A very mild week with almost warm sunny spells, apart from Thursday when it decided to rain a lot to coincide with the weekly work party.

 Highlights from the fen included nine pochard and six tufted duck, so far they are this years peak counts. A bittern was seen on Tuesday morning, bearded tits have been heard regularly from the fen trail, while kingfishers have been seen from the sluice area. It has been the first…

A fine sunny start to the week gave us t-shirt weather while working for the first time this year. This warm sunny weather broke on Thursday afternoon when all of a sudden 12 hours of rain hit us.

 The fen has seen a busy half term week for people, luckily there were good viewing opportunities for some of our specialist species too, however nothing gave itself up easily. Kingfishers have been seen zooming up and down…

This week started off nice and bright, however as the week progressed cloud became a large feature, the winds have been very light allowing some sounds of spring to be heard.

 The aforementioned signs of spring have been very much in evidence, the woodland has been alive with songs of tits, chaffinches, goldcrests, blackbirds, song thrushes and drumming great spotted woodpeckers. Keeping with the woodland theme, Nuthatch…

 

A much cooler week with icy Northerly winds and a few very light snow flurries amongst sleety showers. The reception broad has been 80% ice for the majority of the week, however the deeper channels have remained unfrozen.

The fen has seen otters on most days with two being seen from reception yesterday afternoon, bitterns and kingfishers have been a little more elusive, feeding in the deeper internal channels of the…

Wow where did that month go!

This week has seen a mix of bright sunshine and snow showers, today started at -2 and was very frosty, but cleared to reveal a beautiful big blue sky, lovely.

The typical winter birds are still present in much the same numbers, with redwing and fieldfare numbers increasing very slightly in the woodland. The nuthatches are beginning to make their presence very obvious by being very vocal…

Although distant, the orange legs and bill of the bean goose stand out amongst the pink feet

 

The famous four are still being seen at Strumpshaw bearded tit, marsh harrier, otter, bittern, although the only one of the four which is appearing regularly in numbers is the faithful marsh harrier. A roost watch last Sunday produced 17 marsh and a single female hen harrier, while a fine male hen harrier was seen on Saturday…

 

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…

                                                                             

Happy New Year to all who read this blog, apologies for the lack of updates over the Christmas period.

The wildlife on show on the reserve is largely similar to late December, however a few subtle changes have started occurring. For example the shelduck numbers have started to build at Buckenham which is usually an indicator of spring being just around the corner. Other notable spring like events include a song thrush…

A mild and windy week so far with relatively low tides has meant some drying out of the riverbank. This is great news as it is now slightly easier to walk to Tower Hide, the not so good news is that some very high tides are due for the next week, so the trails may well get flooded, for this reason it will be important to check the tide tables and ask at reception for the latest details on path conditions.

Despite the…

It's been a slightly odd week of weather, with a balmy 12 degrees on Wednesday night followed by t shirt weather on Thursday (for working outside at least) and now we are warned of cold air coming to East Anglia over the weekend. This weather could push some more wildfowl south during the weekend, we certainly are missing a lot at the moment!

The weeks bird sightings have remained similar to the past month. As mentioned…

It has been another cool and blustery week  at the fen, although on occasion bright and sunny with fantastic blue sky and frosts. A double low tide (without a high in between) on Tuesday saw the fen water level drop dramatically, which will hopefully have purged the last of the saline water from the fen. The path from Tower hide around to the Lackford Run remains closed due to very wet and muddy conditions, but a few more…

After a slightly dull week the sun has come out today to reveal a beautiful crisp frosty day, a great day to be out and about.

