Trip to Lakenheath Fen 3rd June

Derek arranged a trip to Lakenheath Fen on Saturday morning.
www.rspb.org.uk/reserves-and-events/find-a-reserve/reserves-a-z/reserves-by-name/l/lakenheathfen/about.aspx

A good group (17 people) met at 10:00; we had an introductory talk by an RSPB Volunteer when we arrived. We walked along a well maintained path, stopping to eat our packed lunches at the west end of the public area. We then returned to the car park, most of us following the river back, about 3.5 miles walk in all.

There is a good walk through a varied wetland habitat, mostly reeds and grazing marshes, with some poplars, the remains of a Bryant and May matchwood plantation. The railway forms the south boundary and the river the north.

As you can see below, the weather was good.

We saw a good number of birds, insects and flowers, including 43 species of birds:

Bittern	Great Tit	Oystercatcher
Black-headed Gull	Greenfinch	Pheasant
Blackbird	Grey Heron	Redshank
Buzzard	Greylag Goose	Reed Bunting
Carrion Crow	Hobby	Reed Warbler
Cetti's Warbler	Jay	Robin
Chaffinch	Kestrel	Rook
Chiffchaff	Lapwing	Sedge Warbler
Common Tern	Little Egret	Stonechat
Coot	Long-tailed Tit	Tufted Duck
Cormorant	Magpie	Whitethroat
Cuckoo	Mallard	Woodpigeon
Gadwall	Marsh Harrier	Wren
Goldfinch	Moorhen
Great Crested Grebe	Mute Swan

Andy took these photos:

Male and Female Four-spotted Chaser Dragonflies

Drinker moth caterpillar

Cinnabar moth

Painted Lady

Barry took these photos:

Common blue damselfly

Four-spotted Hawker 

Four-spotted Hawker

Reed Bunting

Reed Bunting

Four-spotted Hawker

and a couple of Peter's

Tortoiseshell

Common blue damselfly

Grebe on nest