While it's not exactly easy to see a bittern at Minsmere, there are at least several sightings every day, and Minsmere is certainly one of the best places to look for these elusive herons. Most of these sightings will be from Bittern Hide or Island Mere, or other locations with a view across the reedbed. Occasionally you may spot one from the visitor centre, especially in the spring when females fly higher and further on their feeding flights.
But, as ever when it comes to wildlife watching, you should always be ready to expect the unexpected, and so it was for two of our volunteer guides, Mick and Graham, this morning. Having paused at the start of the pond boardwalk to admire the birds-nest fungus that is again putting on a good show, they wandered a couple of metres farther along the boardwalk and stopped to watch pond skaters and waterboatmen below them. Suddenly, and taking them totally by surprise, a bittern flew up from the edge of the pond just a few metres from them. Whether this was one of "our" bitterns, or a newly arrived migrant from northern Europe, we can't tell, but the choice of feeding location was unusual. With no fish in the pond, it may have been searching for freshwater invertebrates such as beetle or dragonfly larvae, or perhaps a tasty newt.
A bittern fishing by Jon Evans
It was the start of an interesting day for both Mick and Graham, as they spotted a good variety of wildlife to show to visitors and report back to the visitor centre. They did miss a few goodies though, as several visitors were lucky enough to see a short-eared owl (two ladies even showed us a photograph of one), while neither our our guides spotted the two late house martins that flew over the visitor centre just after lunch.
Perhaps the bird that attracted the most attention today was a lovely male brambling that was seen several times beneath the feeders around the visitor centre. There was a constant stream of marsh, coal, blue and great tits, goldfinches, chaffinches and greenfinches on the feeders too. Nearby, redwings, fieldfares, siskins and a bullfinch were seen in the North Bushes, while a mistle thrush has already started singing around the car park.
Mistle thrush by Sue Tranter (rspb-images.com)
The Scrape remains a hotspot for ducks and gulls, with daily sightings of at least one each of yellow-legged and Caspian gulls. It's a bit of a challenge to find them though, as yesterday's volunteer guides reported more than 700 large gulls on East Scrape alone. Our avocets have finally all departed, but waders on the Scrape today included 15 black-tailed godwits, 10 dunlins, two curlews and a knot. In addition, four snipe were at Island Mere, and about 120 lapwings were feeding north of the North Wall this afternoon - the latter alongside 30 red deer!
The flock of Bewick's swans now numbers 15, and while they usually spend the day feeding south of Island Mere (where they should be viewable from Whin Hill), they also visit both Island Mere and East Scrape. The great white egret continues to show only occasionally in flight, and a kingfisher whizzed past Island Mere Hide today too. No otters were reported today, but they have been regular recently. Finally, three goldeneyes (an adult male, female and young male) landed on Island Mere mid afternoon. Hopefully they will stay for the winter as these beautiful ducks were very scarce last year.