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Ben
In the past week the reserve has been put under a bit of stress; the beginning of the week saw some nice low water levels, however on Wednesday a very high tidal surge came up the River Yare. The water stayed high for far longer than it did last December and resulted in no low tide at all on Wednesday, this resulted in reserve trail closures and a lot of salty water in the fen. The sluices are now fully open and the water is dropping so the majority of the reserve is open once again, however it is likely to be muddy along the riverbank. The big 5 (bittern, otter, kingfisher, bearded tit, marsh harrier) have continued to show well on occasion this week. Otters have been eating the marooned fish on the riverbank path, including a rather large pike near the sluice, while bitterns have been seen flying over the fen finding the slightly dryer spots to fish in. Kingfishers have been regular at reception and fen hides as well as the sluice, these are also the places that the small flock of bearded tits have been seen. The first roost count of autumn produced 9 marsh harriers at the fen, with cooler weather predicted I suspect this number will have almost doubled by the end of November, hopefuly a hen harrier or two will join them too. Water rails had been showing well in front of reception before the flooding, so we hope they will return once the water level drops and a little more mud is exposed, they can still be heard squealing just inside the reedbed so they have not gone far away! There are still good numbers of common darters and a few migrant hawkers still clinging on, making their presence known whenever the sun shines. 3 willow emerald damselflies were seen by the fen board walk on sunday, which is possibly the latest record we have for the reserve so far. While the dragonflies start to disappear we can be glad to welcome the winter visitors back, duck numbers are rising and at Buckenham the geese are begging to return too. On 23rd 83 pink footed geese and 41 white fronted geese were present, these were viewable from the main track and are hopefully just the start of the winter goose influx. Buckenham riverbank is still being worked on with diggers so please pay attention to the signs. As well as the geese arriving, winter visitors such as redwings and fieldfares as well as chaffinches arriving in number, these will continue to migrate over us and should increase in number as and when we get some northerly airflow. Come and see what we have to offer at the moment, it is a time of change so who knows what may fly in over the next few weeks. If you are stuck with children over half term, we have a special Halloween trail set up for their (and your) enjoyment.