A close encounter to remember

Working at Minsmere has many benefits, not least the regular close contact with nature that I can experience on a lunchtime stroll. Even simply listening to singing chaffinches or looking at the flowing hawthorn is enough to remind me what a wonderful job I have.

But every so often at Minsmere we all have a close wildlife encounter that lingers in the memory, and yesterday I experienced one of those days.

I should have known it was going to be a good day when a low flying buzzard, pursued by crows, swooped along the entrance road, just below canopy height as I arrived for work. It was incredibly close to my colleagues' car just in front of me, and gave us a superb view as it banked back up through the trees.

My lunchtime walk to South Hide began quietly enough under darkening skies that threatened rain which luckily didn't really materialise. Looking across the Scrape from Wildlife Lookout I spotted the expected avocets, black-headed gulls and common terns as well as a few gadwalls, mallards, shelducks and barnacle and Canada geese. Looking more close I found three Mediterranean gulls, then a lovely drake shoveler flew in. The first baby black-headed gulls are hatching too, and no doubt our avocet chicks will soon be hatching.

Continuing my walk, I admired flowering garlic mustard, cow parsley and a small clump of bush vetch whilst listening to reed, sedge and Cetti's warblers in full song as sand martins and swallows dashed overhead.

At South Hide I enjoyed good views of common and little terns, more avocets and black-headed gulls and several displaying redshanks. Most of the migrant waders had moved on north over the last couple days, but singles of each of knot, grey plover and bar-tailed godwit remained - all in winter plumage - and a couple of common sandpipers fed on one island. My target here was a reported curlew sandpiper, which took some locating but I eventually found with the help of a telescope hastily borrowed from a visiting birdwatcher. This is a scarce passage migrant, usually easier to see in the autumn, so I was I was particularly pleased to spot it.

As I made my way slowly back towards the office I kept my eyes peeled for a hunting marsh harrier or perhaps a swift or two over the reedbed, but passing Wildlife Lookout my eyes were drawn to something dashing at high speed close to the tops of the pathside alders and willows. A call drew my eyes upwards just as the female peregrine - for that was the what I had glimpsed - almost locked talons with a smaller bird of prey. My first thought was that it was a smaller male peregrine, possibly passing food to the female, but as the smaller bird banked right I clearly saw the red "trousers" that identified it as a hobby. The peregrine circled upwards and away, disappearing into the cloud, while the hobby headed towards Bittern Hide, presumably in pursuit of tasty damselflies.

Hobby by John Chapman

I'm not exactly sure what led to this amazingly close encounter, but smaller birds of prey regularly mob larger ones that they see as a threat - a peregrine could easily catch a hobby if it so wished. However, as the peregrine was carrying food, which appeared to be a bird, my best guess is that they were arguing over a kill. Either the peregrine had caught the bird that the hobby was hunting (a sand martin perhaps), or maybe even the peregrine had stolen the hobby's meal. Either way, I'm certain that I'll never again see these two masters of the air in such close company barely ten metres above my head.

Of course there are many other close wildlife encounters that be had on any visit to Minsmere. Our water vole has been showing well at the pond today, and the sand martins are busily nesting nearby. With the BBC Springwatch team setting up for their latest series we hope to bring you plenty of exciting action to your TV screens. The first show airs on Monday 30 May, with programmes scheduled for every Monday to Thursday evening until 16 June. 

Minsmere will, of course, remain open as usual throughout the broadcast period, with only local closures of trails around the studio area during the live programmes. Why not come along and see what you can spot?