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A little update this evening of some of the action about Blacktoft Sands today - starting with hen harriers and finishing with barn owls. OK - The hen harriers have been showing off and on throughout much of the day down at singleton - with both the male and a ring-tail making an appearance. The...

After much of this week being stuck in the office due to the weather, I went down this afternoon for a look at the reserve. Apart from being completely covered in snow including the car park - there was lots of action from some of our wildlife. Here are some of the highlights: Roe Deer - seen all...

It all started with a meeting with this monster when we emptied the moth tarp - an eyed hawkmoth. So todays numbers with highlights are as follows: 62 species of bird. Top being 3 little gulls on marshland, the pair of garganey on first (once again appearing in the afternoon), black-tailed godwits...

Start with an avocet, find that garganey and then finish with a barn owl! Down on marshland today - 2 little ringed plover, 20 black-tailed godwits, greenshank, redshank, avocets and some lapwings. After sleeping somewhere this morning! (as they do). The garganey moved to first to feed. The often...

So what would you like? Garganey, bittern, black-tailed godwit, barn owl, spotted redshank, water rail, avocet or just a yellow wagtail? Well we have them all and even more! The pair of Garganey that turned up in the storms on Monday were still here today enjoying their time of first lagoon along...

Well what a nice day to visit the reserve at Blacktoft - the sun on the reeds, some nice birds and a place to escape to in the winter! I only spent the last few hours on the reserve today but I had a barn owl - this time at the marshland box. This along with recent sightings of two down at singleton...

After the harsh winter here at Blacktoft Sands, we thought it would be a long time until we saw a barn owl. Yesterday one was spotted flying through the reserve so the good news is that at least one has survived. Not only we had a barn owl we also had a short-eared owl - see the photos in our gallery...

After first been seen on November 1st - we appear to have a fallow deer living at Blacktoft Sands. It was seen quite a few times during the first week of November but then we have had no records until today (Friday 26th) and then it was only seen very briefly out the front of reception. If anybody has...

Todays roost had well over 10 marsh harriers coming in - these 10 were counted from reception at 3:15pm and were all in the air at once! A ring-tail hen harrier also made an appearance around that time. For the roost best to be in postion by 2:30pm at the latest. We also had a male hen harrier seen on...

Pause around the feeding station on approach to reception and start your behaviour spotting. Listen out for the chatty sound of our tree sparrows which are often found in large numbers around our feeding station, that is until the starling sized bird with it undulating flight lands on the nuts. For a...

Approaching 4pm up to 12 marsh harriers start appearing from all different directions. Depending what they feel like they may flap around for a while sometimes with 6 to 9 marsh harriers in the air at once before they decide it is time to get settled for the night in the reeds or they may just drop in...

Ten years ago there was a great starling roost at Blacktoft Sands but for some reason this no longer happens. Sometimes starlings change roost sites - this might be what happened to us. Last year for one night only, 100 starlings decided to roost in the reeds at the reserve - why one night? I cannot...

This afternoon we watched for 45 minutes as a rough-legged buzzard decided to have a fly through Blacktoft Sands. It might of thought this would not be a problem but it quickly picked up a few marsh harriers. These decided that they didn't like this intruder and started mobbing it as it flew into...

With our FEED THE BIRDS OPEN DAY this Sunday 24th October, I thought that we should focus on what you might like to eat. Lets start with insects. They are nice and crunchy and favourites of the 58 black-tailed godwits that are around at the moment. Also liked by our snipe, shoveler, shelduck, redshanks...

After deciding to get up after a night in the reeds of blacktoft, a few of this years young marsh harriers have taken to a bit of chasing of teal around xerox. This game went on for much of yesterday morning. When the light starts to go between 4pm and 6pm around 10 marsh harriers have been seen recently...

There are now over 100 snipe on the reserve at the moment - favouring marshland / xerox. High tide this weekend has brought a lot of water onto the reserve so many of the waders have moved up to ousefleet to make use of the new shallow wet edges. This morning there were lots of lapwing, black-tailed...

Our male marsh harriers have been busy this week hunting for food for our females. It is an amazing experience watching the male quickly flying in carrying some item of prey, then he calls her off the nest before passing this prey item to her in an amazing food pass in mid air. This spectacle can be...