As I stood on Whin Hill this morning scanning across Island Mere and the reedbed beneath murky skies, numerous white specks in the fields beyond were immediately obvious: swans. Checking carefully through the flock, they all appeared to be large mute swans. Although their smaller cousins, Bewick's swans, have often been feeding in those fields, I couldn't pick any out this morning. In fact, two Bewick's were later seen on West Scrape, and six spend much of yesterday on East Scrape, so while they are still using the reserve, they seem to have become more mobile.
The mute swans were later spotted on Island Mere itself, when one of our guides was able to count an impressive flock of 30. The name mute swan reflects the absence of a bugling or trumpeting call, as given by all other northern hemisphere species of swans (Bewick's and whooper in Eurasia, trumpeter and whistling in North America). However, mute swans are certainly not silent. Anyone who has ever fed swans at the park will know that they regularly hiss and they also make a kind of grunting sound. They are far from silent when they fly either, though then the sound is made by their enormous wings whooshing through the air, rather than any kind of vocalisations.
A mute swan by Ian Barthorpe
As usual, Island Mere has also been a good place to spot bitterns, marsh harriers, kingfishers and otters, and to hear bearded tits and Cetti's warblers. Our friends at the Suffolk Mammal Group posted a couple of photos on their Facebook page this week showing an otter catching a duck on the mere on Sunday. They also posted a lovely piece about dissecting otter spraints, which I posted today on the RSPB Suffolk Facebook page. It's easy to keep up to date with news from Minsmere via Facebook, or @RSPBMinsmere on Twitter, and you don't even need to have your own account.
For most birdwatchers, the Scrape has been the centre of attention this week, as the first winter glaucous gull continues to pay regular visits to East Scrape in between fishing trips to Sizewell. A third winter glaucous gull was also briefly noted on the Scrape on Sunday. Other gulls on the Scrape include varying numbers of yellow-legged and Caspian gulls among the herring, lesser and great black-backed gulls.
Wader numbers on the Scrape were looking good for mid winter today with an impressive 360 lapwings, 26 black-tailed godwits and three redshanks present. Among the godwits, the colour-ringed, satellite-tagged bird (origianlly ringed in Iceland) remains, and has been joined by a second bling-wearing colour-ringed individual.
The satellite-tagged, colour-ringed black-tailed godwit by Steve Everett
There were some notable birds spotted offshore yesterday, including the first redhead smew of the winter, three red-breasted mergansers and a velvet scoter - the latter among 30 or so common scoters. A little auk flew south too, as did several brent geese, but only one or two red-throated divers and great crested grebes were spotted.
Don't forget to keep your eyes and ears peeled for some of our woodland birds too. Redwings and fieldfares are scattered through the North Bushes and South Belt Woods, two bullfinches were in North Bushes, jays are quite prominent and of course large flocks of tits and finches are around the visitor centre feeders. Goldcrests, treecreepers and long-tailed tits are all present, but can be a bit harder to locate.