Kingfishers Bridge Nature Reserve

👻 🧙‍♀️ Trick or treat? 🦇 🎃

It's TREATS ONLY at Kingfishers Bridge this Halloween, with all sorts of family fun for just £3/person, plus fabulous food from @thekingfishercafe.bsky.social!

🕒 3-8 pm, Friday 31 October

📲 Book now at kingfishers-bridge-nature-reserve.sumupstore.com/category/eve...

Purple background festooned with pumpkins, bats, ghosts, witches' hats. The text in orange and black reads, "Join us for HALLOWEEN. Creepy craft making, pumpkin carving, toasted marshmallows, face painting from 5pm, spooky stories from 6pm, jacket potatoes and yummy cakes. Fri 31st Oct, 3pm – 8 pm"

👻 Dare you visit us after dark on Halloween? 🕷️

🎃 Join us for freaky family fun and fab food from @thekingfishercafe.bsky.social, 3–8pm on Friday 31 October 🧙‍♀️

🎟️ Tickets just £3/person (free parking)
🥔 Baked potatoes £5–£7.50

🦇 Book: kingfishers-bridge-nature-reserve.sumupstore.com/product/hall...

Yes, that's 10% on all your café favourites, from cakes to milkshakes — and free parking!

It's a bargain: sign up now!

Become a Supporter of Kingfishers Bridge for just £45/household/year to get:

📰 Regular updates about the Reserve
🥾Priority booking and 10% discount on Guided Walks
🍰 10% discount @thekingfishercafe.bsky.social
🚗 Free onsite parking
💕 Our deepest thanks

www.kingfishersbridge.org/become-a-sup...

‼️ Last call for this Sunday's Bat Walk at 6:45 pm! We have 5 spaces. The rest are sold out

🦇🌒 🦉 What better way to keep the mellow weekend vibe going than venturing deep into the Reserve at dusk, led by our expert Warden?

👩‍💻 Book at kingfishers-bridge-nature-reserve.sumupstore.com/product/even...

I’m really excited to have some of my cards on sale at Kingfisher’s Bridge, a beautiful nature reserve between Cambridge and Ely. They do lovely coffee and cake, too! ☕️

🎁 If you're looking for hand-made, ethical cards and gifts by local artists and craftspeople, do drop into our Visitor Centre shop. We're open 7 days a week now, 10am – 4pm.

💗 We're thrilled to stock some of @katiefullerart.bsky.social beautiful greetings cards in our Visitor Centre shop!
👩‍🎨 Katie is a really talented local printmaker who uses innovative techniques and inks to highlight Fenland wildlife. All printed on sustainable materials in compostable packaging too!

👩‍🍳 Our Katey's been baking for the weekend!

🧀 Cheese scones & fruit scones
🍪 Choc chip cookies
🤎 Vegan Biscoff loaf
🤍 White choc blondies
🍰 Victoria sponge

👍 And our ever-popular Tiffin is next up!

🥾🐾 Come and fill your boots before and/or after a walk on the Reserve. We're open every day 10am-4pm

Text: "Evening Bat Walks, Autumn 20245. £15 per person. Includes expert insights from our Warden, parking, and a hot drink from the Kingfisher Café. Book now at www.kingfishersbridge.org". Background: photograph of Kingfishers Bridge Nature Reserve at sunset, with a picnic table on grass in the foreground, and an orange sun setting over dark trees in the background. The sky fades upwards from cloudy grey to lighter blue

⚠️ We've only got a few places left on this season's Bat Walks, so if you're keen to come, you'd better grab 'em fast!

🦇 this Sunday, 29 September, 6:45 pm — FIVE tickets left
🦇 Saturday 4 October, 6:3pm — just TWO remaining

🗓️ Book at kingfishers-bridge-nature-reserve.sumupstore.com/product/even...

❎ Sat 11/10 and Sat 25/10 already SOLD OUT!

✅ Still plenty of availability on Sunday 28 September and Saturday 4 October.

🛼 But get your skates on if you're interested in booking, as our Bat Walks always sell out fast. Details below ⤵️

🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇

Text: Evening Bat Walks, Autumn 2025. £15 per person. Includes expert insights from our Warden, parking, and a hot drink from the Kingfisher Café. Book now at www.kingfishersbridge.org. Background photo: the sun setting over the river Cam at Kingfishers Bridge Nature Reserve. Green meadows and a picnic bench in the foreground, trees on the horizon, a line of bright orange sky fading to blue with grey and white clouds.

🦇 Bat walks are BACK 🌙🦇

🙋If you're bats about bats, book right now, as our ever-popular twilight trips into the Reserve always sell fast:

🗓️ Sun 28/9, 6:45pm
Sat 4/10, 6:30 pm
Sat 11/10, 6:15pm
Sat 25/10, 5:45pm — only 3 places left!

kingfishers-bridge-nature-reserve.sumupstore.com/product/even...

