When I woke up on Saturday morning to a bitter north wind I thought to myself, well at least the sun is shining! That thought didn’t last long as on the drive into work the skies opened and it poured with rain! I always pay attention to the weather but I was particularly interested on Saturday because it was the first meeting of the new Wildlife Explorers group and my first meeting as their group leader. I had optimistically planned to do a walk and introduction to the reserve and I had asked one of our expert guides Davene to show the group some adders. Saturday’s weather definitely wasn’t very inviting for the adders!
Excitement rippled through the air as the group met up and friends were reunited and new friends made. We divided the group of thirteen into two one group heading out in search of adders one the other on a Where’s Wiley challenge with myself. Wiley is a birding friend of the famous character Where’s Wally. I had previously hidden Wiley and seven of his friends around the reserve, high and low and some in quite challenges places to spot. I set out with the Wildlife Explorers group on a walk around the reserve in search of Wiley, Chris Peckham, Michaela Bracken, Owlfie, Pete Pricklepants, Nutty, Malcolm and Bluey. Once the Wildlife Explorers had spotted a character they had to mark on a map of the reserve where they had found them with the aim of enhancing their map reading skills and knowledge of the reserve. As well as looking out for Wiley and friends we were also on the lookout for some of the wonderful wildlife around the reserve.
We started off in the wildzone practising the use of our binoculars before heading down to the pond through the woodland. At the pond we observed the sand martins in their large numbers speeding through the air over the pond and the many garden birds in the nearby bushes. We then walked through the woodland observing a treecreeper on the way and towards the Wildlife Lookout with Cetti’s warblers singing in the reedbed. I made a comment about how I had never seen a Cetti’s warbler as they are easy to hear but difficult to spot. It was at this point that the Cetti’s warbler flew up and along the reedbed a little. A first for both myself and the group.
Treecreeper by Jon Evans (rspb-images.com)
Each year the Minsmere Wildlife Explorers group makes a list of all of the bird species they see and try to beat it year on year. We had only covered a very small part of Minsmere reserve but were off to a good start already! From Wildlife Lookout we observed many black headed gulls, mallards, gadwalls, shelducks, moorhens, greylag geese, Canada geese and avocets very close to the hide. We then headed back to the Discovery Centre to meet up with the adder group and swap over to the next activity.
Avocet by David Tipling (rspb-images.com)
The other group had also had a lovely walk and enjoyed searching for adders and learning a lot about them, but due to the weather the adders were not obliging in showing themselves. Bentley (one of Minsmere’s male adders) had been considerate enough to slough (shed) his skin a few days previously for Davene to show her group.
I really enjoyed taking the Wildlife Explorers around the reserve and was thrilled by the infectious enthusiasm and interest in nature within the group. Despite it being a rather chilly Saturday they were all really positive and keen to go wildlife exploring. One of my favourite moments was after ducking and diving from rain showers most of the morning we finally got caught out and it started to hail. One of the group then said “It’s better than rain, it just bounces off!”
If you are between the ages of seven and twelve or know someone who is that would like to get involved with the Wildlife Explorers group or to find out more information about the group please email amy.lever@rspb.org.uk