The weather has picked up and today is certainly a fine spring day with warm sunshine and large black clouds moving by. The outlook is good for the weekend and following week too, so it could be a great time to come and visit.
The fen has certainly moved up a gear in terms of migrants with all expected migrants now present. Birdwise the fen is now hosting cuckoo, hobby, reed, sedge, cetti’s and grasshopper warblers. This is understandably making the fen quite a loud place to be throughout the day, but particularly at dawn and dusk. The scrub surrounding the fen is full of blackcaps, willow warblers and chiffchaffs, with the occasional garden warbler and whitethroat to be found too. The skies above the fen can be full of St Marks flies and with them are the swifts, swallows, sand and house martins happily feeding on them.
The woodland is full of song, particularly early in the morning and the purple haze of bluebells is now at its peak. The final species missing off of our migrant list is the spotted flycatcher, we are hoping that it will not be long until our pair return to the woodland.
Away from the fen the wet grassland at Buckenham and Cantley has been alive with breeding waders over the past month. Up to ten drumming snipe can be seen and heard on calm mornings, broods of lapwing can be seen all over the marshes, symbolising a productive breeding season.
There have been three noteworthy birds at Buckenham in the past week; a great white egret in full breeding plumage on 28th, a pectoral sandpiper was seen over last weekend and then just yesterday there was a temminck’s stint seen briefly. These three species are all very rare so attracted a bit of interest from travelling birdwatchers. The more routine passage wader species have also been seen; these include whimbrel, greenshank, wood, green and common sandpipers as well as the regular avocets, lapwing and dunlin. A pair of garganey have found the pools and ditches near the hide to their liking and have now been present for over three weeks.
Pectoral sandpiper and great white egret- Ben Lewis
Butterfly numbers have increased dramatically over the last week, although the weather has been a little inclement at times. It will not be too long until our swallowtails are out again, the first sighting date varies each year, but it is usually around the 14th May. I will blog their arrival when the first sighting has occurred as many people are keen to know about this enigmatic species.
Large red damselflies are still the only species of odonata that have been recorded so far, however the warm weather predicted for next week should see a showing of azure and variable damselflies as well as the first hairy dragonfly of the year.
Over the next week I would expect the number of warblers to increase in the reedbed, the hobby numbers to increase as well as passage waders to continue filtering through Buckenham Marshes.
All trails are open, fine and dry. The meadow trail is still closed, but will be opened in another two weeks or so when dragonfly numbers increase and the flora starts growing up a little more.