A day out today to meet Heather's brother Malcolm and wife Maureen. As they live in Hertfordshire and are also birders we decided to meet up at Willow Tree Fen which is about half way. We had already seen cranes together at Hickling Broad back in March but the weather then had been apalling so we hoped for better conditions today.
The Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust bought Willow Tree Fen in 2009. Until then it had been typical fenland farming country cropped with beans and cereal. Once farming stopped and drainage channels blocked it quickly reverted to a more traditional fenland landscape of shallow meres, seasonally flooded pastures, hay meadows and reedbeds. Nature quickly returned with typical wetland species now thriving including lapwings, which put on a wonderful display for us, redshank, skylark, marsh harrier, waterfowl and even otter. A management strategy used at Willow Tree Fen is grazing with cattle from April to November. This maintains the open conditions and prevents the reserve reverting to scrub. Dragonflies have settled in and they, in turn attract hobby which we were lucky enough to see. In 2020 when it was free from disturbance a pair of cranes bred on the reserve, a first for 400 years in Lincolnshire. This original pair are now resident and have bred for the fourth year and they have been joined by two other pairs.
Although there is no longer a walking route around the reserve in order to avoid disturbance, the car park/viewing area gives excellent views over the whole reserve. When we arrived it was manned by two volunteers who explained what was about and pointed out where the three pairs of cranes were. They were not too optimistic about our chances of seeing the birds as the grasses and reeds have grown tall enough to hide them. However, we hadn't been there long before one popped its head up and then eventually gave excellent views as it flew across the reserve to give us much closer sightings which were especially good through the 'scope. I even managed a few distant photographs as record shots. Later we spotted the original resident pair moving through the wet meadow further to our right.
As well as the excitement of watching the cranes there was plenty of other activity. Marsh harriers were regular sightings during our time there and we had a couple of sightings of hobby flying through. Lapwings provided a spectacle with their displaces over the mere in front of us and here there were also mallards with young, gadwall and shoveler. There was also a rogue crow which had realised that the ducklings made easy pickings and we saw it with a squirrel, either caught or road kill.
We completed an excellent day with tea and mammoth cheese scones at nearby Vine House Farm, famous for being producers of bird seed.
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