Although numbers of many of our migrant birds remain low, the variety is increasing rapidly, with several firsts for the year seen over the last couple of days.
The numbers of terns on the Scrape have increased, with up to 100 Sandwich terns roosting and 30+ usually present during the day. These have now been joined by several common terns, with 17 of the latter present today. Hopefully the first little terns will be returning soon - will they like the new shingle islands on South Scrape?
Another highlight of spring on the Scrape in recent years has been the gatherings of kittiwakes gathering material for their nests on the outfall rigs at Sizewell, and up to 50 have been visiting South Scrape over the past week or so. There's still at least 60 Mediterranean gulls and up to three immature Caspian gulls on East Scrape too, plus a few common gulls, so it's well worth checking carefully through the gulls.
Wader migration is also beginning to pick up with sightings this week including ruff, spotted redshank, greenshank, knot, grey and golden plovers, bar-tailed godwits and whimbrels, alongside the regular black-tailed godwits, dunlins and turnstones and, of course, the avocets and lapwings. The latter are nesting close to North Hide, where we've seen the first greylag goose goslings and mallard ducklings this week too. Other ducks include the drake mandarin on West Scrape, and a drake garganey at North Hide yesterday.
Avocet by Karrie Langdon - striking a pose reminiscent of a famous tennis playing model in the 1970s.
A sure sign that spring is advancing towards summer (despite the noticeably cooler weather) is the arrival of our first swifts, and sure enough the first one was seen, bang on cue, at Island Mere today. The first house martin (bar two exceptionally early ones in March) was seen over the sluice too, while the first hobby of the year was finally seen over Island Mere this afternoon. Cuckoos are being reported more regularly around the reserve. A nightingale has finally returned to the area of the old BBC Springwatch studio on Whin Hill (although two or three have been singing on Westleton Heath for several days). Also on Westleton Heath, yesterday saw the arrival of the first purring turtle dove of the spring. A whinchat was at the sluice yesterday, and a yellow wagtail was seen there today.
The Savi's warbler at Island Mere continues to singing intermittently from the SE corner of the mere. The closely related grasshopper warbler, with a very similar buzzing song has become almost equally scarce in recent years, but two were heard over the weekend: one between North Wall and East Hide and the other a few hundred metres south of the sluice. The latter has, unusually, been showing very well at times. A lesser whitethroat is singing in the North Bushes, and the first garden warbler was reported on Saturday, so all our breeding warbler species have now returned.
There are, of course, still a few winter visitors around, including various species of ducks on the Scrape, but most notable was a short-eared owl on the Levels today.
Among our breeding birds, marsh harriers, bearded tits and bitterns all continue to show regularly at Island Mere, the female stone-curlew behind the visitor centre is still looking for a mate (she's viewable from the North Wall) and stonechats and linnets can be seen in the dunes.
Finally, one of our volunteers was lucky enough to photograph two of Minsmere's smaller residents this week.
Wren (above) and bank vole (below) by Karrie Langdon