Sep 12th Strumpshaw Fen

Water droplets on Reed leaves from this morning's rain

It has rained for a third Wednesday in a row! Annoyingly, after organising a lift to Strumpshaw the night before, it wasn't that bad. In fact it had stopped by the time I was on the way there say for a couple of short drizzly showers when I went for a quick walk around the woodland trail. It wasn't much to be concerned about. Fungi was sprouting from the ground and young blackcaps and chiffchaffs flit from branch to branch, preparing themselves for their first ever journey south (if they don't decide to stay, which is often the case with these two warblers these days). It has been autumn like for a while, but it feels official now.

Red Campion

Blackcap

Blue Tit

Great Tit

Robin

Shaggy Inkcap

Turkeytail



Some tall stemmed toadstools of some kind

Buzzard

Even with the rain gone, the scene from Reception Hide was still dull and not very exciting. The usual cast of coots, moorhens, gadwall, shovelers, teal and mallards weren't doing that much, though were this time joined by more wigeon and a couple of tufted ducks, both species preferring the far side of the broad. Jays travelled back and forth across the broad, occasionally carrying an acorn away with them in their bills. Swallows and house martins were starting to decrease in number now, but were still plenty enough to swirl high beneath the cloud line. Marsh harriers and buzzards continued to patrol the reserve with soaring flights and at one point, a hobby did the same at a much swifter pace. That hobby was to be the only highlight of the morning for me, but elsewhere on the reserve there were reports of kingfishers at Fen Hide and an osprey was apparently seen somewhere by somebody who didn't come back to tell us. We only found out thanks to a member of Strumpshaw's staff entering the hide telling us that one was mentioned on Rare Bird Alert for this morning.

Wigeon

Tufted Duck

Teal

Greylags

Moorhen

Coot