I timed my walk around the Coast Trail perfectly this afternoon, dodging the showers and spotting some fantastic wildlife. Towards the end of my walk it all got a too much for me and I had to lie down. Well, actually there was a really good reason for lying down in the dunes - and it wasn't for a snooze or some sunbathing!
A flock of up to 200 sand martins were dropping down onto the dunes for a rest, to escape the wind, and I too dropped to the ground to enjoy a closer view. By lying behind a clump of marram grass and crawling slowly forwards I was able to get close enough to run off a few photos.
By zooming a bit further I was able to get my best photo yet of these lovely little birds.
This wasn't actually the first time I'd found myself lying in the shingle today as I'd early been trying, with little success, to photograph skippers feeding on the shingle flowers. Skippers are small, orange-brown, moth-like butterflies that can be found in grassy areas during mid summer. There are three very similar species found at Minsmere, and I managed to find all three today. Large skippers are slightly bigger than the other two, making them easier to identify. The best way to distinguish between small and Essex skippers is by looking at the colour of the underside of the antennae - black in Essex, orange in small skippers.
Small skipper feeding on sheep's bit
In fact it turned out to a brilliant day for butterflies. I saw 12 different species around the reserve, including small heath in the dunes (it's looking like a good year for this scarce species), small copper in North Bushes, and good counts of gatekeepers, ringlets and meadow browns feeding on bramble flowers, with comma, red admiral and both small and large white in attendance. There were also several six-spot burnet moths along the dunes, and I've just been looking at some fabulous moths that were caught in our moth trap last night, including poplar hawkmoth, several buff tips, several rosy footmans, small magpies, peppered moths and a snout moth. I'll post some photos of these moths on our Facebook page later.
Gatekeeper butterfly
These weren't the only insects around either. I saw at least six species of damselfly or dragonfly and many types of wasps, bees and hoverflies, including, of course, the bee wolfs and pantaloon bees. I also finally saw my first ever scorpion fly, but sadly couldn't get a photo. If you've never seen one of these flies, then look them up - they're pretty impressive.
Birds were very much in evidence too, especially on the Scrape. My wader list for the day included little ringed and ringed plovers, green and common sandpipers, common and spotted redshanks, ruffs, black-tailed godwits, dunlins, oystercatchers, lapwings and avocets, plus the stone-curlew that continues to sit vigilantly on her nest close tot he North Wall watchpoint. Two little terns had joined the common and Sandwich terns on the Scrape, while up to nine little and at least 16 Mediterranean gulls can be seen around the Scrape, along with black-headed, herring, lesser and great black-backed gulls and several kittiwakes.
Away from the Scrape, both common and lesser whitethroats can be seen in the Sluice Bushes, linnets and reed buntings were along the dunes, bearded tits, marsh harriers, little egrets and bitterns are in the reedbed, and various tits and finches are in the woods.
All in all, that adds up to many good reasons to enjoy a walk around Minsmere - and celebrate with a cake or cheese scone in the cafe.
The view from East Scrape with lots of lovely mud for feeding waders