I’ve driven past Berry Fen, which lies betwixt the fenland villages of Earith and Bluntisham, dozens of times in my 30+ years in Cambridgeshire. Often when visiting friends out in the sticks but in more recent years, it’s usually been on a trip to the Needingworth side of RSPB Ouse Fen. Well, yesterday a fellow twitter user posted photos of an intriguing wader species that has turned up in the fens – Ruff, Tringa pugnax – so I thought I’d pay the site a visit, he kindly gave me the exact coordinate where he’d observed the birds.
There were two or three Ruff, several courting Lapwings, a Black-tailed Godwit, Redshank, Grey Heron, Little Egret, Moorhen, Mallard, Coot. To be heard in the trees and reeds flanking the flood: Willow Warbler, Cetti’s Warbler, Reed Warbler, Reed Bunting, Whitethroat etc. Oh and my first couple of Common Terns of the year.
Nice patch to visit on a sunny day. You can also take a detour from here to the larger lake at the north end of RSPB Ouse Fen or head for Brownshill Staunch and cross the Great River Ouse to get to the Reedbed Trail of that same reserve where you might catch a glimpse of Bearded Reedling.
