There's something special about spring. The colours for a start. You don't even have to be at Minsmere to appreciate them,as the hedgerows around the Suffolk coast are a glorious mix of white, yellow and green. White from the blackthorn blossom (soon to be replaced by hawthorn or May blossom), with garlic mustard (or jack by the hedge) in the verges below and cherry blossom in village gardens. Yellow from vibrant golden gorse to the greener flowers of Alexanders, or dandelions in the shorter grass. Green from the rapidly emerging leaves. Hawthorn is bursting into leaf. The lime trees on Minsmere's approach road will soon be castng deep shadows, but the oaks are a little while off leafing yet.
Colour abounds on the reserve too. Lady's smock, or cuckoo flower, is beginning to flower at Island Mere and other reedbed pools, its delicate pink flowers attracting gorgeous orange tip butterflies (already numerous in Meadow Marsh). Holly blues are almost electric blue little butterflies now emerging to join the peacocks, commas and green-veined whites. The first large red damselflies are beginning to emerge too.
Ducks are sporting their brightest plumage. Numbers continue to decline as northern breeders depart for the Arctic, but there are still good numbers of wigeons, teals and shovelers ont he Levels, and fewer on the Scrape. Black-tailed godwits are rapidly acquiring their orange-red breeding plumage, while the ruffs are a mix of brown, black and white. Many of the other birds on the Scrape - avocets, black-headed and Mediterranean gulls, common, Sandwich and little terns and mainly black and white.
Another sign of spring is the increased birdsong. Nightingales are always popular and can be heard near the warden's office, in North Bushes and beside the pond. Garden warblers and blackcaps (always difficult to distinguish) proclaim their territories around the reserve's woods. In more scrubby areas, whitethroats show off with their jaunty little song flights. Reed, sedge and Cetti's warblers are singing within the reedbeds, while a grasshopper warbler was heard again along the North Wall on Monday. A gorgeous firecrest was singing near Bittern hide on Sunday.
Monday's main highlight was a group of four common cranes reported near Bittern Hide. Quite how many cranes have passed through Minsmere in recent days remains a mystery. If only some had comeover the weekend when the staff were all on the reserve showing visitors Minsmere's delights. Hopefully I'll be around when the next oen comes through.