Driving through the agricultural heartland of the Fens (and much of East Anglia) you never seem to see much if the way of wildlife apart from the odd kestrel and dead rabbit!
As soon as I arrived I was greeted with at least 3 singing corn buntings around the farm buildings and then a couple of fly-over yellow wags (local breeders). Part of the day was a farm walk to look at some of the work that has been going on. It was great to see the skylark using the 'skylark plots' left in the cereal fields and there was loads of lapwing displaying over the fallowed area. Despite frequent hail storms there were good numbers of linnet, yellowhammer, corn bunting in all the fields and even a couple of buzzards over the local woods.
Where there is a will....there is always a way!
This fallowed area had a lapwing nest, 30 linnet, 5 corn bunting and a yellowhammer feeding on it
A small 10x6m bare area in a cereal crop is all you need for a skylark plot - this one has a male displaying over it
The water levels are not great but the wide margins are stuffed full of small mammals. Barn and little owls along with kestrel all nest in boxes about the farm.
Trying to be 'arty' with an oilseed rape field!
After the event, Simon took me on a mystery tours of some very bumpy backroads to look for some common cranes. Despite another sharp shower we managed to see 2 distant birds.
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