A Golden Sunset

One of the things that the Fens are most famous for are their big skies. The flatness of the land means you can see for miles and when you get out into the countryside you feel quite exposed beneath the huge expanse of sky. This of course means that you can see some wonderful sunsets, where the golden light illuminates the large expansive cloud formations. Woodwalton Fen is an excellent place to see this spectacle as you can stand on the raised earth bank on the edge of the reserve and watch the sunset scene unfold in front of you across the restored fields.

This is precisely what I did on a recent trip to the Fen, going specifically to photograph the evenings sunset. I made my way to the earth bank and set my camera up on a tripod and simply waited and watched as the sun fell from the sky, casting its golden rays on the ground. I took a photo every so often as the scene changed in front of me, the clouds changing colour by the minute. I felt very privileged to be watching such a beautiful event in such a beautiful environment. It is moments like these that make you really appreciate the remote beauty of the Fens.

Simon

In search of the elusive!

The Great Fen is home to many incredible, but sadly elusive, species of animal. The two that I have been targeting recently are the Otter and the Bittern. Otters have been seen on the Fen in the past but rarely, due to their reclusive nature and camouflage. It is the same with the Bittern, a magnificently strange looking bird which hides in large reedbeds, only venturing out of them on the odd occasion. The best way to try and get a glimpse of these species is to get to the Fen early in the morning, preferably for sunrise as there is no one else about and the wildlife is just waking up. Then the waiting game begins!

I arrived at the Fen at 7am armed with my binoculars which I bought specifically for this kind of stakeout. It was raining so my trudge to the hide was rather miserable, but once inside I got settled and began my vigil, watching for the otter. I knew an otter had been seen (and even photographed!) before from this hide, which overlooked a small lake surrounded by reeds. I had not been in the hide for more than 15 minutes when I saw the distant outline of a Marsh Harrier approaching, it flew pretty close to the hide and I got excellent views of it in my binoculars but sadly it did not come close enough for my 200mm lens. Great start to the day! Sadly my time in that hide did not get better than that, the harrier returned but there was no otter or bittern, so after 3 hours I moved on.

I decided to change tactic and move to another hide which overlooked a huge area of reedbed; surely the perfect place to see a Bittern! I spent an hour in this hide and got some stunning views of two Marsh Harriers flying round together, but this was not what I was after. After this time my friend came out to meet me and we walked round the Fen. It is lovely at the moment, the leaves are starting to fall from the trees and you can feel winter starting to creep in.

As we were leaving we walked through a field of horses which have been brought in to graze some of the Fens area of rough grassland. They were very friendly and provided a welcome opportunity for some photography before we left. They even left me with a lovely gift of slobbering on my camera lens!

Simon

Guess What? – A Guest Post By Greenwatch Member, Hannah Bowley

The Bungalow at Woodwalton Fen is now 100 years old! Although this is amazing and surprising…it does mean that the thatched roof has not been replaced for one hundred years, and it needs some major repair.

And that is exactly what is happening right now!

A lot of thought went into where the reed for the roof was going to come from, but after a lot of time it was decided that most of the reed would be transported over from Norfolk, and the remaining amount of reed needed would be taken from Woodwalton Fen itself!

This is the first time in 50 years that this decision has been made, so for everyone at the fen, it was a very special moment when the reed was taken from the fen and put out to dry, so it could be ready to use.

However, replacing a roof does not sound as easy as it really is. There are a lot of checks that need to be carried out before actually starting to replace the roof.

The first one of these checks was to see whether bats were still living in the roof, and this was done by actually going into the roof to see if there were any bat dropping laying about. After a long look, no droppings were found…but to double check, a few brave people went to the Bungalow at dusk, to see if any bats came flying out of the roof….and none were seen!

The second most important check that had to be made was to find someone to actually repair the roof. After a lot of searching, Clive Dodson gave the best quote.

The first problem was thinking about how all of the reed and tools would be taken to the Bungalow without destroying the Bungalow drove. However, it was quickly resolved when Clive jumped to the rescue when he came up with the resolution. He used his car in the fashion of a monster truck and put everything into it, making very few journeys down to the Bungalow, which didn’t lay a mark on the Bungalow Drove!

The rejuvenation of the Bungalow’s roof is still in action, but at the beginning of July a lot of work has been done, with help from a lot of people!

Andy Mason has cut the sedge, and with help from Clive, Luke, Chris and Danno it has all been wrapped up into bundles and put out to dry, ready to renew the Bungalows ridge!

Head down to Woodwalton Fen to catch a glimpse of the new look bungalow soon!

Greenwatch is a youth conservation group for 12-18 year olds, we meet on the third Saturday of each month from 2-4pm. We do a variety of practical work, creative projects and walks. The next Greenwatch session is on Saturday July 16th, for more information please drop me an email at shabana.richardson@wildlifebcnp.org.

Spring has arrived!

Over the last few weeks there have been some major changes going on at the Great Fen. Spring has arrived (slightly early this year too!) and the environment is changing rapidly as the weeks roll by. It is incredible the speed with which things change during this transition period between the end of winter and the start of spring. In this post I aim to highlight some of the interesting changes I have observed and point out some of the things you can look for when you visit the Great Fen.

Spring is a lovely time of the year as it is the time when all of the trees and plants start to turn green as they unfurl their leaves and reveal their flowers. The first to do this on Woodwalton Fen were the willow and blackthorn trees; the willows with their furry pollen rich buds (see below) and the blackthorn with its beautiful white blossom (see below).

