Volunteering at Minsmere - 18th January 2015

Last Sunday, I was volunteering at Minsmere for the day, and was really lucky to spend the day with a lady called Davene and her husband Steve.

We started off at Bittern Hide, where the lake was still frozen and there was a definite chill in the air. A single Mute Swan was resting on the only part of flowing water, but apart from that there was nothing. However, the sudden pinging of Bearded Tits alerted us to group of 9 in the far corner of the lake. Then, a Bittern flew in, but landed out of sight, followed by the first 3 Marsh Harriers of the day. A Sparrowhawk then came into view and sat in a tree near the Bearded Tits. Obviously, one bird was too busy feeding, and it was taken by the Sparrowhawk. How sad.... Here are some shots of the live birds!!!

Island Mere produced 3 Otters, another Bittern but no sign of the 2 Whooper Swans that were reported the previous day. Marsh Harriers were showing well, and there were some cracking Snipe in front of the hide however - I counted 8 in total. Also, the Teal were looking rather dapper!

The scrape in the afternoon held 2 Med Gull, the redhead Smew (not seen by me) but nothing else of note. I must say the cake in the visitor centre is lush!

In brief, had 1 female Goshawk and 8 Woodlark in an undisclosed site in the brecks, and a cracking Red Kite elsewhere on Sunday with our good friend David Walsh!

Happy Birding!