After a week or so away from the reserve, there's always plenty to reflect upon once I return - though the mountains of emails need to be dealt with first!
Although my week was spent mostly sightseeing and visiting family, I was lucky enough to spot a some interesting wildlife on my travels: ring-necked parakeets and a beautiful close-up fox in London; red kites in Norfolk and along the A14; goosanders, goldeneyes and nuthatches in Shropshire; and roe deer in Cambridgeshire.
I did, of course, miss some interesting sightings here at Minsmere too. Most notably, I missed the first booming bittern of the spring. Booming is always a little intermittent at first, but volume, frequency and the number of booming males will increase as March progresses and peak during April.
Bitterns are showing regularly at Island Mere, where otter sightings are frequent - at least five yesterday morning for example. Marsh harriers are now actively displaying and their high-pitched calls can often be heard above the reeds. Other sightings at Island Mere over the last week or so have included snipe, water pipit, bearded tits, great crested grebes and whooper swans.
The nearby Rhododendron Tunnel remains the centre of attention for many visitors with three firecrests, flocks of siskins, treecreeper and marsh tit all regularly seen. Elsewhere in the woods there have been redwings feeding among the leaf litter and a chiffchaff near Wildlife Lookout.
Out on the Scrape, at least one redhead smew remained this morning (though they hadn't been reported for a few days), among the hundreds of wigeons, teals, gadwalls and shovelers. There have been some impressive wader counts this week too: 400 lapwings, 120 black-tailed godwits, 58 dunlins, seven avocets as well as a few curlews, oystercatchers, redshanks and ringed plovers.
With the beautiful spring weather today I took the opportunity to take a few photos of reflections in the water. I share a couple of them with you here, but for the full set you can check out the RSPB Suffolk Facebook page.
Reflections in North Marsh (above) and the pond