As I sat in the office this morning with the sun warming my cheeks as it shone brightly through the window, the thought of a lunchtime stroll around the Scrape spurred me from one job to the next. Reports from our guides only served to heighten the anticipation.
By the time I did set out, the sun had sadly disappeared and a grey, slightly misty sky hung over the reserve. It was unseasonally mild though, with barely a breath of wind, so the promise was still there for an enjoyable walk.
I couldn't find any bullfinches in the North Bushes, or indeed the nuthatch that had surprisingly been seen there this morning. This can be a difficult species to see at Minsmere, but another was also seen in the more typical location of Canopy Hide today.
I knew I was in for a good walk as I arrived at the beach to find this lovely red-throated diver resting on the sea, close to shore. It was too far for my 15x zoom camera, but by going into the digital zoom I at least got a recognisable record shot.
All the misty reduced the visibility, the sea was pretty calm, affording good views of the handful of divers that fed close to the shore. Several great crested grebes and large numbers of gulls were further out too. I didn't look for the snow bunting that had been reported on the beach, but it has now been present for a couple of days.
From East Hide I enjoyed excellent close views of shovelers and teals, with large numbers of both species scattered across the Scrape, along with wigeons, gadwalls, mallards, lapwings, shelducks, several snipe, at least 30 black-tailed godwits, and a few dunlins, redshanks and turnstones. All three of our feral goose species were present too - greylag, Canada and barnacle.
Two drake shovelers busy feeding.
Unusually, I decided to have a look from the Public Viewpoint, and what a good decision that was. About 300 lapwings were resting on South Scrape, but the highlight was a lovely grey heron on the bank close to the hide. As I photographed it, a stonechat popped onto the adjacent fencepost. Perfect.
Continuing around the Scrape, I couldn't resist photographing these teasel seedheads near the sluice.
Our regular gull watchers pointed out a first winter Caspian gull from South Hide, but with time marching on I moved quickly on to the Wildlife Lookout, where more ducks performed. The avocet that had been present earlier was not visible, but a lovely little flock of eight linnets landed at the far end of West Scrape. Then a small group of barnacle geese put on a flypast - my queue to return to the office for the afternoon.
I didn't even head to Island Mere, where the bitterns, marsh harriers and otters have been regular all week.
Even without the sun, and with the limitations of both my camera and the photographer, I had a thoroughly enjoyable walk. So, whatever the weather, if you are looking for somewhere to enjoy a pre-Christmas walk, why not come along to Minsmere - you can treat yourself in the cafe too.
(PS you can come post-Christmas too, but remember that we are closed on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.)
Beautiful shot of the heron and stonechat. Whatever the limitations of camera and photographer they certainly didn't show on that picture. In fact they don't show on quite a lot of your photos! You are too modest.
Our herring gulls are red listed birds. Think about that the next time you hear some flaming idiot calling for a cull of them.