This week has seen the continued rise of the insects!

 The weekend was beautifully hot and sunny, which certainly brought many visitors to the reserve, luckily the swallowtails were also performing very well, with up to five swallowtails at once on our nectar garden by reception hide. This is without doubt, the top spot on the reserve for seeing and photographing the butterflies so it is definitely worth checking out…

A mixed week of weather, starting off fairly cool and showery but ending with a bit of warmth, which is promised to continue through the weekend!

 Due to the hot sunny conditions this weekend, I would say that it should be a very good weekend to see Swallowtail butterflies. They have been showing very well on the nectar garden by Reception, indeed this seems to be the most reliable location on the reserve; however they…

This week has seen the temperatures rise and has mainly been sunny, which in turn has caused a good increase in insects!

 The main news this week is that the swallowtail butterflies have started to emerge!

The first butterfly was seen on 14 May, but they have taken a little while to get going. This week’s warm conditions have initiated an increase in sightings, however they can still take some finding. There have been…

Apologies for lack of recent updates.

The spring season has certainly been a bit up and down as far as the weather goes so far, however we are expecting a sunny week ahead of us now.

We are up to a full house as far as migrants are concerned at the fen, with plenty of warblers including reed, sedge, grasshopper, whitethroat, blackcap, garden, chiffchaff and willow warblers. Of note, there have been up to eight grassh…

A good week of spring weather with some warm sunny days, mixed in with cool cloudy days, wind largely from the West, but briefly turning from the south.

 The migrants are still arriving in dribs and drabs, this week we have had our first sedge warblers at the fen as well as an early grasshopper warbler reeling from Fen Hide, which appears to be the first Norfolk sighting this year. Willow warblers are being heard more…

We are now officially in the season of spring. Its not just the calendar that tells us that, but a whole host of indications in the natural world are becoming increasingly obvious by the day.

 The most obvious avian highlight of the week was the first wave of migrating chiffchaffs arriving on the reserve on Tuesday. Up until now we have had singles singing around the reserve but on Tuesday morning we had at least 10-15…

After writing about unseasonably warm weather in my last blog, its now time to write about a period of particularly windy weather! This past week has seen gusts of wind 50+mph on each day, luckily the trees are not yet in leaf as that would have resulted in far more fallen trees than we have seen so far. The wind is due to remain strong until late Saturday afternoon so it is likely that there will be woodland trail closures…

The past two weeks will be remembered for the unseasonably warm sunny weather. The temperatures rose to 17 degrees here and with unbroken sun, it really did feel warm. The temperature increase certainly caused a mass emergence of insects and it felt more like April at times! While this was very welcome warmth, I cant help but be a bit concerned by the timing of the warmth, after all it was February!

 This week we recorded…

The past couple of weeks have seen quite a mix of weather, currently we have a fantastic blue sky with settled conditions with a southerly wind forecast for the coming week.

 The marsh harriers are displaying well on the calm clear days, treating us to their cartwheeling in the sky. Red Kites, buzzards and sparrowhawks are also taking to the air and displaying. If at first you don’t see any birds of prey, try scanning…

The past couple of weeks have seen quite a mix of weather, but we appear to be currently gripped by a cold spell, meaning that the majority of our broads are frozen.

With the majority of waterbodies frozen, the wildfowl have been grouped together at Reception Broad, this flock has consisted mainly of gadwall, mallard, teal and coot…all of which are now paired up. A kingfisher was seen on the river on Tuesday as…

The year has started off with mild and windy weather…and with the wind came a North Sea tidal surge! (The image above shows one of our footpaths during the flood!)

Strumpshaw Fen has been a little on the quiet side in the past couple of weeks, apart from a thriving marsh harrier roost every evening and the odd cettis warbler shouting from the scrub around the fen. We do have the usual suspects of wildfowl on the…

Wildlife review of 2018 at the Mid Yare Valley reserves

This year has seen vast contrasts in weather conditions, from the freezing cold March right through to the (joint) hottest on record, these conditions have affected the resident and migrant bird populations in 2018. Below are a list of the highlights and a couple of lowlights of the year.

