May 6th Minsmere

Speckled Wood

I am at Minsmere on my own today after a frustratingly long detoured journey to get to the reserve. Mum was kind enough to offer me a lift here, but we had know idea there was a detour until it was too late. Unfortunately for Mum, she had to drive all the way back along the detour so that she could visit her sister near Lowestoft. For me, however, it was sunshine and birds all the way.

View of the beach at Minsmere

As I was walking down to the beach, the reedbeds and bushes on either side of the path were full of bird song with the odd bird appearance amongst the dense vegetation. Sedge warblers, whitethroats and reed buntings were singing from within the branches of small shrubs and trees, while bearded tits played peek-a-boo amongst the reeds, rarely staying in view for long. I even heard a bittern booming close by. I saw a seal in the sea, which looked almost Mediterranean, while stonechats and linnets were posing atop of fence posts and reed stems. Sand martins were whizzing past me along the sand dunes. They kept surprising me as the came down to the ground to collect sand to build their nests with. They were only on the ground for a second at a time before returning into the air, too quick for me to get my camera onto them in time.

Whitethroat

Sedge Warbler

Reed Bunting

Female Stonechat

Male Stonechat

Linnet

Common Tern

 From East Hide, common terns and black-headed gulls dominated the islands at the scrapes. Most of these birds were now sitting on eggs. Others (mainly the terns) were resting on posts and on the islands before setting off out to sea again to hunt for fish. Amongst the gulls and terns on the scrapes today were avocets, godwits, turnstones, oystercatchers, feral barnacle geese, redshanks and a little tern.

Avocet

Barnacle Goose

Little Tern

Turnstone

Oystercatcher

Redshank

Pied Wagtail

Black-headed Gull

Sand Martins

 The sand martins were buzzing around the sand cliff adjacent to the visitor centre as I returned for lunch at the cafe. After lunch, I was walking down towards Island Mere Hide along the adder trail, when I heard the powerful, yet delightful song of a nightingale somewhere in the direction of the Springwatch building. Though it sounded slightly distant, you could still hear it well. I was hoping to get a lot closer after I had visited the hide, but it had stopped singing by the time I had got to the top of the hill.

Otter (not Nessie!)

While I was at Island Mere Hide, bearded tits were darting amongst the reeds surrounding, pinging as they did so, alerting you to their presence. I also saw a hobby, the next generation of Spineless Si the stickleback, little grebes, marsh harriers, the sound of a booming bittern and a brief view of a distant otter at the back of the mere. The otter was only up at the surface a second at a time before diving again, but I did manage to get this dodgy shot of it, though you could easily claim it for a shot of the Loch Ness Monster! As I was returning to the visitor centre to wait for Mum to pick me up (and to get through the annoying detour) and after failing to hear the nightingale again, great spotted woodpeckers were drumming in the surrounding woods. It has been a great day at Minsmere, but it was time to get round that detour again and head for home.

Cuckooflower

Marsh Harrier

Moorhen

Little Grebe

Rabbit