What a contrast this week. After a horribly wet, windy start to the week, the last couple of days have brought gorgeous blue skies and pleasantly warm sunshine, making a walk around the reserve much more enjoyable.
One benefit of the wet weather has been t speed up the re-wetting of the Scrape following the completion of the delayed Life on the Edge-funded Scrape Enhancement Project. Our contractors had spent a couple of weeks finishing the reprofiling work that had been delayed last year, while our wardens have cut the tall vegetation from all of the banks and islands. With water levels rising, and all-round viewing much improved, the Scrape now looks perfect for birdwatching - as can be seen from these photos of West Scrape from Wildlife Lookout this afternoon.
With the rising water levels, many seeds are now floating in the shallows, providing perfect conditions for Teal and Shoveler, in particular, while there has been a noticeable arrival of Wigeon to graze the banks and islands on South Scrape. The first couple of Pintails of the autumn have returned, too.
While duck numbers may be increasing, wader migration is more or less finished, with just a few Green Sandpipers and Knot present today, alongside the remaining six Avocets and a flock of Black-tailed Godwits. The Little Stint remained until Wednesday but there has been no sign of the Temminck's Stint since the weekend.
The stormy weather at the start of the week proved perfect for seawatching, and Monday was the day the we nickname "Brent Goose Day". The exact date can never be predicted, but there is always one day during the autumn when flock of flock of Dark-bellied Brent Geese stream south, low over the waves, usually in flocks of between ten and one hundred birds. With these geese, there are often flocks of Wigeon, Teal and other ducks, but the first few days of the week also brought sightings of several species that can be tricky to see from Minsmere's beach - without hours of dedicated watching and the use of a good telescope. The highlights were 20+ Sooty Shearwaters, plus Long-tailed and Arctic Skuas, a Great Northern Diver, a Red-breasted Merganser and several Gannets.
Equally tricky to seem but for completely different reasons, were up to two Yellow-browed Warblers in the Sluice Bushes. These are tiny olive-green warblers, not much bigger than a Goldcrest, and only two or three are seen at Minsmere each year.
Yellow-browed Warblers are one of the "leaf" warblers, belonging in the same family as Chiffchaffs and Willow Warblers. They are best distinguished from these more familiar cousins by the more obvious pale eyebrow and a narrow pale wingbars. Yellow-browed Warblers breed in Siberia and usually winter in SE Asia, but increasing numbers have chosen to migrate in the opposite direction, possibly exploring potential new wintering areas, or they have been blown off course by unfavourable winds, and these birds often arrive on the East coast during autumn storms.
Being such tiny birds, they can be hard to spot, especially in thick vegetation, heavy rain and strong winds, but many birdwatchers were lucky enough to see them this week. I only managed a breif view, and no photo, so here's a picture from a few years ago to show you what they look like.
As well as the Yellow-browed Warblers, there have been sightings of other typical autumn migrants, including Goldcrests, Blackcaps, Siskins, Meadow Pipits and a Wheatear, while the first Short-eared Owl of the autumn was seen around the Chapel Field yesterday.
Two birds that are synonymous with October, for me, are Jay and Bearded Tit. Jays have become much easier to spot over the last few weeks as they gather the rich supply of acorns and sweet chestnuts to store for the winter - if they can beat the Grey Squirrels to them! Bearded Tits are now forming large family gatherings and noisy flocks can be seen erupting from the reedbed, especially on calm mornings like today. The North Wall and Island Mere areas are particularly good places to look, while around South Hide they will often fly down tot he path to ingest fine grit that helps to grind down the reed seeds in their gizzard.
One of our volunteers, David Naylor, took this superb photograph of a male Bearded Tit at Island Mere this week.
Several Hobbies remain, hunting Common Darter and Migrant Hawker dragonflies over the reedbed and along the woodland edge, with Marsh Harriers, Buzzards, Sparrowhawks and Kestrels also seen around the reedbed. Great Egrets and Bitterns continue to be seen daily, and Otters were seen several times during Monday's rain. There are also still several Great Crested Grebes, Coots, Pochards and Tufted Ducks at Island Mere, plus the odd sighting of a Kingfisher. I particularly like this fabulous formation flight shot of seven of the Pochards, again taken by David Naylor this week.
Whilst I'm talking about the reedbed, many of our regular visitors will be pleased to know that the wardens and volunteers have been busy cutting the reeds at Bittern Hide this week to open up the pools and provide more opportunities to watch Bitterns, Kingfishers and Water Rails feeding in the open. This week, they will turn their attention to doing the same at Island Mere, where work parties will be busy on Tuesday and Thursday.
Talking of Island Mere, I have to include this comedy photo by David Naylor of a Moorhen struggling down the sloping rail in front of the hide. The cormorants aren't to pleased to have broken their favourite perch, either.
Finally, I make no apologies for indulging myself and showing you a couple of my latest photos of our incredibly obliging Kestrels, this time a male that was perched along Digger Alley yesterday. Enjoy