The cold weather movements that I have been predicting for the past few weeks have finally arrived. The continent has finally started to freeze up a little, which means that we have had an increase in our wildfowl numbers as well as many finches who have come to enjoy our slightly milder climate…

The water level has rapidly increased this week due to heavy rain over the weekend. This water has been entering the fen through an inlet sluice connected to the Lackford Run, the fresh water has been allowed to flood into the fen to help flush out the saline water from previous flooding events, next week the level will once again. The flooding from the high tides has meant that the Lackford Run footpath remains closed…

At long last our penduline tit decided to reveal itself to a few lucky observers. I first heard the bird on 11 October and it has taken up until this Wednesday for anyone to see it properly enough to fully confirm identification and what's more is that there are actually two birds present. They both flew into view on reedmace stems in front of fen hide for a total of ten seconds and have not been seen since, despite extensive…

A slightly cooler week caused a small movement of wildfowl across the reserve, this was most noticeable at Buckenham Marshes. On the marshes the pink footed goose numbers rose to the 1000 mark along with 80 white-fronts, 200 Canada, 25 Barnacle, 17 Egyptian and 140 greylags, this has produced a mini goose identification challenge and quite a spectacle at Buckenham. We are still awaiting the first returning taiga bean geese…

Here's a quick round up from Ben...

The flood waters have now receded and the full trail is once again open, the path beyond tower hide and along the Lackford Run is particularly muddy so wellies are recommended.

After an initial exodus of wildfowl due to salt water, they have returned in number; teal, gadwall, mallard, shoveler and a single female pintail are all on view from reception as well as wigeon at tower…

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…

Autumn has now fully arrived at the fen, I even changed the sightings sheets in the hide to winter today! With the arrival of some cooler air and easterly winds we have seen our first visible migration over the fen in recent days. Visible migration is quite an amazing thing to witness when you get your eye, and ear into the movements. This morning over 800 redwings, 150 Chaffinches 50 Song thrushes, 40 Meadow pipits and…

(from Norwich Nuthatches Wildlife Explorers Group assistant leader Melanie Beck)

The Norwich Nuthatches gathered at RSPB Strumpshaw Fen on a lovely September evening. It was too early to start our bat walk so we made flying bats and tried to make as many words from the letters in the phrase ‘Nocturnal Flying Bats’ as we could. It’s quite a challenge – try it for yourself!  As the light began to fade…

The autumnal feel on the reserve has been backed up by a few typical autumn species emerging or migrating through the reserve in the past few weeks.

An Osprey has spent just over a week in the Strumpshaw/Rockland area, last being seen on the 9 September. Tower Hide has provided a very good spectacle of birds over the past few weeks due to the water levels being lowered creating a good amount of mud at the edges for…

The breeding season is coming to an end now and most of our marsh harriers have fledged and many have dispersed from the site, but there is still plenty of high quality wildlife action to be found. One female bittern nest is still feeding young but the other nest seems to have fledged, with male, female and juvenile bitterns popping up daily in the last week. Kingfishers are also busy feeding their second brood in the…

Blogger Ian Robinson

Sunday – busy day, lots of visitors, fundraising group selling cakes, books and plants – at the end of the day they’d raised over £210. Hot sun today, orange tips feeding on plants in the nectar garden, four spot chasers ‘chasing’ prey and one another in front of reception hide. Swallows are chattering as they fly overhead, common tern fishing on the Old Broad.…

The nectar garden at Strumpshaw Fen has been looking a little threadbare since its revamp earlier in the year, but in the last few days it has really filled out and is starting to bloom. Dame's violet, thyme and geranium all pulling in nectar hungry insects. The star of the show is always the swallowtail, and today one visited just long enough for me to grab this photo. The thyme was literally buzzing with at least eight…

By guest blogger Melanie Beck - Norwich Nuthatches Assistant Leader

April’s Norwich Nuthatches meeting began with a quiz on Earth Day which had taken place a few days before. Earth Day aims to show people ways to help protect the planet we live on. Our first challenge was to answer ten multiple choice questions to see how much we knew about the environment and conservation. The children were really knowledgeable and able…

Everyone has their own favourite milestone that marks the arrival of spring, and for me it’s the arrival of willow warblers from their African winter quarters. And here they are - in the last week, the soft lilting warble of the first few willow warblers has joined the chorus of blackcaps, chiffchaffs and resident Cetti’s warblers around the fen trail at Strumpshaw Fen.

With mostly dry and often sunny weather…