Guest blog by Catherine Mercer, Little Tern Warden

If you’ve been out and about on Suffolk’s coast recently you may been lucky enough to see the arrival of little terns to our shores, marked by their high speed aerial displays and noisy chattering call. These summer visitors have completed a 3000 mile journey from Africa and are here in Suffolk to breed, at sites such as RSPB Minsmere, Kessingland beach, Felixstowe Ferry…

Minsmere’s new Young Wardens volunteer group.

The last meeting of the Minsmere’s Young Wardens group  was very successful, with 15 young people attending to learn about reptile surveying.

Once again, one of our Young Wardens, Lucy, has written a guest blog where she describes her experience of the session.

Saturday 18 April 2015

The April meeting was a total change from our previous ones and we went on a…

Guest blog by Ben McFarland, Suffolk Area Manager

Defending the Directives – urgent help needed to protect Minsmere and Havergate Island!

We are facing one of the biggest challenges in our 126 year history, and I’m asking for your urgent support today.

For the last 30+ years, the Nature Directives have been the bedrock for almost everything we have achieved. They provide the very best level of protection…

The beautiful warm weather over the last couple of days has encouraged a wider variety of insects to emerge as adults and take their first flights - though sadly it looks as if the temperatures may be set to fall again later in the week.

Two of our volunteers were out completing their weekly butterfly transect this morning and found an impressive (for early May) eleven species: brown argus, small copper, small heath…

I hope you all had a great bank holiday weekend, despite Sunday's rather wet weather - and this morning's! It looks like the April showers have arrived a little late this year - along with autumn gales in May, as once again the British weather bowls us a googly.

I've just enjoyed a few days up north, watching the puffins, gannets and other seabirds at the stunning RSPB Bempton Cliffs, and noticed the verges were…

On Tuesday morning a message came over the radio that there were good numbers of swifts over the reedbed. I looked at the date on my watch and remarked "28th April. Right on cue." Over the years I have come to expect the mass arrival of swifts to occur within a day or two on 27 April. Yes, we had a couple of early arrivals almost two weeks ago, but this was the first sign that swifts were arriving on mass. I haven't checked…

Minsmere's adders have proved extremely popular over the last few years, so we opened a dedicated adder trail this spring to make it easier to watch these amazing snakes without disturbing them. We also trained many of our guides to give them more confidence to find and talk about adders. Here's what one of our guides has to say about Minsmere amazing adders.

Guest blog by Davene Everett, Minsmere volunteer …

There can be absolutely no doubt that spring is here, despite the, at times, chill northerly wind that has been blowing this week. Wader migration is in full swing, warblers are arriving en masse, insects are flitting around the reserve in increasing numbers, and a few unexpected bonuses are thrown in too.

The pick of the waders this week has been a pair of little ringed plovers that displayed on West Scrape on Monday…

If you are visiting Minsmere and don't have a pair of binoculars with you, don't worry.

For a start, you can enjoy a lovely walk through our beautiful habitats without the need for binoculars. You may also meet our lovely volunteer guides who are happy to help with ID and let you look through a telescope.

We also have binoculars that you can hire from the shop - especially useful if you've forgotten to bring…

One of Minsmere’s most familiar faces has been acknowledged for his outstanding services to Suffolk’s environment at a prestigious local award ceremony this week.

John Grant has been visiting Minsmere for about 40 years, and has been a volunteer guide for several years. His enthusiasm for Minsmere is infectious, and whether volunteering or simply visiting, John has helped to inspire hundreds of visitors.…

Yesterday was a red letter day for me in many ways. I had a rare full day birdwatching, saw my earliest ever swift, and found the rarest bird I've actually found for myself at Minsmere - and that's on my day off!

I usually only manage to have a quick lunchtime walk, or visit one or two hides with my family, but yesterday I visited with an old college friend for a proper day birdwatching. I brought my family along…

Is it really mid April? With the thermometer hitting the mid 20s Centigrade yesterday and today it feels more like mid July than mid April - and with the unseasonably warm weather have come scores of migrant birds, flooding onto our shores.