First of all to the breeding season; on average the breeding birds decreased…

Since the last update we have had a series of changeable weather systems bringing warm windy conditions and more recently cold frosty spells. This week in particular the broad in front of reception was completely frozen over Monday to Wednesday, while just a mile away conditions were far more mild. We also flooded over the last weekend, up to a foot of water was rushing over the paths in places, luckily the water seemed…

The 'taiga' bean geese have returned to Buckenham Marshes.

Sunday afternoon saw the first returning four birds, by lunchtime on Monday there were 8 and on Monday afternoon 16 were reported.

The birds are usually seen feeding in the ditch edges around the centre of the reserve, viewable from the footpath towards the hide or the mill.

The flock is usually on its own, but at times they can mingle into the white fronted…

The past week has seen the onset of a period of cloudy and damp conditions with easterly winds.

The highlights this week have been the vast numbers of regularly occurring birds... The starling roost has had a rise and fall, it appears that the flock peaked at around 8000 on Sunday, but in the past couple of days it has all but fizzled out. It seems as though we will not get our sustained starling roost this year,…

The past few weeks have seen the subtle change in weather edging closer to winter, although we are looking at a nice mild week with warm southerly airflow.

We have seen the usual shift in species, with large numbers of winter thrushes such as fieldfare and redwings passing south as well as an increase in finches. There appears to be a growing finch flock located between the car park and the meadows feeding on alder…

Gannet by Elizabeth Dack

A largely fine and dry week with cool nights and early mornings, with some decent early autumn heat to be enjoyed when the sun shines.

The star bird of the week has to go to the immature gannet that flew over the Reception Hide towards Brundall then veered North and presumably went North to the coast again. This was only the second record for the reserve, so quite oddly was far less common…

A quick update today…

A small flock of bearded tits has been seen along Sandy Wall on Tuesday and Thursday, perhaps eight birds in total. While nowhere near the numbers of last year, it does give us hope that there are birds out there to recolonise the reserve.

2 pectoral sandpipers have spent the whole week at Buckenham Marshes, favouring the pool in front of the hide. These waders have travelled from either…

With mixed conditions in early autumn now the norm, this past week we have had a large variety of weather, culminating in a beautiful sunny day on Thursday!

The great white egret remains local, although it seems to be spending more time away from Tower Hide recently and has been spending time over the river at Surlingham Church Marsh. An osprey has put in a few appearances in the past couple of weeks, but has not been…

Hi All,

Sorry for lack of update this week...so much to do!

I have attached a photo of the sightings board from today.

Highlights- great white egret still being seen, waders still from Tower Hide and Buckenham, red kites still performing nicely, weather still very nice.

All paths still open and in good condition, meadow trail diversion in place.

The hot weather has finally broken and now we have a slightly more autumnal feel to the weather (at least at the time of writing).

The great white egret has remained at Tower Hide all month, being joined by up to four more on occasions. Tower Hide has also boasted a decent wader list thanks to the earlier drought conditions exposing lots of mud; wood, green and common sandpiper, ruff, lapwing, ringed plover, common snipe…

The view from Tower Hide (with two distant great white egrets)

A poor photo of the Honey Buzzard taken with my mobile phone (shows how close it came over!) it shows the long thin tail and pointy head well

A slight break in the weather at the weekend provided a little respite and some much needed rain!

The highlights of the past week or so have included a group of up to five great white egrets remaining at Tower…

The hot dry summer continues! Rain narrowly missed the fen last night as thunderstorms came up from the south. No rain here since mid-May now as far as I can remember!

The highlight of the week flew into the Reception Hide Broad this morning; a rather fine looking great white egret, it is still present at lunchtime on Saturday, happily feeding in the relatively shallow water. I have just been told that there are four…

The hot dry summer conditions continues!

The highlight of the past fortnight has been the (re)discovery of white-letter hairstreak butterfly on the reserve, with three seen together on the bramble patches in the woodland. There was a single record 6 years ago and before that it was the 1970’s, so the re-emergence of a population is most encouraging. The hairstreaks have possibly eclipsed the confirmation that silver…

It is national insect week and I think we have done very well for them on the reserve this week!

Swallowtail butterflies are still being seen across the reserve, today, while cutting the trails I saw one in the meadow, two along the riverbank near Tower Hide, at least three along Lackford Run and finally one in the nectar garden by reception, they were also seen in the woodland glades (due to the shelter from strong…