Waxwing winter?

Meteorological winter officially starts on Thursday, (1 December), and there are finally signs that winter is winning the battle against autumn in the natural world, too.

For me, winter has never truly arrived until I've seen the first "wild" swan of the year. I could argue that was today, when I watched a lovely adult whooper swan swimming around Island Mere, but it's also possible that this is the bird that, unusually, spent most of the summer and early autumn at Minsmere. Who knows?

What is certain is that the three female goldeneyes at Island Mere are certainly winter visitors, and a welcome sight as this species has become quite scarce at Minsmere in recent years. Sadly they remained a bit too distant for a decent photo, but I did at least get two in one shot.

This pair of mute swans was a bit more obliging, even putting on a brief synchronised swimming performance!

I'm not sure whether this young cormorant was judging their display, or boasting about how big his last catch was.

It all got a bit too much for the great black-backed gull, though.

Earlier in the afternoon, I had fantastic views of a kingfisher perched right in front of Bittern Hide, but unfortunately my camera refused to focus on it, leaving me with brilliant picture of the reeds and a blurry electric blue shape in front - no, I'm not sharing that one!

Elsewhere within the reedbed, Cetti's warblers are very vocal, bearded tits are easier to hear than see at the moment, bitterns and great egrets are still being seen daily, and up to 15 marsh harriers can be watched quartering over the reeds, especially later in the afternoon. These magnificent birds provide a welcome distraction whilst waiting for the starlings to arrive to roost. It looks like the murmuration may have moved round towards the Island Mere end of the reedbed. If you are lucky (and the starlings aren't) then they'll be attacked by up to three peregrines, a sparrowhawk, or even a barn owl.

Another sure sign that winter is here is the first sighting this year of a waxwing. Unfortunately, it only lingered around the North Bushes for a few minutes, despite the rich supply of hawthorn berries, but the signs look promising for an overdue "waxwing winter" so we hope it won't be the last one of the year.

Waxwing by Jon Evans, taken several years ago

While not many people got to see the waxwing, the North Bushes is proving to be a great area for watching bullfinches and goldcrests, and there have also been several sightings recently of redwings and fieldfares. Siskins have not yet proved to be reliable this winter, but a sizeable flock was twittering among the alders at the Rhododendron Tunnel this afternoon.

There's plenty of action on the Scrape, too, with large flocks of ducks - wigeon, gadwall, teal, mallard, shoveler and a few pintails and shelducks - resting, dabbling or being spooked by hunting harriers. Although Minsmere is not known for it's waders in winter, there have been a few knot, golden plover (photo below), dunlin and turnstones among the lapwings this week, and the odd snipe lurking around the edges of the Scrape. Gull watchers, on the other hand, have been treated to several yellow-legged and Caspian gulls of various ages among the large flocks of herring and great black-backed gulls, as well as a few common and lesser black-backed.

Probably the scarcest bird of the day was a raven that did a couple of flypasts of the Scrape. These enormous crows are becoming more regular on the Suffolk coast, but remain a tricky bird to see locally. In contrast, stonechats are really putting on a good show along the new boardwalk and in the dunes, while a couple of Dartford warblers can often be found in the dunes.

Finally, although the photo wasn't taken here at Minsmere, I couldn't resist sharing this portrait of a little egret's feet that I took recently.