This morning I was up well before the lark to lead our annual dawn chorus walk. Despite the early start, I always look forward to these walks, as it's a rare opportunity to see the reserve at its absolute best.
Unfortunately, the weather this morning was a bit of let down (again), meaning that some of the usual Minsmere magic was missing. The continuing cold north-easterly winds cast a veil of low cloud over the Suffolk coast, so that the usual stunning sunrise was missing, and the dawn crept in even slower than usual. Those same winds have also held back many of of our migrants, and the the unseaonally cold weather has discouraged some from singing, so some of the expected star species were also missing.
Dawn chorus walks usually start before we even leave the visitor centre, with booming bitterns, wailing stone-curlews and melodic nightingales, but today we started in absolute silence. Although the female stone-curlew behind the visitor centre has finally attracted a mate, they weren't calling this morning. The only nightingale that has been heard around the reserve trails so far sings sporadically at Whin Hill, but it too was silent (although I did hear three different birds singing along the reserve entrance road).
Bitterns did boom once the first trickle of daylight appeared on the horizon, and we were, eventually, treated to some impressive booms, especially close to Bittern Hide, though my group failed to see one. We did, however, have good views of a grey heron at Bittern Hide.
Another bird that was, surprisingly, missing this morning was tawny owl - I can't remember leading a dawn chorus walk and not hearing these nocturnal hunters before! Similarly, cuckoos remained silent and the hobbies hadn't woken up when we were at island Mere, though both have been reported since.
Of course, there were some birds in song, and despite these notable absentees, we did hear most of the other expected species including good numbers of blackcaps, chiffchaffs and sedge warblers, several whitethroats and Cetti's warblers, and a lovely garden warbler near the Work Centre. The Savi's warbler was very vocal at Island Mere too. There were also the more familiar species such as robins, wrens, song thrush (though not blackbird!), blue and great tits and woodpigeons joining in the chorus, plus sightings of marsh harriers, displaying great crested grebes, mute swans, shelducks and more.
Sedge warbler by Mike Richards (rspb-images.com) - one of the species that was in full song
It wasn't just birds either. My group saw no fewer than six species of mammals during the walk: muntjac, red deer, rabbit, grey squirrel, pipistrelle and water vole, while the other group also saw an otter.
After the delicious breakfast, I headed around the Scrape, where many other species were seen. The black-headed and Mediterranean gulls were, as usual, joined by several kittiwakes, while a second year yellow-legged gull was a bonus. Sandwich and common terns were present, as were various ducks and geese. Of the latter, both greylag and Canada geese had goslings, and the bar-headed geese were still present. So, too, was the drake mandarin. Waders included the usual avocets, redshanks and black-tailed godwits plus several knots, grey plovers, dunlins and bar-tailed godwits, many of which were in summer plumage. Further waders were also on Lucky Pool, while nearby a superb male whinchat stole the show from the wheatears, linnets and swallows at the sluice.
Despite the wind, and several species appearing to go AWOL, it was a typically superb morning and well worth getting up early. While there are no more dawn chorus walks this year, we do have spaces on some Tuesday morning sounds of spring walks, and you are always welcome to visit early to experience Minsmere at its best. Good luck with the weather!