Lady’s smock or cuckoo flower is aptly named, as once it is in flower, you should be listening out for your first cuckoo of the year. Over the last week, we have been listening to ours return to the Great Fen (always a special occasion), joining many other species including swallow, chiffchaff, willow warbler, blackcap, whitethroat, grasshopper warbler, wheatear, and yellow wagtail.

The wheatears are passing through, but are still a memorable encounter, perched on the bog oaks or running over ploughed fields seeking insects.

The cold nights have meant the moth records are not very numerous, but following on from the excitement last year, we are discovering more sites for the great silver water beetle as we conduct our great crested newt surveys. As always, we are also recording the king diving beetles, but the recolonisation of the Fen by the 'great silvers' is stealing the show!

The cowslips are carpeting the wildflower meadows up at Engine Farm, and other species are starting to show themselves. Common reed shoots are poking up through the peat, but still have a long way to go.

Water voles are active, as are many other mammals, much easier to see while the vegetation is still quite low. We will be conducting extensive surveys for the voles in just a few weeks’ time. If you would like to join in, contact us .

Now that the wildlife is starting to show itself, it is worth thinking about the forthcoming safari at the Fen, the Great Fen Ecotour; book while places are still available.

If you are a regular visitor to the Great Fen, look and listen out for the cuckoos, I would like to receive your records, as well as those for other bird species such as grasshopper warbler and any bird of prey.

Henry Stanier (Great Fen Monitoring & Research Officer)