As November winds down, and the countdown to Christmas begins in earnest - well it was Advent Sunday last weekend and it is 1 December tomorrow - it's really beginning to feel very wintry at last. We've woken up for the last two days to a thick layer of white frost on the lawns, frozen bird baths in the garden, and crystal clear blue skies, necessitating the need to find the scraper for the car windows before driving carefully to work.
For wildlife, the arrival of frost is a mixed blessing. Plants that spend the winter in various states of dormancy, and hibernating animals, often need the colder temperatures to trigger this change. Cold weather can also reduce the survival rates of parasites and pathogens. However, for those species that chose to tough it out int he UK winter, prolonged cold weather can make life really hard as they struggle to find food.
Luckily, the late November sun has added a welcome warmth to daytime temperatures - making it quite pleasant to stroll around Minsmere - so little food is locked away just yet. The visitor centre feeders have been a real hive of activity as hungry tits, finches, robins, pheasants and magpies have seized the opportunity of an easy meal.
A pheasant outside the visitor centre
Bullfinches have become more visible in the mornings, feeding on berries and buds in North Bushes, and tiny goldcrests have been actively searching for insects and spiders among the scrub.
Although some parts of the Scrape were frozen this morning, there were still plenty of opportunities for the ducks to feed in the deeper water or graze around the banks, accompanied by the odd dunlin, black-tailed godwit or redshank.
The colder weather has made the bitterns a little shier than of late, perhaps seeking the slightly warmer microclimate within the reedbed, though there have still been regular sightings at Island Mere. Marsh harriers can sometimes be seen harassing a fishing otter on the mere, no doubt hoping to steal their kill. Six Bewick's swans are regulars on the mere too.
At lunchtime yesterday I strolled along the North Wall in the most amazing light, and on reaching the beach found that sea was as calm as a millpond, it's surface reflecting the blue sky beautifully. The visibility was exceptional, with great views all the way to Southwold to the north, and out to the huge windfarm south-east from Sizewell. Although our guides had reported good numbers of red-throated divers and great crested grebes int he morning, these had all drifted farther out by early afternoon, but this didn't take away from my enjoyment of the peaceful winter beach.
Minsmere's beach yesterday
With another beautifully calm sunny day today, I enjoyed a change of scenery at lunchtime and drove a couple of miles up the coast to Dunwich. There, I spent an relaxing 20 minutes or so watching huge flocks of seaducks close to the shore. Up to 4000 common scoters have been feeding in Sole Bay for a couple of weeks now, and with them I saw about 25 velvet scoters, at least one of each of scaup, eider and long-tailed duck, a couple of teals and a few great crested grebes and red-throated divers. Such numbers of scoters are unprecedented off the Suffolk coast in recent years, being more typical offshore from the North Norfolk coastline, so it's well worth the short detour to watch them (the cliff just north of Dunwich village car park is the best place to watch them, close to the ruins of Greyfriars Abbey, and a telescope is needed for the best views).
Talking of Dunwich, it's well worth a walk around the nearby Dingle Marshes reserve (which the RSPB manages jointly with Suffolk Wildlife Trust and Natural England). Small flocks of twite and snow buntings may be seen along the shingle ridge between Dunwich and Walberswick, and a couple of great white egrets have been seen within the reedbed this week. If you're not sure how to find Dingle Marshes, please ask at the Minsmere visitor centre.