OK, so it may be not be Mediterranean weather, but with Glastonbury just finished and Wimbledon underway, what more do you expect? But there is certainly a Mediterranean feel to Minsmere right now as large flocks of Mediterranean gulls are gathering on the Scrape. Numbers fluctuate during the day, and tend to peak in the evenings, but there have been at least 20 present most days, and peak counts in excess of 80. They…

Guest blog by Stan Singleton, Volunteer Minsmere guide

Volunteering!  Why do we do it?  Life already offers other interests, obligations, but it is the lure of several hours in the fresh air and, here at Minsmere, an opportunity to watch wonderful bird-life. Absorbing bird song becomes a way of life wherever I am, but at Minsmere there are the booms of bitterns, the crazed chatter of Cetti's warblers and the "chack" of…

Guest blog by Rhiannon Baker, Assistant Little Tern Warden

Nationally, this year hasn’t got off to a good start for our little terns. We have been hearing the same tune from other sites as far as Ireland, all saying that the terns are late and numbers are half what they should be. This could be due to combination of reasons, including strong northerly winds at the beginning of the season holding them up on migration…

As the BBC Springwatch team were leaving on Sunday, Minsmere played host to another exciting event in partnership with Aldeburgh Music and BBC Radio Three. As part of the annual Aldeburgh Festival, Aldeburgh Music hosted a series of events around Messiaen's Catalogue d'Oiseaux. Starting with a dawn walk at Snape Maltings, the day included a four-part performance of this famous piano piece, with recitals at Snape at dawn…

As Springwatch draws to a close for another year, the wildlife can once again return to centre stage at Minsmere, and many species are already vying to steal the limelight. 

Bitterns in particular have been very popular, with one male continuing to parade around in front of Bittern Hide, even booming out in the open at times. The female that is nesting near Bittern Hide is also easy to spot (with some patience) as she…

One week of Springwatch left, one great tit chick left, one great spotted woodpecker chick and one water vole baby! On Monday I blogged about how difficult it was to tear myself away from the Springwatch live cameras and how I was struggling with deciding where to go around the reserve. It has only got harder! I am now like most of the country completely rooting for the last remaining great tit chick to successfully fledge…

I am finding work very difficult at the moment. It is so hard to decide where to take my lunchtime walk because there is just so much going on around the reserve and I am also finding the drama unfolding on the Springwatch live cameras too hard to resist. The live cameras are so addictive and I have been finding myself checking in on the different nests at all hours of the day and night! It is really lovely to watch the…

Have you been keeping up with the excitement from week one of Springwatch? There are so many stories unfolding, with drama at every turn. Will the stone-curlew egg hatch? How will the single parent blue tit fare? Did the sparrowhawks catch the female swallow? How will the avocet on the Scrape get on? And then there's the puffins and shags on the Farnes, and the golden eagles in Scotland, as well as the many stories of…

Guest blog by Emily Irving-Witt, Lead little tern warden for Suffolk

Whilst the little tern recovery project staff eagerly await the ‘re-tern’ of one of our rarest breeding birds to Suffolk beaches, we have been busy monitoring the progress of another endangered nesting shorebird, facing similar threats to those of the little tern.

The ringed plover is a characterful wader, with a black-tipped orange beak…

Half term got off to a very exciting start here at Minsmere with the arrival of some very important visitors... no not the Springwatch team (although we are very pleased and excited to see the Springwatch crew here again) but the BBC Blue Peter team. A group of children came to Minsmere from Benhall Primary School to do a bioblitz around the reserve as part of the National Garden Bioblitz event.

A bioblitz is searching…

One of our volunteers known to many as ‘Stan The Man’ shared with me some of his excellent photographs today. Many he had taken on the reserve this morning. So this blog is a bit of a guest blog to share these pictures with you.

Bittern Hide has been busy with sightings this morning with four otters being seen at 6.45 am.  Bitterns have been showing really well from Bittern Hide and Island Mere Hide throughout…

It hardly seems a year since the BBC Springwatch team rolled out of Minsmere after another exciting series, in which a 5 cm long stickleback stole the show and won people's hearts.

A year on, and the BBC production village is complete, the set has been re-dressed, and the everything is gearing up for Springwatch series 12, the third season that this popular programme will be broadcast from RSPB Minsmere.

