Every summer, once the breeding season is over, Minsmere's wardens, volunteers and contractors turn their attention to the task of habitat management, helping to create the perfect home for an incredible variety of nature. Work continues throughout the autumn and winter, and it's not an easy task, as they have to juggle the conflicting needs of different species, and carry out the work in such a way as to minimise impacts on visitors.
The latter is particularly important, as Minsmere is open from dawn to dusk, seven days a week, 365 days a year, so there are no opportunities to carry out this management work when the reserve is closed. Luckily, at a site as large and varied as Minsmere, there is always something to be seen, even if you may have move on from your favourite location for a while.
The Scrape is always the first focus of this work, with vegetation cut and burnt on the islands and banks as early as August. We try to work in front of one hide at a time, so that the birds will remain feeding on other parts of the Scrape. Once most of the vegetation is cut, we often take a digger onto the Scrape to reprofile some of the islands, clear ditches, and move soil banks away from the hides. As anyone who has visited Minsmere over the last couple of weeks will be aware, it was the turn of West Scrape for this reprofiling this year. We had lowered the water levels to make access easier, but the recent rain, coupled with the digger leaving yesterday, has left very shallow water across West Scrape, and the flocks of teal have already moved back in.
One benefit of using machinery for habitat management work, is that the wildlife quickly gets used to it and takes little notice. A good example of this was the arrival of a curlew sandpiper on West Scrape earlier in the week, even while the digger was still present. This late bird was still present today, along with several snipe which were taking advantage of the newly turned soil to probe for worms. Not only is this habitat management work good for the wildlife - the bare islands will be perfect for nesting avocets next April - but it also improves the viewing for you as visitors.
West Scrape this afternoon, following management work
In fact, the Scrape is looking superb at the moment. East Scrape is literally teeming with ducks, with some of the shovelers and teals resting just a few metres from the hide. Among the large flocks of gadwalls, shovelers, wigeons, teals and mallards, you may spot a few shelducks and the odd pintail. All are rapidly acquiring their finest plumage too and look superb in the low winter sun. Look carefully and there are a few waders out there too, including up to 20 black-tailed godwits, four avocets, a few snipe and the odd curlew. Don't forget to check the gulls too, as both yellow-legged and Caspian gulls were present today, along with a few common and great black-backed gulls
The view from East Hide today
There's a few other notable birds on South Scrape today too. Four spotted redshanks have been present for a few days, and were joined by a knot this afternoon. Best of all, though, was a shorelark, found at lunchtime by the same lucky visitor whole found the penduline tits at Island Mere on Sunday. Hopefully it will stay a little longer than they did, as shorelarks are less than annual visitors to Minsmere, and increasingly difficult birds to see in Suffolk.
Shorelark by Jon Evans - today's bird certainly wasn't showing this well though
With management work completed on the Scrape, we're turning our attention to the reedbed, heathland and woods. We've already cut the reeds in front of Island Mere hide to improve viewing opportunities, though some of the reed still needs to be burnt. We're planning to cut the pools at Bittern Hide next week, having been somewhat hampered by the weather this week. Once this work is complete, it will hopefully be easier to spot bitterns, bearded tits and otters from these hides, as well as the marsh harriers.
We'll soon be starting some work to lower the reedbed and make it wetter in places, though this isn't likely to be done close to the hides so is unlikely to impact on your enjoyment of the reedbed wildlife and tranquility of Minsmere in winter. This work will make our reedbed even better for breeding bitterns.
In the woods and on the heaths we're working hard to improve the habitat for wildlife such as nightjars, Dartford warblers, woodlarks and adders in parts of the reserve little used by many of our visitors.
This will be my last blog for a couple of weeks as I'm going to looking for eagles on the Isle of Mull next week, but don't forget that you can find out what's been seen at Minsmere on the RSPB Suffolk Facebook page or @RSPBMinsmere on Twitter. Don't worry if you don't usually use Facebook of Twitter. If you click on the links they will take you to the update pages.
And don't forget that the clocks go back on Sunday, so the starlings will gather earlier, making it easier for you to stay at Minsmere to watch this amazing spectacle. Why not bring the family to take part in our half term activities then watch the starling murmaration for a perfect end to the day.