It feels a bit wintry again this week. In fact, following heavy frosts over the weekend, most of the of the Scrape and reedbed were frozen throughout Sunday and Monday, with birds congregating around patches of open water on South Scrape and in the middle of Island Mere. Although it's been milder today, parts of West Scrape and Island Mere remained frozen, and with more cold weather forecast we expect ice cover to increase again later in the week.
Despite the ice, there have still been plenty of birds to see. A handful of goosanders are fishing at Island Mere. Numbers vary throughout the day, tending to increase in late afternoon before the birds move to the Scrape to roost, with a maximum of 18 birds seen so far. A few wigeon, gadwall and teal can often be seen loafing on the ice, while there were more than 100 each of common and black-headed gulls resting there this afternoon.
Both bittern and bearded tits were seen walking on the ice yesterday. The former are looking for patches of shallow open water in which to fish, while the latter often pick fallen seeds from the surface. The muddy margins in front of the hide are often still soft enough for at least six snipe to probe for worms. At least half a dozen marsh harriers should be on view at any time of day, with several birds already displaying over the reedbed, while an impressive 21 birds were counted coming to roost on Sunday evening.
Male marsh harrier by Jon Evans
Despite the frost there are still some impressive counts of ducks on the Scrape, including more than 1000 teals and several hundred each of wigeon, gadwall, mallard and shoveler, and they look particularly attractive when the sun shines. So too, do the lapwings. The black-tailed godwit flock reached 37 today, and two avocets continue to toughen out the cold weather rather than moving to nearby estuaries. The gulls seem to be favouring South Scrape at the moment, with two first-year Caspian gulls seen there yesterday as well as a lovely adult Mediterranean gull. I also watched both marsh harrier and sparrowhawk hunting over the Scrape this morning.
Our smaller woodland birds are much more vulnerable to the effects of cold weather and must spend as much time as possible feeding - hence the feeders are extremely busy with the comings and goings of tits and finches. Others work harder to find their food, with the redwings and blackbirds having switched to foraging among the leaf litter int he woods now that they've stripped the hawthorns of berries.
There are, however, also many signs of spring already around the reserve. I've already mentioned the displaying marsh harriers, while robins, wrens and both blue and great tits are increasingly singing. Great spotted woodpeckers have started drumming to attract a mate, and the tawny owls are quite vocal at dusk. They'll be breeding very soon. It was also great to see vibrant yellow catkins dangling from the hazel trees in South Belt.
Perhaps the most exciting part of my lunchtime walk today, though, was not the wildlife (good as that was), but the chance to watch one of our most exciting pieces of machinery in action. I say our machinery, but this impressive piece of kit doesn't belong to the RSPB. It's called a Truxor, and it's perfect for managing the reebeds, which is why we get the machine and it's team of drivers to help out every year.
The Truxor is an amphibious reed-cutting machine, allowing us to cut some of the wetter parts of the reedbed and to create and maintain areas of open water. As well as cutting the reeds, the machine can also have a large rake-type fitting attached, as in the photo above, so that the cut reeds can be collected and moved to adjacent banks.
Raking completed, it was time to switch back to the cutting blade, before the driver stopped for a well earned break, as the photos below show.
The Truxor will be with us at Minsmere for this week and some of next week before moving to both Dingle Marshes and North Warren for further reedbed management. Once completed, the open water areas will provide good opportunities to look for bitterns and otters, as well as improving views of some reedbed pools from the hides.
If you get the chance this machine in action, it's well worth it. I'll upload a video to Twitter and Facebook later as a taster.
ACT NOW to help protect Minsmere
Between 4 January and 29 March 2019, EDF Energy is consulting on their plans for Sizewell C nuclear power plant to be built next to the southern edge on Minsmere nature reserve. This development has the potential to cause significant harm to Minsmere's precious habitats and wildlife if EDF fails to ensure their plans keep Minsmere safe. The RSPB is asking people who know and love Minsmere to tell EDF it must be protected from harm. To add your voice to our call for EDF to protect this special place with our quick and simple e-action, visit loveminsmere.org
and I've emailed EDF