It's Monday, so it's time for our weekly focus on one of the 70 species to spot at Minsmere. For those who are new to these blogs, we produced a checklist last spring as part of Minsmere's 70th birthday celebrations, encouraging visitors to look for 70 of our more interesting species. Some are Minsmere specialties, such as otter, bittern and bearded tit. Others are commoner, more easily seen species such as mallard, gorse or grey heron. Some can only be seen at certain seasons, while others are present throughout the year.
Whenever we produce a list like this, there are inevitably some obvious species or personal favourites that are missing. One such case is the starling, one of my favourite birds, for which I made an exception last week and chose as our species of the week. How could I not, with 30 000 of them gathering in cloud-like flocks over the North Wall every evening before settling down to roost? They were still swirling and twisting over North Marsh last night, when a barn owl joined the regular sparrowhawks and peregrines in search of a meal. They have attracted a crowd of a different sort too, as several hundred people, of all ages, have been lining the North Wall from 4 pm, hoping to enjoy the natural spectacle. How much longer will they hang around?
Barn owl is another case in point. A popular species that was not included in the list. At least in this case the decision to leave it out was easy, as it can be a tricky to species to spot during the day - though a dusk visit to Eastbridge can be productive. However, the recent wet and windy weather has made it difficult for barn owls to hunt, leading one to spend much of the day hunting along the dunes and New Cut on Saturday. If you're lucky, it might hunt during the day when you visit, too.
Barn owl by John Bridges (rspb-images.com)
Of course, our scarcer visitors don't appear in the list either, but there are several such species to look out for this week. Pick of these is a beautiful group of up to 22 snow buntings that are feeding on seeds along the shingle beach between the sluice and Public Viewpoint. First found yesterday, I was pleased to see them for myself at lunchtime today. Snow buntings are aptly named. They breed on the high mountaintops of Scotland, and across Arctic Europe, often among the snowfields. The males are largely white, and both sexes have white wing patches so that when they fly they even look like a flurry of snowflakes.
Snow bunting male by Jon Evans
There are several other notable species to look for too: the glaucous gull was still visiting the dunes and Levels until at least Saturday; the glossy ibis paid a visit to the Levels on Saturday, though it favours marshes at Eastbridge; a family of five whooper swans has been on pools between Wildlife Lookout and Bittern Hide since Friday; 12 Bewick's swans that spend the day feeding in fields near Westleton will visit Island Mere if disturbed; a pink-footed goose is among greylags on the Levels today; and both goldeneye and long-tailed duck have been offshore this morning.
But, for most visitors, seeing any of these species would be the icing the cake as they're just as happy spotting some of our commoner and more familiar species. Many of these do feature on the 70 species challenge, including great spotted woodpeckers in the woods or on the feeders, green woodpeckers on Whin Hill, kingfisher around the Scrape or Island Mere, treecreeper in the woods, red deer almost anywhere, or little egret on the Scrape.
One group of species that is well represented on the 70 species checklist is the ducks, and mid winter is the best time to see them. Six species are present in good numbers, of which teal, mallard, shoveler and shelduck are on the list. Gadwall and wigeon are the other two. Several other species may be present in small numbers. For example, up to eight pintails are usually on the Scrape, with the odd pochard or tufted duck among them. With luck this cold weather will finally bring in a smew or two too.
It's one of these ducks that is our latest species of the week, and I've chosen the smallest of our regular species: the teal. Teals are tiny in comparison to the familiar mallard, making even the brown females easier to identify on size alone, especially as there are usually larger species for comparison. Drake teal have beautiful orange and green heads, a subtly speckled pink breast, mainly grey plumage, and a large creamy patch below the tail. With several hundred teals on the Scrape, it should be easy to see them from any of the Scrape hides.
Drake teal by Andy Hay (rspb-images.com)
Why not give us a visit in the next week or so and see how many of our 70 species you can spot.