Once bittern, twice in the sky.

I am finding work very difficult at the moment. It is so hard to decide where to take my lunchtime walk because there is just so much going on around the reserve and I am also finding the drama unfolding on the Springwatch live cameras too hard to resist. The live cameras are so addictive and I have been finding myself checking in on the different nests at all hours of the day and night! It is really lovely to watch the bullfinch nest as I feel I have a special relationship with this pair as I often see them when I first arrive at work and as some people will know I do love to be greeted by the wildlife when I arrive at work! Here is a picture I took from my car last week.

Recently on my strolls around the reserve I have been drawn to the great spotted woodpecker's nest as they are such a delight to watch and with the noisy chicks getting bigger and beginning to stick their heads out of the hole I have found them hard to ignore!

Another bird which is refusing to be ignored by our visitors is our bitterns. This morning there were numerous sightings of bitterns in flights and walking around in front of both Bittern Hide and Island Mere hide. Our guides were reporting very regular flights sometimes only ten minutes apart. So it was with this inside information that I decided on Island Mere as the destination for my lunchtime walk.

I walked to Island Mere through the rhododendron tunnel and was enjoying the warn sunshine which has been long awaited here at Minsmere and my ears were delighted by all the lovely bird song. I stopped to admire this chiffchaff who continued to sing for me.

I had my first magical sighting of a bittern a few weeks ago and since that moment like all good things you just want more of them! So I didn’t spend long with the chiffchaff and stomped on to Island Mere. When I entered the hide I was given an update on the bittern’s recent activity and found out were that she had flown away about an hour ago and was expected back any moment. Whilst I was waiting for the star to arrive there was no shortage of wildlife to admire. Three marsh harriers were hunting over the reedbed and three cormorants sat casually in front of the hide stretching their wings from time to time to make sure they weren’t forgotten.

Bearded tits were busily flying past the hide but did not pause long enough for me to take a picture. Reed warbler and reed bunting were also sighted close to the hide. It didn’t seem very long (but then nothing does when you are enjoying yourself) before the long awaited female bittern returned.

I was overwhelmed by my first sighting of a bittern and the sight of one in flight was equally as special. She flew right past the hide and into the reedbed. Myself and the other visitors were joyfully expressing how incredible this sighting was and comparing the pictures we had taken when she took off again and flew back past the hide. You would have thought having two small children that I would be getting better at capturing moving targets on my camera, but others in the hide managed to get much better pictures than me and promised to share them with us through Twitter @RSPBMinsmere and our Facebook page RSPBSuffolk so I very much look forward to seeing those and sharing them.

It has been lovely over half term having so many children around the reserve and it was really lovely to see three young birders in Island Mere hide today. One of them said to me after seeing the bittern fly in “that was amazing!” and he was right it was.