Happy New Year everyone.
A new year always brings new hopes and expectations. For birdwatchers it invariably means time to start yet another list, or two. How many bird species will you see in 2023? Or in Suffolk in 2023? Or even just at Minsmere in 2023? Perhaps even a green birding list (birds seen without using a car).
Of course, not everyone keeps lists, but most birdwatchers will at least have a few birds that they remember seeing, or that are high on their wish list.
For me, a new year also marks a key anniversary, as I started working at Minsmere on 3 January 2003. Yes folks, that means that yesterday I celebrated 20 years working here! It's also 45 years since I first joined the YOC, as our junior membership was then called, at Christmas 1977. I've been a member ever since.
The old YOC badge featured a hovering kestrel and I've been hooked by these amazing birds ever since received my YOC badge
Obviously after 20 years I have so many fabulous memories of Minsmere, from rare birds to the incredible people that I've met, that I'm not going to relay them all here (though regular readers will be familiar with many of them as I've been writing these blogs for 20 years too.
Yet, despite this familiarity with Minsmere, nature, as ever, is full of surprises. For example, on New Year's Day I popped into Minsmere with my family for a late afternoon walk to Island Mere, hoping to add a few of our special birds to my fledgling year list. In particular, we were looking for kingfisher, bittern and barn owl, which had all been reported earlier in the day. Typically, as often happens when you have a target bird in mind, we failed to see any of those three species. We did, however, still have an exciting afternoon, with brilliant views of marsh harriers, snipe and little egret among the highlights. Even 20 years ago, the latter remained a relative rarity in the UK. How times change!
Little egret - a much more regular sighting now than 20 years ago
Whilst walking towards Island Mere I had remarked that I didn't see an otter in 2022 - for the first time in many years. Yet, not long after settling down in the hide the shout went up: "Otter!" Sure enough, there was an otter diving beneath the water in the far corner of the mere. What a start to the year. In fact, not just one otter, but two! We watched them diving in and out of the edge of the reeds for perhaps five minutes before they disappeared deeper into the reedbed and vanished from view.
Otter (photo by Matt Parrott)
In fact, its not been a bad start to the year at Minsmere. Sightings already in 2023 include dunlin, ringed plover, turnstone, avocet, black-tailed godwit, Caspian and yellow-legged gulls and hundreds of ducks on Island Mere, large flocks of red-throated divers passing by offshore, bearded tits, water rails and Cetti's warblers in the reedbed, and nuthatch and great spotted woodpecker on the feeders. I heard a chiffchaff on 1 January, and one of our volunteers spotted two scaup (a rare bird at Minsmere) on Island Mere on 2 January. Today's highlight was two Bewick's swans that have just been reported flying over the Scrape.
Nuthatch is another of my favourite birds that has become easier to spot here in recent years (photo by Clare Carter)
I wonder what else 2023 has to offer. Only time will tell.