On Wednesday, I joined many of the wardens from the Suffolk Area Team, as well as other members of the Minsmere visitor experience, catering and admin teams, exploring our reserves farther south along the Suffolk coast. This was a chance to learn about the exciting work being done on these reserves, as well as sharing ideas with other members of the team.

During the day we visited three of our lesser known nature reserves…

It's been a superb spring day at Minsmere, with migrants galore a few notable surprises. The wet start clearly grounded a few migrants, and it didn't seem to put visitors off either.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the day was a cuckoo heard calling a couple of times beyond Island Mere late morning. This was a very early bird, with the bulk of cuckoos not expected to arrive for another two weeks or so. 

Cuckoo…

I took advantage of the glorious sunshine today and took a lovely walk around the Scrape at lunchtime. This week I am going to be away from the reserve for a few days on a training course and I wanted to have a good look around before I go as the reserve can change so much in just a few days. It was with this in mind that I began my walk I started thinking about all the changes I had seen on the reserve since I arrived…

I have always enjoyed searching games such as “Where’s Wally?”, word searches and spot the difference and today my walk around the reserve gave me both the challenge and satisfaction of these games. I started my afternoon walk in the hope of seeing a bird which many others have sighted recently but one which I haven’t seen before and one which had not been seen today. I headed to North Hide to look for the jack snipe…

I have always enjoyed searching games such as “Where’s Wally?”, word searches and spot the difference and today my walk around the reserve gave me both the challenge and satisfaction of these games. I started my afternoon walk in the hope of seeing a bird which many others have sighted recently but one which I haven’t seen before and one which had not been seen today. I headed to North Hide to look for the jack snipe…

The pond has really come alive this week with many sand martins returning from West Africa to breed in our sand martin cliffs. I walked down to the pond today to see the hive of activity there. It is simply amazing to see them darting around with such speed and agility particularly after making the journey back of around 3000 miles from Sub-Sahara Africa. I spent quite a lot of time watching these fascinating birds in…

What a weekend! With the dust finally settling (literally following Storm Katie's exploits), it's time to reflect on another exciting few days.

The fabulous weather on Good Friday tempted you all out in you hundreds, with Minsmere experiencing one of its busiest days ever. As Amy said in her blog, it was great to see so many happy faces, There was some good wildlife to spot too, including the first sand martins…

I left the comfort of bed early this morning to get to Minsmere early and make the most of a rare opportunity to sit in Island Mere Hide and enjoy the wildlife. Normally I am busy feeding little people and doing the nursery run before I get to work but as today was Good Friday I had the chance to sneak out the house early. I arrived on the reserve and began a leisurely stroll down to Island Mere. I was walking through…

Today is the spring equinox - officially the first day of spring, and the wildlife at Minsmere has clearly responded accordingly, with spring migrants, flowers, birdsong and reptiles all reflecting the changing season.

Chiffchaffs are invariably the first spring migrants to arrive, having only traveled as far as Spain and Portugal for the winter, though their exact arrival dates are confused by the presence of one or…

I was scanning the reed bed yesterday from Bittern hide looking in hope to spot either a bittern or an otter (or two) when I spotted another one of Minsmere’s iconic species that I have yet to have a close encounter with; the konik pony. Through the binoculars I thought they were absolutely beautiful and so therefore I set out on my lunchtime stroll today in search of a closer look. As I walked along past the Wildlife…

This afternoon I had the pleasure of going for a 4x4 safari with one of our experienced guides and the rest of the Visitor Experience team. The outing had been planned as part of my induction into my new role at Minsmere and also to help familiarise myself with the wider reserve. I was simply amazed by how far the Minsmere reserve stretches (around 1000ha) and overwhelmed by its natural beauty. As we drove over a steep…

For the first time in several weeks I completed the full circuit of the coast trail today. The north-easterly wind made it feel quite cool, especially on the North Wall and the top of the dunes. Out of the wind, though, the sun still had a bit of warmth, and the blue skies gave a lovely springlike feel to my walk.

The feeling of spring was enhanced by the birdlife on the Scrape. As I approached North Hide I was greeted…

As I drove up the road to the reserve this morning and saw the sun shining through the trees I knew today was going to be a fantastic day at Minsmere. It didn’t disappoint! It was a fantastic day both in terms of weather, visitor numbers and amazing sightings.

