My favourite story as a child was The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. Forty years on, it's still one of my favourites, though it's a few years now since I last read it. The stars, however, feature heavily in some of my recent sightings around Minsmere.
Of course, the lead character in this fabulous book was Ratty. Despite his name, Ratty was not a rat at all. He was a different rodent, one that is most at home in and around water. A Water Vole. A particularly industrious Water Vole who was led astray on many adventures by his new found friends, Mole, Badger and Mr Toad. As with any good adventure story, there were baddies too: Fox and Weasels were the most prominent of these.
As regular readers will know, Water Voles have been among our most popular wildlife highlights of recent years. As well as the two regular adults around the pond, our visitors have enjoyed amazing views of up to four young Water Voles there this week, along a lovely variety of dragonflies. They aren't disturbed by the families excitedly dipping their nets from the nearby platform during our Pond Dipping events (every Monday, Wednesday and Friday during August).
Moles are rarely seen, but their evidence is everywhere, with some impressively large molehills scattered around the reserve. One had even managed to tip over the birdbath outside reception this week by burrowing up beneath it!
Despite being by the biggest of the group of friends, Badgers are also very rarely seen by our visitors. This is because they are nocturnal, rarely emerging from their setts until it's almost dark, and even then remaining hidden among the thicker vegetation. They certainly come down to the Visitor Centre area at some point during the night, where they might clear up any spilt birdfood or excavate a bumblebee nest to get at the tasty larva inside. The best way to see a Badger at Minsmere is as you drive slowly out of the reserve at dusk in the autumn, though a lot of luck is still needed.
I've seen a few Badgers after dark but have only once spotted one in broad daylight at Minsmere...until yesterday! As I was completing my weekly health and safety checks, and coming back through the Rhododendron Tunnel, a snuffling and rustling sound suddenly alerted me to a Badger foraging among the leaf litter at the edge of the path, just two metres in front of me! Taking no notice of me, the Badger shuffled a short distance into the woods, constantly sniffing the ground for evidence of a tasty earthworm or snail.
The Badger was still no more than four metres away, completely oblivious to me, until I called the visitor centre to report the sighting, at which point it looked indignantly at me before ambling deeper into the trees.
Yet again, this just shows how close you can often get to wildlife at Minsmere, and that you never really know what you might see - much as reported in my last blog when I came equally close to a Stoat and even closer to a Grass Snake! Of course, Stoats are members of the Weasel Clan, though being bigger and bolder they tend to be seen more often than Weasels themselves. The biggest member of the Clan is the Otter, and, incredibly, I had only just missed seeing one of the sleek mammals at Island Mere Hide, just a few minutes earlier.
What about the final member of the riverside friendship group? We don't tend to see many Toads at Minsmere, but I do see the closely related Common Frog in my small garden pond. Early this week, a young frog also hopped briefly onto the foot of one of my colleagues as we were out and about checking on signs!
While sightings of mammals and amphibians are also an unexpected bonus, there are so many different birds and insects to see at the moment that it's hard to know when to look next. Among the insects, we had some very exciting news this week when a female Keeled Skimmer was photographed on the reserve. This was an expected new addition to the already impressive reserve species list, though it hasn't been relocated since.
There are, however, many Common and Ruddy Darter, Brown, Southern and Migrant Hawkers and Black-tailed Skimmers on the wing, plus a few lingering Norfolk Hawkers, while Emerald and Willow Emerald Damselflies should be seen around the pond, and I spotted a couple of lovely Banded Demoiselles at Eastbridge this week. The darters often enjoy basking on the benches in sunny clearings, like this vivid male Ruddy Darter.
Brambles and Buddleia are good places to look for butterflies, including Silver-washed Fritillaries along the Woodland Trail and Painted Ladies and Graylings at the Visitor Centre, while Purple Hairstreaks can often be seen from Canopy Hide. Where there are butterflies, there are often hoverflies. Many of these will be either Marmalade Hoverflies (Episyrphus balteatus) or Sun Hoverflies (Helophilus pendulus), but one of my favourites is the large, brightly coloured Volucella pellucens. I have spent many minutes trying to photograph one of these impressive minibeasts as they hover just in front of me along the Woodland Trail whilst I'm looking for butterflies, so I was particularly pleased to capture this one feeding on Buddleia flowers yesterday.
As for the birds, The Scrape is definitely the place to go at the moment. Alongside impressive counts of 450 Avocets and 400 Black-tailed Godwits, there has been an excellent passage of waders this week, including Golden, Little Ringed and Ringed Plovers, Dunlin, Sanderling, Little Stint, Curlew Sandpiper, Ruff, Whimbrel, Spotted and Common Redshanks, Greenshank, Green, Common and Wood Sandpipers.
Other birds passing through the Scrape include Little, Caspian and Yellow-legged Gulls, Little Terns, Garganey, Yellow Wagtails and three Spoonbills. With the breeding season now over, numbers of terns have decreased considerably , and many of the duck shave moved to Island Mere to moult. There, they have joined Pochard, Tufted Duck, Little and Great Crested Grebes and Coots on the mere, while Great Egrets, Bitterns, Marsh Harriers and Hobbies continue to be seen regularly and Kingfishers are becoming more regular.
Great Egret silhouetted at Island Mere
Many of our smaller birds are less visible in late summer as they complete their moult, but August can be a good month to look for Pied or Spotted Flycatcher and various warblers refuelling on Blackberries in the North Bushes before continuing their journey south. Mornings are usually the best time to look for these migrants.
This will be the last sightings update for a couple of weeks, but don't forget that you can keep with news from Minsmere via our Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages @RSPBMinsmere.