering great photo opportunities.
A pair of stonechats can be seen near the pumphouse, snipe are present from Tower Hide and a water pipit has been seen (or heard) along the riverbank.
The wet grassland sites have continued to increase in abundance of birds with the 23 taiga bean geese still present, 70 white fronted geese and up to 900 pink footed geese present on site. The biggest notable influx occurred on Wednesday when 5513 lapwings were counted at Cantley. Wigeon numbers are still far lower than expected for this time of the year, with just 500 on site, this is possibly due to the mild conditions. Other birds at Buckenham and Cantley include peregrine, water pipit, ruff, stonechat, bearded tits and the odd dunlin, there are still a small number of shelduck on the marshes too.
All trails are currently open, however we have flooded a lot in the past week. The riverbank and Lackford Run paths are quite muddy in places making the walking quite difficult and slippery, wellies are advised.