Although I didn’t make it out onto the reserve today it was lovely to hear all the stories of the sightings and to share peoples’ highlights with them as…

I don't think you could possibly have two more contrasting days that yesterday and today. Yesterday was dull, damp, dreary and downright miserable. So much so that less than 30 visitors actually ventured out onto the reserve. Our volunteer guides did brave the weather though, and found some interesting wildlife.

Today, in contrast, dawned clear and misty, with just a light easterly breeze. The blue skies were very…

It was a bit of a surprise to wake up to a snowy scene in North Suffolk today, though there was no sign of the white stuff on the ground once I arrived in Suffolk. It has been a cold day with regular showers and some bits of sleet mixed in. Not enough to put me off a lunchtime stroll to look for otters at Island mere though.

After a weekend of incredible otter sightings (as Amy wrote about on Saturday), and with several…

With it being Mother’s Day tomorrow I thought I would blog about the only known mothers on the reserve at the moment, the otter family. It has been otter madness all morning with the radio buzzing with reports of sightings of the otters. Four were radioed through as spotted at Bittern Hide this morning and five minutes afterwards four were seen at Island Mere Hide. Since then there were eight further sightings of otter…

Guest blog by Ryan Deal, regular Minsmere visitor and sometime volunteer guide

The great thing about Minsmere is, no matter how many times you visit, it’s never the same. My visit today was no exception.

With all the recent firecrest furore, I couldn’t resist a trip to the Rhododendron Tunnel to see what all the fuss was about. This meant breaking my usual habit of looking for Wesley (the water vole) on the pond…

I was greeted this morning when I arrived at work by a very familiar friend, a very pleasant pheasant! In fact I struggled to get out of the car door he was so close. He stared at me with his beady little eyes and refused to move. It was with this unrelenting determination that I decided to wind down my window to take a photograph of him and make him the subject of my blog today. He continued to stalk me into the office…

After the mildest winter on record, it really felt very springlike as I wandered down to Island Mere hide at lunchtime today. With the sun streaming through the open window I could easily have dozed off, but might have woken with a painful sunburn.

On my walk down Whin Hill I could hear a good variety of early birdsong - robins, dunnocks, wrens, chaffinches, great tits and a drumming great spotted woodpecker - signalling…

Excitement ran through me and I jumped out of my chair with my binoculars and camera after hearing over the radio that two stone curlews had just been spotted. I was shortly informed that the stone curlews had not returned yet (as February is a little early) but in fact that two curlews had been spotted on the stone curlew field! One of the lessons I have learnt today is that detail is everything!

I started my walk around…

I almost wish I'd been able to write this blog two weeks ago, as it would have been a perfect story for Valentine's Day - as indeed would be the recent proposal in the Wildlife Lookout that was reported via our Trip Adviser page!

This, though, is a story about a different type of ring, but it's origins on Adriatic coast of Italy merely add to the romanticism.

Our story begins (or perhaps I should really…

After a week or so away from the reserve, there's always plenty to reflect upon once I return - though the mountains of emails need to be dealt with first! 

Although my week was spent mostly sightseeing and visiting family, I was lucky enough to spot a some interesting wildlife on my travels: ring-necked parakeets and a beautiful close-up fox in London; red kites in Norfolk and along the A14; goosanders, goldeneyes…

Half term week at Minsmere has had many highlights. The sunny days have brought with them many visitors to the reserve and many great sightings. I have spent the week in the Discovery Centre helping families create nest boxes for National Nest Box Week so have missed my walks around the reserve but I have been thrilled by the updates I have received about what’s about.

The nest box event has been a great success…

You may have thought there had been numerous sightings of woodpeckers on the reserve today, but the tap tap tap was actually coming from the Discovery Centre! Today was the start of our Nestbox Building Event for National Nestbox Week. Many families sheltered from the elements and came into the Discovery Centre to make a nestbox. I was really impressed with the skills which were displayed when hammering these boxes together…

With National Nest Box Week only a few days away I thought I would blog about the busy preparations the team at Minsmere have been undertaking to get ready for this event. We are running a “make your own nest box” event over half term and are hoping to make 300 nest boxes. With this impressive target in place the team of staff and volunteers have been busy preparing the kits for visitors to build their own nest boxes…