Reality returns

After the buzz of excitement on Monday and Tuesday surrounding "the Minsmere albatross", reality has returned to Minsmere. That's not to say that there's nothing exciting to see. Far from it, as there's still an amazing variety of wildlife to spot.

With the buddleias coming into full flower it's worth spending a while looking for butterflies at Minsmere. Among the commoner species, look out for graylings, white admirals and painted ladies, or perhaps a broad-bordered bee-hawkmoth or hummingbird hawkmoth. Keep your eyes peeled for rarer species too. A silver-washed fritillary was spotted along the Woodland Trail this morning, alongside tow white admirals. Silver-washed fritillaries are becoming more regular in Suffolk, with sightings at Minsmere over the last three or four years, and they may well establish a small breeding population soon. This is one of our largest butterflies.

silver-washed fritillary by Ian Barthorpe

The Woodland Trail is a good place to spot purple hairstreak butterflies too, but as they prefer to stay in the oak canopy the best place to watch them from is Canopy Hide.

In more open grassy parts of the reserve, such as Whin Hill, the North Wall or the dunes, look out for small copper, ringlet, meadow brown and grayling butterflies, large, small and Essex skippers, and the beautiful red and black six-spot burnet moths. 

Not to be out done, there's a good selection of birds to spot too, especially around the Scrape. At least 170 avocets are still on the Scrape. Spotted redshanks and ruffs are still in their beautiful summer plumage, while other waders to look out for include green and common sandpipers, greenshanks, dunlins, bar- and black-tailed godwits, whimbrels, curlews, turnstones and knots - though they won't all be present every day.

Also on the Scrape, the common tern chicks are now fledging. Look out for a few Sandwich and little terns, while both adult and second year Arctic terns have been seen this week - the latter is an unusual plumage to see in the UK, with black beak, white forehead, and dark carpal patch in the wing. They are best told from similarly aged common terns (also rarely seen in the UK) by a shorter bill, shorter legs, and different wing pattern.

Lots of fledgling black-headed gulls are also on the Scrape, where careful checking among the gulls may reveal several little and Mediterranean gulls, adult and second year Caspian gulls, and possibly even a Caspian gull.

Within the reedbed, the reed, sedge and Cetti's warblers are less vocal, and hobbies are much less visible now that they are busy nesting, but bitterns, marsh harriers and bearded tits continue to be seen regularly. A family of water rails can sometimes be seen almost below the Island Mere hide. Careful scanning above the reedbed can usually reveal a common buzzard or two, but there have also been several sightings of a honey-buzzard this week. Sadly there have been no reports of the bee-eaters locally since last  Thursday though.

Otters continue to be seen most days at Island Mere, with several sightings today, and water voles are regular at the pond. Look out around the pond for dragonflies too, while nearby the bee-wolfs can be seen carrying honeybees back to their nests in the bare sand alongside the path to the North Wall.

Bee wolf by Jon Evans