With the breeding season over, the annual habitat management season is now underway. As usual, we start with clearing vegetation on the Scrape, where the first work party was hard at work on Thursday.
The Scrape management programme involves cutting the long vegetation from the banks and islands, before raking and burning it. As Minsmere is open every day, from dawn to dusk, we have to carry this work while the reserve is open, so we aim to work on just a small part of the Scrape at a time to minimise disturbance. The birds are remarkably resilient, and if we're working on West Scrape they will continue to feed on East and South Scrape, or move to the Levels and Konik Field. Most of the birds that nest on the Scrape like short vegetation, so we have to cut the islands in the autumn, before water levels go up over the winter.
The first work party cut much of the tall vegetation on West Scrape, and this has greatly improved the views across the pools. A quick visit to Wildlife Lookout this morning was highly productive, with a great variety of ducks and wading birds feeding and resting. West Scrape was looking the best it has for several weeks. There's still a good variety of birds on South and East Scrape too, but the vegetation isn't as tall on those sections due to the influence of salt water.
The undoubted highlight for me this morning was a gorgeous wood sandpiper feeding alongside a closely related green sandpiper, to the right of the hide. In fact, it was a good morning for sandpipers with at least three green, four common and two curlew sandpipers on West Scrape, as well as a few snipe, avocets, lapwings and black-tailed godwits. There were also at least a dozen pied wagtails catching insects, often from around the waders' feet.
Common sandpiper by Jon Evans
Elsewhere on the Scrape, an impressive count of 90 dunlins on South Scrape and 15 spotted redshanks on East Scrape, as well as six ruffs on East Scrape. Other waders include greenshanks, ringed plovers, oystercatchers, redshanks and at least 40 black-tailed godwits.
It's not just waders though. Little gull numbers are fluctuating, with just one seen this morning, but counts of 50+ during the week. Like the avocets, common terns are down to just a few birds now that they have finished nesting. Duck numbers, however, are slowly increasing as teals return to moult, alongside resident gadwalls, shovelers and mallards.
While the reedbed remains quiet at times, patient watching from Bittern Hide and Island Mere can be rewarding. Sightings this morning included sparrowhawk, two hobbies, water rail, bittern and whimbrel from Bittern Hide and otter and great crested grebes at Island Mere, as well as regular kingfishers. Bearded tits are hard to spot at present, but may be located along the North Wall.
Sparrowhawk by Jon Evans
Lesser whitethroats were the pick of the migrants in the North Bushes today, but one of Wednesday's two redstarts was ringed at Thursday's ringing demo, and a whinchat was on Whin Hill on Thursday afternoon.
This will be my last post for a couple of week's as I take a well earned break with my family. There may be a guest blog or two in my absence, but you can also keep an eye on recent sightings on the RSPB Suffolk Facebook page or @RSPBMinsmere on Twitter (you don't need to register to view these pages)