A week of easterly winds from Russia, cloud with occasional showers is certainly a forecast you want to see in October if you are after migrant birds... and they have started arriving.
The star bird of the week has to go to a fine great grey shrike; myself and the work party found this bird by coincidence while walking into a plot of reed that was due to be burnt, it just so happened to be in the tree as we walked past. Luckily the shrike flew closer to the hides and was viewable for the majority of Thursday between Fen and Tower Hide. Also on Thursday evening a hen harrier was seen, this is the first report of autumn and hopefully a hint of what may be coming for the winter, fingers crossed. The third good record of the week came in the form of a jack snipe, these are regular in the fen, but are not always seen from the hides so one in front of Fen Hide on Sunday and Wednesday was a good bonus for all those who saw it.
On to the more usual fare (but equally as special) bearded tits have still been showing from all hides and from Sandy Wall, patience and good weather may be required but they are certainly still there. Bitterns have been showing well, particularly from Reception hide, where a male (pictured above) seems to have developed a feeding routine that brings him to the left side of reception, offering fantastic views if you are very lucky. Marsh harrier numbers are still relatively low during the daytime, however ‘Dizzy’, green tagged DZ is still present.
Non avian news; Otters have been seen occasionally in the past week with one seen on Monday this week, but no other reports have come to us. Butterflies and dragonflies enjoyed the sunshine on Sunday; willow emerald, common darter southern hawker, migrant hawker, peacock, red admiral, painted lady, comma and brimstone were all seen around the fen.
The wet grassland at Buckenham and Cantley are at a bit of an in-between stage at the moment, it is poised and ready for action: lapwing numbers are building slowly, with 400 seen this week along with early arriving wigeon on show too, more to come soon.
The easterly wind and cold spell snap on the continent should see an increase in duck numbers in the valley over the next couple of weeks as well as increases in pink footed and white fronted geese, winter thrushes, goldcrests and possibly bitterns too.