As it’s Monday, it’s time for the latest species of the week blog, in which we highlight one of the star species featured in our exciting 70 species to spot challenge. For those new to these blogs, this is a fun activity to help celebrate Minsmere’s 70th birthday.
If you are visiting Minsmere this summer, you can pick up a sheet at reception and then see how many of our star species you can find. As some of the species are seasonal, it’s unlikely that you’ll see them all in one visit, but a couple of visits in summer and autumn should allow you to spot most of them – and you can of course bring the sheet with you again and again until you’ve found all 70 species.
After featuring some of the insects and plants in recent weeks, I return to a bird for this the latest species of the week and focus on one of our more familiar species: the swallow.
Swallows are icons of summer in the UK. As such they are one of our most familiar species. Despite that, many people struggle to tell them apart from the closely related sand martin and house martin, or the superficially similar swift. This may help.
Swallows are larger and chunkier than either of the martins, with long, deeply forked tails, long broad-based wings, deep blue upperparts (appearing black in the field), white underparts, and a red chin. The males have longer tail forks but are otherwise largely inseparable from the females.
Swallow by Jon Evans
House martins are also deep blue-black above and white below, but they are smaller, with shortly, shallowly forked tails and a distinctive white rump. Sand martins are also smaller, sandy brown above and white below with a sandy brown breast band. Swifts are all dark brown (bar a paler chin) with long, scythe-shaped wings.
Swallows have a wide global distribution. There are several different species globally, but ours, often known elsewhere as the barn swallow, breeds across most of Europe, Asia and North America, migrating south to winter in India, SE Asia, Africa and South America.
Swallows can be seen at Minsmere from late March to late October, usually hawking for insects over the Scrape or reedbed. A few pairs breed on the reserve, using the Work Centre and the brick sluice structure where the New Cut goes below the dunes. At this latter location, they can often be seen perching on nearby fences and signposts, where they may be among the most well photographed swallows in the world!
Swallow on sign post by John Chapman
Sand martins, which are also one of the 70 species to spot, feed in a similar way, but they choose to excavate burrows in low sandy cliffs. They've abandoned their usual cliff adjacent to the visitor centre this year, choosing instead to nest in the sea cliffs at nearby Dunwich (following fresh collapse last winter) but they can still be easily seen feeding over the reedbeds.
House martins and swifts do not nest on the reserve, due to the lack of suitable buildings, but they do often hunt over the reedbeds. You're better off looking for these two species in towns and cities, but the swifts will be heading back to Africa by the end of July.
Of course, these lots more to see at Minsmere this week as well as swallows and martins. More and more waders are stopping off on the Scrape on migration: black-tailed godwits, spotted redshanks, greenshanks, green and common sandpipers, dunlins, ringed and little ringed plovers and ruffs have all been seen this week. So too have the first little gulls of the summer, while Mediterranean gull numbers are slowly declining as youngsters fledge and the birds move elsewhere. There are still at least 60 Sandwich and common terns and increasing numbers of teals too.
The purple heron remains at Bittern Hide, and at least one Savi's warbler can be heard at Island Mere, though patience and luck are required for both. Bitterns, marsh harriers, hobbies, bearded tits and the reedbed warblers all remain in the reedbed, and can be seen from Bittern Hide and Island Mere.
Unusual birds seen over the few days include a spoonbill on Thursday, a honey-buzzard on Saturday and the first summer Arctic tern until late last week at least. A cuckoo was still present over the weekend too.
Despite the arrival of heavy thundery showers today, there are still good numbers and variety of insects to look for too, including great silver diving beetle larvae, white admiral butterflies, brown hawker dragonflies and beewolves. Several of these feature in the 70 species challenge too.