East Anglia Holiday - Day 9 pt 1

Day 9, Saturday, saw us back at Lakenheath Fen, early (for us!). Full circle from the start of the holiday but we headed back for two reasons (1) hoping to see the Golden Oriole and (2) because it just such a beautiful place. It is peaceful despite the odd train passing the back of the reserve and a few paces from the car park you are in an environment which is clearly supporting wildlife in significant numbers.

We didn’t see the Orioles but there were lots of Reed and Sedge Warblers including this one:



















These little birds don't hang around to be snapped and you can see this one is about to dive into cover. Over the lake a Common Tern hovers before diving in to catch a fish:
















And on the lake itself a young Mute Swan family are getting their sea legs:









Next we headed to the Wildfowl & Wetland Trust reserve at Welney (http://www.wwt.org.uk/visit/welney/). In summer Welney is a completely different place gone are the thousands of migrant ducks, waders, geese and swans of winter, instead there are some small resident populations of waders, mallards and mute swans as well as the summer visitors including Warblers and Wagtails. This view is taken from the hide on the far right of the reserve where in winter you get the best views of the departing and arriving wild birds:















This Reed Bunting was showing really well along the path between the hides: