Continuing the Springwatch theme from last week, this week's star species was the star of series one at Minsmere in 2014, when millions of people tuned in to watch the female bittern rearing her brood of chicks to "semi-fledging".
June is always a good time of year to see bitterns at Minsmere because with hungry mouths to feed, the females are kept busy searching for food. For bitterns, this means fish, including the sticklebacks that featured in last week's blog, as well as roach, rudd, perch, tench and eels. Not just fish, though, as bitterns will also catch frogs, toads, small mammals (including water voles!), young birds and even insects - I memorably watched one very adeptly catching dragonflies several years ago.
Our wardens and volunteers spend several hours every Thursday morning during the spring and summer. watching the reedbed from various angles and recording every single sighting of bitterns. When bitterns regularly return to the same part of the reedbed, this is a confirmation of a nest with chicks nearby - the Springwatch cameras confirmed that the females land near the nest and walk to it to minimise the risk of predation. So far this year we've confirmed at least two least, but with 12 booming males recorded this spring, we expect more nests to be found in the coming weeks.
Bittern taking off by Jon Evans
Feeding (or provisioning) flights tend to be longer and more regular than bittern flights at other times of year, so if you are patient enough there is a good chance to see them, especially at Bittern Hide or Island Mere. If you are very lucky, a bittern may also choose to feed in the pool right in front of the hide.
With patience, you may also be rewarded by some other rather exciting birds this week, with herons playing a particularly prominent role. A stunning purple heron was found yesterday and has been seen several times today. It's best seen Bittern Hide, but only flies occasionally, so you will need both patience and luck to spot it. Although purple herons are annual visitors, and sometimes stay for several weeks, I haven't seen one at Minsmere for several years so I'm hoping this bird hangs around.
A purple heron at Minsmere a few years ago by Jon Evans
Two other scarce herons were seen yesterday too - a great white egret and a glossy ibis - though neither has been reported today.
The other unusual visitor is a first summer male red-footed falcon that has been seen intermittently since Tuesday. This species breeds from Hungary eastwards across the steppes of Central Asia, and is a scarce but annual visitor to the UK. This years seems to have been particularly good for sightings, but nevertheless it's a real treat to spot one. At first glance they look like a hobby, with similar shape and flight action, but if seen well the blue-grey plumage is more uniform, lacking the hobbies black moustachial stripe and white cheeks.
Other highlights over the last few days include the Savi's warbler at Island Mere, two stone-curlews from the North Wall watchpoint, water voles and water shrew at the pond, regular bearded tits, ringed plover chicks in the dunes, Norfolk hawker dragonflies, one or two red-veined darter dragonflies and green hairstreak butterflies.
We're still counting up the species seen during last week's bioblitz, but early results include at least two new species for the reserve - a moth and bee. More details on this will follow later in the week.