Since the last update, the weather has been a mixture of mild wet and cloudy throughout the Christmas period followed by a week of pleasant cold clear conditions.
The main story from the fen is one of flooding unfortunately. We had quite a major flood on 27 December, with further floods on 3 and 5 January. The more recent floods have contained very saline water, which we will need to flush out over the next month. The sluices have removed the majority of the flood water, however we will bring fresh water in and take that off again and repeat the process until the water is fresh once again. Essentially the water level in the fen will be up and down a lot over the next month, it is very important that we get the saline water out of the fen and gain a stable water level before March as everything within the freshwater ecosystem relies on fresh rather than saline water.
As you can imagine with the whole of the fen surface being covered in deep water the birds have noticed the changes. We do still have both common and Jack snipe in front of Reception Hide. The marsh harrier roost numbers are stable at 16-18 birds and a hen harrier has been seen on and off throughout the Christmas period. Kingfishers are being seen daily from the majority of hides as well as the riverbank. Bittern numbers are still fairly low, but with temperatures of -23 degrees not far away on the continent we may well get a slight influx. Bitterns have been seen near daily from Reception or Fen Hide. A chiffchaff was seen on Friday along with 800 teal along the Lackford Run. A grey wagtail was seen from reception feeding on the ice for the first few days of the year.
The woodland has been quite lively with roving tit flocks containing all usual species including treecreeper, nuthatch and marsh tit, while bullfinch have been present along the riverbank and near Reception Hide.
Buckenham has been a very good place to see wildfowl recently. The flock of 20 taiga bean geese have been showing fairly reliably near the railway this week. Also present on the marshes are 372 white-fronted geese, 391 pink footed geese, 1250 wigeon and 145 lapwing. As well as small numbers of ruff, dunlin, golden plover and 2 peregrines.
With the recent flooding the riverbank, Lackford Run and the path to Fen Hide (which were all under water) are quite muddy. I would recommend wellingtons if you are planning to visit the reserve. The woodland/riverbank loop is ok with walking boots.