However these are not the only flowers to appear, after these come the violets, ground ivy and lesser celandines (see below). These flowers produce a blue and yellow mosaic of colour on the ground, which is a wonderful change from the dull green and brown witnessed during the winter months.

Once the flowers have popped open spring really starts to rush forward as their pollen awakes multitudes of insects. The most attractive of these of course being the butterflies! At the time of writing I have seen five species of butterfly on Woodwalton Fen: Peacock (see below), Comma (see below), Brimstone, Orange tip and Speckled wood. It is wonderful to have them back, fluttering along the sunny rides in search of pollen and other butterflies to mate with! From now onwards their numbers will only increase so if you get a chance to get out to the Fen you will definitely see one.

So what are you waiting for?! Get out to the Fen now to witness some of our wonderful wildlife that is just waking up!

Simon

One Week To The Great Fen Exhibition!

St Neots and District Camera Club have very kindly asked the Great Fen to share their annual exhibition at the Priory Centre, St Neots on Saturday March 26th from 10am to 4pm.

Simon and I have been working hard this week to mount the prints and generally get everything looking fabulous!  It is looking pretty impressive ……

The exhibition includes pictures from each us, our mentors, other 2020VISION photographers and some from local wildlife and photography enthusiasts. The pictures are truly incredible and cover everything from wildlife to shots from activity days, so there’s sure to be something to appeal to everyone. And on top of that, there are all the amazing pictures from members of St Neots Camera Club.

It is going to be a fantastic day and a brilliant opportunity to spread the message about the Great Fen and all we are trying to achieve. It would be wonderful to see you there, Simon and I will be around and would be really pleased to meet you. Bring your families and friends too, you could make a day of it and stop off at Paxton Pits Nature Reserve for a walk.

Directions to the Priory Centre can be found here, the exhibition runs from 10am – 4pm, Saturday March 26th.

For now, I’ll leave you with a sneak peek of a couple of the pictures:

See you Saturday!

Shabana

Dipwells and Onions: Hydrological monitoring at Holme Fen.

All of the posts so far on this blog have focused on the incredible wildlife that can be found on the Great Fen, however there has been little or no mention of the management work required to provide a place to live for these wonderful creatures. The Natural England reserves team who manage Woodwalton and Holme Fen do a great deal of hard work to maintain and enhance these two sites for the wildlife found there. However the Great Fen is really about restoring land, turning farm land into new havens for wildlife to dwell in. As you can probably appreciate it takes a lot of knowledge and hard work to turn a field of onions into a field of reeds!

A few days ago I had the opportunity to go out with Andy Dixon to see how the Great Fen is planning its restoration work. Andy runs his own groundwater monitoring and drilling company and was asked by the Great Fen and Anglia Ruskin University to install dipwells into a field of onions that the Great Fen had just bought to restore. Dipwells are essentially a plastic tube which is inserted into the ground so that the water levels in the ground can be measured and monitored. This information is extremely important for the people planning the restoration work on the fen as it helps them predict what the land will be like in the future.

It was cloudy and a chilly wind was blowing across the flat fens as I pulled into the Admiral Wells pub car park in the village of Holme, our arranged meeting place! I was joined by two other volunteers, Mark and Louisa, who are, like me, voluntary reserves assistants with the Wildlife Trust. We drove out in a convoy to the onion field and got to work. We had to install 4 wells so we had a lot of digging and looking through black peat to do! As we dug out the peat it was interesting to see how the colour of it changed as we got deeper, from the rich black soil on the surface to the reed infused brown of the middle and finally the grey clay at the bottom. Who knew the world of dipwells could be so interesting!

By the end of the day I think we were all glad to get back in our warm-ish cars and get off the windswept field. So now you know what those strange blue tubes sticking out of the ground are! They are helping to restore one small piece of the giant patchwork that is the Great Fen!

 

Simon

Petals, Jewels and Wellies!

I love this time of year! Actually, to be perfectly honest, I love all times of year, just for different reasons. The clear, bright days of winter are fantastic for walking and taking pictures. But right now, when all the flowers are just starting to come out, I’m seriously excited. What can I say? Girls adore flowers. Gentlemen, take note. The arrival of colour and soft petals after long months of brown, bare branches is such a welcome sight, least of all because it means sunshine will soon be on its way.

The first heralds of spring are the snowdrops, which are out in abundance at the moment. You can’t walk far around here, be it in town or out in the countryside, without seeing their white shining heads. The bluebells won’t be far behind, this carpet of green holds so much promise, in a few weeks it will be a veritable riot of colour.

Everywhere you turn, something fresh and green is pushing its way into being. I swear you can hear things growing if you listen carefully enough!

Even in my back garden, things are changing rapidly. My old friends the daffodils have reappeared and are almost ready to unfurl into glorious yellow trumpets.

The plants aren’t the only treasures you can find at this time of year. If you look closely, there are gossamer threads hung with jewels, glinting merrily in the sunlight.

It really is worth making the effort to get out and stretch your legs, the choice of where to go is endless. We are lucky enough to have pockets of ancient woodland, the wetland of Woodwalton Fen and the rare acid grassland of Holme Fen on the doorstep. Whichever one you choose, I promise you will find something beautiful. However, judging by this …..

… it would probably wise to wear your wellies! Every time I go to a Great Fen event, I see people wearing fantastic ones like these I spotted at Feathers In The Fen last week.

Actually, I’ve seen so many cool pairs, that I’m thinking about holding a ‘Best Wellies’ competition on Facebook. Let me know if you want to get involved in the comments below, or  just post a picture to straight to the Facebook fan page. But be warned, my lovely lilac ones are going to take some beating!

Shabana