Not a bird but very much an Ely10 story, Tansy Beetle is hopefully going to make a successful return to the Fen.
Last year I read an article about the re-introduction of Tansy Beetle to Wicken Fen and the recent re-discovery of them at Woodwalton Fen.
I'd never heard of them until then and, aside from the Fenland context, what caught my attention was that their exceptionally limited UK range is along the river banks of my youth just south of York.
So during a visit to my parents earlier this week, armed with some excellent local info from Jono Leadley, I decided to take a stroll down the village to the river and have a look for them. There were several patches of Tansy to look through and each held plenty of these iridescent Beetles. The macro on the snappy Lumix proved to be up to the job and it was great fun watching these green gems go about their business. Definitely worth looking for at Wicken if you see a patch of Tansy, I guess though that the National Trust may well have managed the re-introduction to build a population well away from the public eye which they may then use to populate other suitable areas of the site.
