When we read reviews of Minsmere on Trip Advisor, or in our visitor survey forms, several themes keep recurring: visitors love our cakes; ; our volunteers are very friendly and helpful; many visitors come to spot the wildlife; and visitors also enjoy the scenery and chance to escape from the hustle and bustle of modern life.
Alongside many of these comments runs another theme: Minsmere is a truly special place. A part of paradise on the Suffolk coast, perhaps.
Well, today's most unexpected visitor has certainly brought a touch of paradise to Minsmere, both literally and metaphorically. A beautiful female paradise shelduck arrived on the Scrape yesterday and has been touring around the various pools on the Scrape today.
Paradise shelduck by Sidpix (via Google Images)
Before you go looking up paradise shelduck in your field guides, you find it. Not unless you have field guide to the birds of New Zealand. These beautiful birds are native to New Zealand, where they also go by the Maori name of Putangitangi - what an amazing name that is! They are widely kept in captivity in the UK, and this individual will have escaped from one such collection.
Unlike other shelducks, paradise sheducks are sexually dimorphic (meaning that males and females have different plumages). The females have this beautiful mix of chestnut and slate-grey plumage, with white head and a typical shelduck-like wing pattern of black, white, green and chestnut. Males are mostly slate-grey with black head and equally attractive.
Despite being such an exotic visitor, the paradise shelduck appears quite at home on the Scrape, where she's accompanying several of our more familiar shelducks. Other highlights on the Scrape include the more typical ducks (wigeon, teal, gadwall, shoveler, mallard), 100+ lapwings and a handful of snipe, dunlins and black-tailed godwits. The first ringed plovers and oystercatchers of the spring arrived yesterday too.
Shelduck by Ben Hall (rspb-images.com)
There is increasing evidence of the longer days having an impact on our birds. Marsh harriers are now actively displaying over the reedbed, and were seen mating outside Bittern Hide this morning. Nearby, great spotted woodpeckers are drumming in the woods.
The woods have been busy today, with flocks of siskins, goldfinches, chaffinches and tits throughout South Belt. The tit flocks have also attracted the odd treecreeper. Of course, the best place to watch the tits, including both marsh and coal tits, is on the visitor centre feeders, where a dapper male reed bunting has again been spotted.
Apart from the harriers, highlights within the reedbed have included regular bitterns (sometimes coming out to feed close to the hide at Island Mere), water rails, kingfishers and otters. Six goosanders remain on Island Mere, and the great white egret continues to roam the reedbed.
A female goosander with a perch for dinner by Dene Carter
The glaucous gull was still present yesterday, but hasn't been reported today. A Caspian gull has, however, been seen on the South Levels, while good numbers of red-throated divers and great crested grebes were offshore. A Mediterranean gull flew south today too.