The week started with water, lots of water! On Sunday night a large surge of water headed up the river Yare due to tidal locking at Great Yarmouth coinciding with predicted high tides. The result was water entering the fen over the entire length of the Lackford Run and at various places along the riverbank. The water rose within the fen to create one large continuous waterbody, even the relatively high banks inside the fen were overtopped. Luckily, thanks to our sluices working overtime we have managed to get the majority of the water out and are now back to normal fen level. Another positive is that the water that entered the fen was nowhere near as saline as the past 3 medium floods this winter.
The 2 pictures on the right show the trails after the flood, it explains why the trails can be muddy, as well as showing just one of the issues we face on the reserve due to the river, which lets not forget is the very reason the fen exists today!
Thanks to Jake Gearty for the photograph above.
Sightings this week have mostly been similar to previous weeks with one exception. A great northern diver was found at Rockland Broad on Tuesday afternoon, which is where it stayed until Thursday morning when it decided to take a mini tour of the Mid Yare Valley. The diver headed up the river past Strumpshaw pumphouse, took to the air and did a couple of laps of the fen before settling down on in front of the reception, where it carried out a strange plunge preening behaviour, before once again taking flight and heading back to Rockland Broad. To put this sighting into context great northern divers are relatively regular seabirds, more at home bobbing amongst the waves a mile or so offshore, so to have one this inland on the reserve is quite a treat. What’s more is that seeing the bird at close range without waves showed just how large these birds are, at greylag goose size you can certainly see where the ‘great’ part of their name comes from.
In other sightings the fen has continued to be fairly quiet for wildfowl, however on a short walk this morning I managed to see bearded tit, bittern, 15+ marsh harriers, a kingfisher on the river 8 Chinese water deer on the meadows and an otter in front of reception hide, so not a bad pre work stroll.
Buckenham and Cantley are still productive places for wildfowl with 1000+ of wigeon, pink footed goose and lapwings. With lesser numbers of golden plover, ruff and white fronted geese. There were 7 taiga bean geese at Cantley this morning, this is a vast decline, so it looks as if the flock has fragmented, but at least some are still present.
The media is saying that there will be a bit of a cold snap over the next couple of weeks so with a bit of luck we will see and increase in winter thrushes, wildfowl, finches including redpoll and if we are lucky there is a possibility that waxwings will make it here too.