Friday morning, fresh from the oven:

🌿 hearty vegan sausage rolls
🍪 rich triple-choc cookies
🧀 cheese scones and fruit scones

🍰 and a classic Victoria sponge-to-be is next!

☕ 🥪Plus hot & cold drinks, paninis, milk shakes, ice creams... everything you need to fuel an autumn walk on the Reserve 🥾🐾

✅ Amazingly, the A10 bridge work at Waterbeach has finished EARLY, so no need for complex route planning if you’re intending to visit us from the south this weekend 👍

Feeding time on the River Lea.

Watch as this female kingfisher down on Hackney Marshes tries to feed a fish to one of her youngsters.

You can also clearly see how much brighter the plumage of the adult is.

#LondonBirds #nature #wildlife #kingfisher #kingfishers #hackney #riverlea #ukbirds #birds

White shelves against a dark green wall in Kingfishers Bridge Visitor Centre shop. The central rack holds eight rows of greetings cards featuring wildlife paintings by botanical illustrator Tina Bone, on sale for just £3 each. On the left are CDs and glass art; on the right are jewellery and a range of books on wetland ecology, also illustrated by Tina.

The front cover of a white wall calendar, titled "Some of Nature's Gems... Poems and Pictures. 2026 Calendar by Tina Bone". The main illustration is a blue and orange kingfisher amongst plants including yellow flags. Smaller illustrators are of red berries, black wild pansies, and a wren amongst white flowers. Available to purchase at Kingfishers Bridge Visitor Centre shop for just £8.75

A large print in a white surround, showing two Great Crested Grebes swimming. The label at top left says: "Artist: TINA BONE. Title: PEARLY KING AND QUEEN. Medium: LIMITED EDITION PRINT 10/350. Price: £40." Available to buy at Kingfishers Bridge Nature Reserve Visitor Centre shop.

An A5 sized greeting card with a white envelope behind, showing and adult hare in a green field guarding a nest of four leverets in the foreground. The label at top right says: "A5 Greetings Card. Blank inside. £3.00. Handcrafted and published by Tina's Fine Art, uk." Available to buy at Kingfishers Bridge Nature Reserve Visitor Centre shop.

🛍️ Our Visitor Centre shop now stocks gorgeous cards, calendars and prints by the immensely talented Tina Bone of Tina's Fine Arts.

🎨 A botanical illustrator based in Comberton, Tina specialises in East Anglian and wetland wildlife.

😍 Too many to share here: come and choose for yourself! £3–£75

Same again this weekend folks: if you normally visit us via the A10 from Waterbeach or further south, you'll need to find an alternative route. We're open as usual!

🐃 Visitors often ask why we keep Asian Water Buffalo on the Reserve. We explain that they fill a vital ecological niche left by extinct wild cattle, managing fenland habitat.

🦬 It’s hard to believe that Steppe Bison once roamed East Anglia, but here’s some wonderful evidence that they did ⬇️

A black water buffalo stands sideways on in grassland with hedges behind, looking straight at the camera at Kingfishers Bridge Nature Reserve

Meadowland with trees on the horizon under a blue sky with mackerel clouds at at Kingfishers Bridge Nature Reserve

A hedge, wooden gate and golden grassland with trees behind, as the sun shines though light cloud at Kingfishers Bridge Nature Reserve

Coffee, milkshake and food on white plates on the wooden counter of The Kingfisher Cafe, drinks fridge and door in the background. at Kingfishers Bridge Nature Reserve

😎 What a glorious day to be out on the Reserve!

👒 Bring sun cream, water, a hat and binoculars, and make the most of our woodland walks and riverside willows as well as the big open skies 🏞️

👀 What will you see on your visit? 🐴🦋🐃🌸🐝🌿🪶

☕️🍦🍰🌮 And @thekingfishercafe.bsky.social is open 10-4 every day!

Looking north across meadows and mere through trees towards Ely Cathedral, with dramatic clouds in a blue sky

Some people call the Fens ‘big skies’ country. Great clouds on a beautiful morning at @kingfishersbridge.bsky.social today, plus

☑️ 3 ravens
☑️ prolonged bittern fly-past
☑️ spotted flycatcher
☑️ lesser whitethroat
☑️ marsh harrier

Triple-choc cupcakes and Victoria sponge layers cooling under white covers on the wooden counter of the Kingfisher Café's kitchen

Ace cook Zoe icing a Victoria sponge, with a black cake mixer in the background and a cake rack in the foreground, on the wooden counter of the Kingfisher Café's kitchen

Seven triple-choc cupcakes on a white plate on the wooden counter of the Kingfisher Café, viewed from above

Triple-choc cupcakes on a white plate in front and an iced Victoria sponge behind on the wooden counter of the Kingfisher Café. Drinks fridge and coffee machine in the background.