There is…

Guest blog by Emily Irving-Witt, Lead little tern warden for Suffolk

Little terns

We should feel privileged that little terns (Sterna albifrons), the UK's second rarest breeding tern and an extremely rare breeding seabird, decide to breed on our UK coasts. They grace us with their presence each year from May to September, migrating all the way to our beaches from West Africa, where they spend the winter. You can often…

I spent a while on Saturday afternoon in the warming sun and relentless wind at the North Wall watch point. I was looking for stone-curlews to do some live interpretation to Saturday’s visitors and gain some more information by getting a few to fill in our stone-curlew questionnaire. As I was positioned with the scope on the area they have most frequented several visitors stop to talk to me. Many of them had come to Minsmere…

Working at Minsmere has many benefits, not least the regular close contact with nature that I can experience on a lunchtime stroll. Even simply listening to singing chaffinches or looking at the flowing hawthorn is enough to remind me what a wonderful job I have.

But every so often at Minsmere we all have a close wildlife encounter that lingers in the memory, and yesterday I experienced one of those days.

I should have…

I was itching to get out of the office and onto the reserve today for a lunchtime walk for many reasons.

1. There had been sightings of little terns on the reserve today.

2. Kittiwakes were reported on the scrape.

3. Hobbys had been spotted across the reserve.

4. Juvenile adders had been about over the weekend.

5. It was a gloriously bright (if not warm) day.

6. I had missed Minsmere.

Last week I was…

On arrival at Minsmere this morning I was greeted to a veritable feast of birdsong - nightingale, garden warbler, blackcap, Cetti's warbler and whitethroat were all singing in the scrub between the car park entrance and the Discovery Centre. Add in blackbird, robin, dunnock, chaffinch, blue tit and great tit and there's no need to walk far to hear a superb variety of songbirds.

There's a real springlike feel…

Following on from yesterday's blog about insects and insect-eaters, Jenny James, committee member for the RSPB Woodbridge local group, has written today's guest blog highlighting the work that the group are doing to help these declining birds.

Our Woodbridge Swifts group is up and running.

We have our first swift nestbox on a public building in Woodbridge – Woodbridge Tide Mill. Look up as you pass by the main…

The sudden and welcome increase in temperatures has seen the emergence of a good variety of insects over the last few days - as well as the annual emergence of human lower legs as the shorts get their first seasonal airings.

At least six species of dragonflies and damselflies have been seen so far: hairy dragonflies, four-spotted chasers, large red, common blue, variable and blue-tailed damselfies.

A variable damselfly…

Guest blog by our Area Manager for Suffolk, Ben McFarland, who tells us about his important meeting with a local MP who we’ve asked to champion the plight of the bittern.

A cold wind was blowing on my back, but the sun shone bright as we stood at the top of Whin Hill, next to the BBC Springwatch studio, looking out over the reedbed. The view is magnificent and my heart swells to know that the swaying reeds below…

I didn’t have to venture far from the Visitor Centre today before I encountered some of Minsmere’s mammals and some great invertebrates too! I set off on my afternoon stroll to see whether I could see any stone-curlews from the North Wall viewpoint and also to see some bearded tits as there had been many reports today that they have been showing really well from North Wall and near to South Hide. My walk was halted at…

I was eagerly optimistic as I left my desk at lunch time and walked down to Bittern Hide. I had recently heard over the radio that there had been many sightings of bitterns in flight today and I thought that today may be the day that I saw a bittern for the first time. As I strolled down the hill with the sun on my face I could hear a male bittern booming and I thought that definitely was a sign that I would be in luck…

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…

Working at Minsmere has to be one of the best jobs ever - even if I do spend much of the day in front of a computer rather out enjoying the wildlife. Afterall, as highlighted in the latest (Summer 2016) issue of Nature's Home magazine, Minsmere is the Number One RSPB nature reserve when it comes to biodiversity - the variety of life found here. No fewer than 5798 have been identified here. We are also top of the charts…

Yes folks, it's official. It may be quite cold outside, with a chill breeze and only intermittent sunshine, but summer is here. One of our guides reported the first swift over the Scrape this afternoon. With several swallows and house martins over Island Mere this morning, and well over 100 sand martins around the nesting bank, there's plenty of aerial insect-eaters here despite the cooler weather.

A swift…