After being away for most of last week I feel like I have an awful lot of wildlife to catch up with!
East scrape is a hive of activity at the moment, with fantastic views of avocets, black-tailed godwits and other visiting waders - however with families flocking in for the summer holiday activities, I thought I’d leave the scrape walk for later in the week.
I was itching to get back outside and explore, and on Monday I found a window of opportunity for a quick sit down in the sunshine of the WildZone. Not having too long to play with, I decided I would challenge myself to a mini lunchtime bioblitz and see how many species I could spot in the time it took me to eat my sandwiches!
Fairly ill-prepared and binocular-less (but with two packets of crisps... obviously my priorities need a reshuffle) I simply lay on the grass and soaked in the sounds of nature. The coo of a collared dove, the buzz of crickets rubbing their wings together, the far away yaffle of a green woodpecker.
It is, reassuringly, starting to feel like summer again. There are still lots of wildflowers to admire around the play area, including scarlet pimpernel and this common centaury - along with the variety of invertebrates they attract. Time for a quick hoverfly-photobomb!
Common centaury with hoverfly
It turned out to be a particularly great day for butterfly spotting too, and I was able to spy red admiral, large white, meadow brown, speckled wood, brimstone and brown argus in the space of about 15 minutes.
Brown argus
There was just as much activity on the sandy track back up to the discovery centre, where I paused for a few minutes not able to move for the flurry of dragonfly species. An array of hawkers and darters whizzed around me, but I managed to capture this lucky shot of two common darters having a little break.
Female common darters
The reception area has also been a hive of insect entertainment (some slightly more brutal than others!) with sightings of a hummingbird hawkmoth, broad-bordered bee-hawkmoth and a hungry butterfly-eating hornet – see Ian’s blog below!
While we are, admittedly pretty spoilt here at Minsmere with the sheer variety of habitats we have - this brief wander was proof enough that you really don’t have to venture far to experience great wildlife. In the time it took me to inhale my lunch I had 18 species on the tally!
Take a look at our Wild Challenge page for ideas of what you can do for nature on your own doorstep:
https://ww2.rspb.org.uk/kids-and-schools/kids-and-families/wild-challenge/activities/