🤍💛🤎 Victoria Sponge and triple-choc cupcakes, from kitchen to café counter today — and to YOUR plate this weekend?

Plus all the usual deliciousness: paninis, brownies, blondies, drinks, ice creams...

⚠️ (Don't forget: the A10 is closed from Waterbeach to Stretham this weekend: visit us via Wicken!)

Our water buffaloes aren't just easy on the eye. Their grazing of the wildflower meadows creates the perfect habitat for ground-nesting waders and a wealth of chalkland flora and invertebrates 😍🐃🦋🐦

#buffhello #waterbuffalo #cambridgeshirefens #wildlifefirstconservation

⚠️A gentle reminder that the A10 north of Waterbeach will be closed from 8pm on Friday to the early hours of Monday morning this weekend

⤴️ Visit us from Cambridge via Wicken instead. We’ll be open as usual!

Installation of new A10 bridge near Waterbeach: Road closures the first three weekends of September - Waterbeach Installation of new A10 bridge near Waterbeach: Road closures the first three weekends of September while the new bridge is installed.

🚧 Road closure alert! A10 on September weekends: PLAN AHEAD

🚘 Do you visit us from Waterbeach or further south, and come up the A10 to Stretham to reach us?

📅 On 6-7, 13-14 and 20-21 September you'll need to come via Wicken instead.

👍 We'll be open as usual!

A Bank vole (Myodes glareolus) amongst the fallen autumn leaves today in Cambridge.

Happy #InternationalBatNight !!!!
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We've compiled some bat facts to celebrate and raise awareness of bats. Share your favourite image or let us know in the comments other bat facts you love.
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For more bat facts and ideas to help bats this weekend visit: www.bats.org.uk/support-bats...

White cotton tea towels with a blue Eels and Stars motif, by Tales from the Fen, on sale now in the Kingfishers Bridge Visitor Centre shop.

Photographic prints of buffalos, dragonflies and the local landscape, by local artists, on shelves in the Kingfishers Bridge Visitor Centre shop

Square greetings cards with eel and swan motifs, by Tales from the Fen, stacked in a white holder against a green wall, on sale now in the Kingfishers Bridge Visitor Centre shop.

Shelves displaying the eight titles in the River Friend book series by Tina Bone, with candles on the shelf above and jewellery on the shelf below, all on sale now in the Kingfishers Bridge Visitor Centre shop.

🆕 We're re-stocking the shop in our Visitor Centre!

📚 River Friend books by Tina Bone
🌌 Stars and Eels tea towels by Tales from the Fen
✉️ Gorgeous greeting cards by Tales from the Fen
🎨 Prints by other talented local artists

😍 And more to come over the next few weeks. Come and see for yourself!

The counter of the Kingfisher Cafe, with blackboard showing prices on the left, cakes and crisps on the counter, and the coffee machine and drinks fridge in the background

Three-layer coffee and walnut cake, with piped icing, on a white plate in a Tupperware container, on the counter of the Kingfisher Cafe, with drinks fridge in the background

Triple-choc chip cookies and Rocky Road on a white plate under a mes cover decorated with strawberries, on counter of the Kingfisher Cafe

Vegan Biscoff loaf being tested for readiness, by a baker using a skewer. The loaf is on the rack of an open oven at the Kingfisher Cafe.

☔ Need to shake off this sudden autumn weather? We've been baking just for you!

☕ Coffee & walnut cake
🍒 Cherry Bakewell blondies
🍪 Oreo cheesecake brownies
👩‍🍳 Vegan Biscoff loaf fresh from the oven!
🪨 Rocky road, triple choc chip cookies

🥪 Plus hot drinks and paninis in our cosy Visitor Centre 🥰

A woodland floor, covered in late summer undergrowth. A few pieces of plastic sapling protectors are just visible. At Kingfishers Bridge Nature Reserve.

woodland floor, covered in late summer undergrowth. Five pieces of plastic sapling protectors are just visible but have also been circled in red. At Kingfishers Bridge Nature Reserve.

A pair of black socks, held in one hand, wearing a yellow and red glove. There are trees in the background. The floor is bare earth. At Kingfishers Bridge Nature Reserve.

A large, shiny brown and gold goat moth caterpillar, lying on bare soil. At Kingfishers Bridge Nature Reserve.

👏 Dedicated volunteer Fade Vilkos has spent the summer collecting up old plastic sapling protectors, now almost hidden in our mature woodlands 🌳

He's turned up some other surprises along the way 🧦 but we reckon this gorgeous, huge goat moth caterpillar is his best find so far 😍

Don't forget - we are open today 10 -4 @kingfishersbridge.bsky.social and we want to feed you!