I often write in these blogs about counting Minsmere's wildlife, whether for breeding bird surveys, roost counts or simply counts based on observations from our volunteer guides. For example, our guides have been diligently counting lapwings this week, with more than 500 present on the Scrape. Now it's your turn.
This weekend sees the return of the annual RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch, where we ask you to spend an hour counting your garden birds. It really is that simple. Sit back with a cup of tea and watch the birds visiting your feeders during any single hour over the weekend. For each individual species, all you need to record is the biggest count during that hour. This avoids the possibility of double counting the same bird.
Big Garden Birdwatch began as a count for our junior members in 1979, when thanks to being featured on BBC Blue Peter our postbag was bursting with entries. As a junior member myself back then I was one of the enthusiastic children who took part.
As the popularity of the survey grew, and the value of the data gathered became more obvious, we expanded the Big Garden Birdwatch and opened it to everyone. Last year more than half a million people took part, recording millions of individual birds. Please help us to gather as much information about our garden wildlife as possible by taking part this weekend. And it is garden wildlife, as we now ask you how often certain mammals, reptiles and amphibians visit your garden.
You can register to part, and submit your results by following the links from www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch. So get counting.
Blue tit by Ray Kennedy (rspb-images.com)
I'm glad I'm not trying to count the birds visiting our feeders, which include at least 50 chaffinches, 20 blue tits and 20 great tits at any one time, plus various other species. I will be counting at home though, and hope that our goldfinches and long-tailed tits pay their usual visit, along with up to 40 starlings. Will anything unusual appear, as a goldcrest did last year.
Meanwhile, here at Minsmere this week's counts have included 24 golden plovers on the Scrape today, up to 35 tufted ducks and 14 pintails on the Scrape, as well as several black-tailed godwits, curlews, redshanks and dunlins alongside the lapwings and commoner ducks. Six whooper swans commute between Island Mere and the reedbed pools, and up to 28 Bewick's swans occasionally visit the reserve having been feeding near Leiston. Two tundra bean geese and upto 180 white-fronts have been on the Levels, though they appear to have moved to North Warren this week.
Offshore we've had sightings of common and grey seals, guillemots, common socter and red-throated divers, but thankfully no stranded sperm whales. Another red-throated diver has settled on the pool behind South Hide today.
In the reedbed, bitterns, marsh harriers, otters and kingfishers continue to be seen, with a water vole regular on the pond.
Water vole by Jon Evans