Who remembers playing Subbuteo as a child, or with their children? We've recently acquired the table football game for our son, and it's great fun reliving my own childhood and flicking little plastic players around the pitch trying to score a goal. But did you know that the game Subbuteo was named after a bird? Falco subbuteo: the hobby.
Hobbies are small falcons. They are perfectly evolved for high-speed pursuit, with long, narrow, sweptback wings. This maneuverability allows them to catch dragonflies (their favourite food), other large flying insects, and birds such as swallows, martins and even swifts. They have a very characteristic shape in flight, and typically catch the dragonflies in their talons, mid flight, before tearing off their wings, swallowing the body, and heading off in pursuit of their next victim.
Hobbies are summer visitors to the UK, arriving from mid April and leaving in early October. At Minsmere, they are best seen in the May, before breeding, and again once the young fledge in late summer, with September being a particularly good time to spot them. In fact, it's probably the best time to see them, with up to ten birds hunting over the woods and reedbed every day. I saw eight between Whin Hill and Bittern Hide during a quick post-lunch stroll yesterday, for example.
Hobby by Oscar Dewhurst
Hobbies are always popular birds for visitors, but they're not the only star birds that are performing well at the moment. Today has been an excellent one for bearded tit sightings, with flocks seen between Wildlife Lookout and the Sluice, at Island Mere, and from the North Wall. Calm autumn mornings are always the best time to see these beautiful little reedbed birds as family groups gather together. Some will even erupt high into the air, with many youngsters dispersing many miles to other reedbeds. This is how they colonised sites throughout East Anglia and farther afield as populations recovered fromt eh low of about four pairs at Minsmere after the cold winter of 1947.
Male bearded tit by Jon Evans
Minsmere's other star birds are perhaps less easy to see at the moment, though up to six marsh harriers may be seen hunting over the reedbed, up to ten avocets remain on the Scrape, and bitterns will be seen in flight several times per day.
It's not just about birds either. Otters are always a joy to see, and with the winter months usually being the most productive, we expect sightings to increase in frequency over the coming weeks. While they are seen every day, many sightings are brief, but several lucky visitors in Island Mere Hide this morning were treated to a fantastic show as three otters (presumably a female and two cubs) swam across the mere, up the channel in front of the hide, then fished for five minutes in the small pool to the right. What a treat! Later in the morning a great white egret flew past the hide, landing at the west end of the reedbed. This bird has been present for four or five days now, though is generally only seen in flight. Hopefully it will stay for several weeks, as others have in recent autumns.
September is also a good month for kingfisher sightings, both from the reedbed hides and on the Scrape, though you have to be in the right place at the right time, and water voles are still being seen on the pond.
Duck numbers continue to increase on the Scrape, with many drakes beginning to acquire the colourful feathers again after the post-breeding season moult. Careful scanning among the teals has produced up to three garganeys on several occasions this week. Wader numbers are down as water levels have increased with the recent rain, hiding some of the mud in which they probe for food, but a little stint was on East Scrape today and a few spotted redshanks remain. Black-tailed godwits, curlews, lapwings and snipe are perhaps a bit easier to spot.
There are still a few migrants in the scrub, including a spotted flycatcher and lesser whitethroats in the North Bushes yesterday and three wheatears near the sluice. Finches are on the move, with several small flocks of siskins reported flying over, and two or three lesser redpolls fed among a flock of 40 linnets on the dunes today.
Spotted flycatcher by Jon Evans
Offshore, the first red-throated divers and brent geese are beginning to be reported, while the odd Sandwich tern remains, and a harbour porpoise this morning was a reminder that it is possible to spot cetaceans off the Suffolk coast too.
Funnily enough I did know Subbuteo was named for a hobby - it's amazing what you learn on this Community!
Our herring gulls are red listed birds. Think about that the next time you hear some flaming idiot calling for a cull of them.