Short Eared Owls

The light was shit and the visibility was dire but the short eared owls were out and about over Burwell Fen.

Buzzards

These three seemed to be having a bit of a difference of opinion over Stockers Lake on Sunday.

Kingfisher family

Well this was interesting! An adult kingfisher, with a fish in its mouth, and a pair of plump juveniles. The adult flew off moments later (didn't see if it gave one of the juveniles the fish or if it ate it) but the young 'uns stayed on the branch posturing for several minutes, until we left them to their own devices.

Warblers

Sedge warbler

We often hear the warblers but don't often see them - but yesterday we saw both the reed and sedge warblers. There were a couple of pairs of the reed warblers, all very busy, darting around a patch of reeds and into the trees and back. Very fast moving and hard to get a proper lock on with the camera!

Reed warbler

Tern feeding

Target spotted

Stockers Lake is very well supplied with bugs at the moment. Mayflies, dragonflies, who knows what else. It's making the bug eating birds very happy. The terns were being particularly acrobatic in pursuit of them today.

Grebe v Crayfish

This one is from last weekend. It took a while, but the great crested grebe won. The other grebe tried to help but this one was not interested in sharing.

Hybrid mallard

Now this is really interesting to me - I saw this fella today while walking around Stockers Lake and was totally confused. Mallard drake head and tail, and chestnut feathers in between? Not at all familiar. So when I got home I did some reading and discovered that mallards hybridise quite freely. So I am assuming that one of his parents was a mallard and one was something else. Or he's from an escaped domesticated strain, bred to have different plumage. Either way, he's very striking looking.