So I headed up together with Simon Hales who very kindly offered to drive for the day, leaving his house in Irthlingborough shortly after 7am. Was a dead easy drive over, in bright sunshine. Two hours later, we arrived and began our search.
It appeared a great day for them although there appeared to be a fair bit of wind about. After a quick look by the visitor centre, we set off to do a circuit of the reserve. 15-20 minutes had gone by when, by the side of the path I noticed some movement in the corner of my eye...my first Swallowtail!! Was a little tatty but was super happy to see one with very little effort. It posed on a flag iris for a short while before we left to hopefully find some more.
It was a scorching day but as suspected, out on the fen, it was pretty breezy. The full circuit produced several Marsh Harriers, plenty of warblers and a couple of Hobby, but no more Swallowtail.
Returning to the visitor centre, we were pleased to find a Swallowtail on the flowers here. It showed really well although it was flipping energetic and just wouldn't stay still. I watched and enjoyed, before getting a couple of decent photos. Again, it was sadly a little tatty but hey ho!
We made several visits to the nearby Doctor's garden, a gorgeous little place on the edge of the reserve. It's a little cottage owned by a lovely old chap with a strip of flower bed immaculately kept for the butterflies, particularly the Swallowtails. Furthermore, he encourages people to walk into the garden and view the butterflies which is just great!
There were plenty of butterflies including a showy Painted Lady, Brimstones, Peacocks, Large Whites, Small Tortoiseshells and a Large Skipper.
It took us a good 2-3 looks there before eventually, a super hyper, immaculate-looking Swallowtail appeared, buzzing around the flowers for several minutes before zooming off again.
We walked up to the long, grassy path at the NE end several times, a productive area for Simon the previous week. We managed quite a few Swallowtail sightings, mostly in flight, as well as basking on the top of reeds. They flew past pretty regularly, zooming round us really close several times. We probably saw at least 4 here, maybe more.
It got to the point mid-afternoon where we decided to make a move and get over to Lakenheath RSPB reserve, a slight diversion on the way home for the long-staying, barking Little Bittern, a new bird for us both.
I always forget what a long walk it is up to the western end of the reserve, but there are certainly worse walks! The air was filled with scratching Reed Warblers, a Garden Warbler and a couple of Cuckoos on the way up, as well as 3 migrant Painted Lady along the path.
We arrived in the area, not far from the Joist Fen Viewpoint and began staking out the area of reeds the Little Bittern had been residing in. No more than a couple of minutes later, the bird began 'barking'. This alone was fantastic and genuinely does sound like a gruff dog bark. You can hear an example of it here: http://www.british-birdsongs.uk/little-bittern
He was consistently barking for the next half hour or so. THEN my phone rings, it's my girlfriend Em. What do I do?! Well...the wrong thing (sorry Em!), I answered. Sod's law then of course comes into play and while talking to her, only for a short while, the Little Bittern flys out of the reeds and travels a short distance to the left. Bloody typical! I did feel slightly better, as only a handful of the 20 or so people watching actually saw it and Simon missed it too! Most were distracted by a pair of Common Terns flying around right in front of us.
We moved a little left along the path to view the general area where it had landed and began waiting again, still cursing my luck, though you have to just laugh! A standard Bittern began booming distantly from beyond the Joist viewpoint. The odd Marsh Harrier cruised past and there were several Reed Warbler darting around the reeds closeby.
A little while later the bird began barking again before going silent for a short while. Suddenly the guy next to me shouts "there it is, at the back right of the pool!" I was looking around with my bins and couldn't see anything in the air. I then realised it was there out in the flipping open perched half way up the reeds at the back of the small pool in front! YES! We enjoyed good views of it for around a minute, then just when I went to grab my camera it flew a little way to the right and then dropped down into the reeds. We were so lucky with the views we had, both perched and in flight. Always though, you're going to be greedy and I wish I had enough time to grab a couple of pics! Nevermind!
We stayed around a little longer hearing it bark a little more. Those with pagers then got news of a Collared Pratincole from Joist Fen viewpoint. What??! We scooted the 50m or so up there straight away. A couple of people were there but knew nothing of it!
We all began scanning but saw nothing other than several Cuckoos. Before long, a guy came rushing round from the path down the side of Joist Fen. He had been watching it hawking over the reeds and seemed to know what he was talking about. We scanned and scanned but still nothing and we then had to make a move to back home at a decent time.
So missed out on an unexpected lifer but couldn't complain having seen my first Swallowtails and Little Bittern. A top day with great company, we then headed home to nurse our sun burn!
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