Dusky fen

Today Chris and I have spent much of the day at Woodwalton Fen, a remnant of undrained wetland forming a core part of the Great Fen restoration project. Some of you will remember it from my trip in December, when I photographed a Chinese Water Deer (see .
here). Then it was completely frozen: today the weather was mild and the fen was full of bird song.

We went mid-morning as the forecast said the weather was going to decline during the day. As usual there was plenty of wildlife around, including plenty of Chinese Water Deer, a woodcock flying over one of the rides, a flock of siskins, and a large group of green-winged teal, all busy displaying. I'd never seen this before, but a group of males were gathered together and would dip their heads and then waggle their tails, all accompanied by a gentle piping call. By contrast the moorhens were fighting agressively and the gadwall were constantly fidgeting and showing off to each other, accompanied by a rather nasal grunt.

We walked to the western side of the reserve, where it looks out over land recently acquired for the Great Fen. It seemed fairly quiet, but after a short while we spotted two marsh harriers in the distance, one of which was being mobbed by a crow, and then spotted another crow mobbing a distant short-eared owl. At this point fine rain set in, so we retreated to a hide overlooking a reed bed, where we saw yet another marsh harrier.

The rain was fairly short-lived, and so we walked around for a bit longer, before returning to the western bank at dusk to see if the short-eared owls would approach close enough to be photographed. They didn't, but we did experience one of those magical fen moments, when you can watch the mist gently rising as the sun sets. As you can imagine, I took many photographs, but I think this one sums up the atmosphere best, with the reed-fringed ditch in the foreground, the flat grass field with wisps of mist and the sheep peacefully grazing beyond.

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