Such has been the variety of migrants arriving this week that our What's About blackboard in reception has been full by lunchtime, and everyone has had the chance to spot something…

The breeding season is really getting underway now, with nests and displaying wildlife appearing throughout the reserve.

One of the most popular species at this time of year is always our great crested grebes. If you are lucky you may spot their famous famous weed dance - though usually only snippets of the full display. At least three pairs are at Island Mere, with one pair nesting close to the hide and providing a…

The cool temperatures and persistent easterly and northerly winds over the past week have delayed the arrival of some our expected early migrants, but with southerlies forecast for a few days, and a rise in temperature, hopefully a few more will arrive this week.

Sand martins and swallows have slowly started to trickle in, though only in ones and twos so far, and chiffchaff numbers remain relatively low. There was a…

It seems to have been “party conference season” recently, as we’ve attended several excellent conferences to celebrate success in both the tourism and conservation sectors over the last week or so.

On Friday 20 March I joined delegates from across Norfolk and Suffolk at Visit Suffolk’s annual conference, #SuffolkUnlocked.

Organised in conjunction with the students at University College Suffolk…

Firstly, apologies for the delay since my last sightings blog. I’ve spent much of the last week in conferences or meetings (more of that later), and then the Community pages had to be closed for maintenance. At last they are back on line, so here's an overdue update.

The last time I updated we were buzzing with the excitement of a white-tailed eagle soaring over Island Mere. Since then we’ve had a few more…

Guest blog by Jamie Everett, volunteer reserve assistant

The little tern is a very special bird to me, with my first memories of seeing them on a boat trip on the Walton backwaters looking for grey seals. A flock of twenty or so dashing over my head got me instantly hooked! With long narrow wings, a black bandit’s mask and a bright yellow bill, what’s not to love? They’re also incredibly agile hunters, hovering low over…

Wow! I'm still trying to get my breath back after running to the Whin Hill watchpoint to see one of the most impressive of British birds, a juvenile white-tailed eagle, circling low over Island Mere. With a two metre wingspan and broad wings, these truly are impressive birds, and it totally dwarfed the crows and marsh harriers that mobbed it as it slowly gained height before drifting off south.

It's not often that…

I'm sure you've seen in the national media or on social media that a new vote has been launched this week to choose Britain's National Bird. The last time such a vote was held, in the 1960s, the robin was chosen, but it has never been officially recognised as such. More recently, in the 1990s, the blackbird was voted Britain's favourite birdsong. Both species are among the final ten this time, but there are eight other…

There are many good reasons to be looking at the sky this week.

On Friday and Saturday evenings we are working with two local astronomy groups to bring you star gazing at Minsmere. These events, which are free, take place in the Discovery Centre from 7.30 pm to 9.30 pm, and there is no need to book. Let's hope for clear skies on both evenings, especially as the events coincide with BBC Stargazing Live.

Perhaps even…

What a fantastic few days we've had. The spring sunshine has led to unseasonably high temperatures, reaching well into double figures, and prompted the emergence of various insects, reptiles and amphibians.

Several people reported seeing adders over the weekend, especially between Bittern Hide and Island Mere. If you are looking for adders, please take care and stay as close to the paths as possible. We will often…

Guest blog by Lucy Hickman, young wardens group member

Saturday 21 February 

This month we learnt lots about trees and how the reserve wardens manage the forests. We learnt things like fallen down, old, rotted trees can often support more insect life in them than the healthy growing ones.

We started off by collecting all of the tools and learnt how to use them. Here are pictures of the bow saws and loppers. We used these…

Today, 3 March is the UN World Wildlife Day. In celebration, I thought I'd share a pictorial overview of some of Minsmere's amazing wildlife.

Let's start with otters. Late winter and early spring is always the best time to see these popular mammals, and they put on a particularly impressive show yesterday morning. A female and two cubs spent quite a bit of time close to the hide, while the male also appeared…

Guest blog by Stephen Mitchell-Cox, volunteer reserve assistant

On Tuesday 17 February we took part in the annual beached birds survey (2014 results here). As a reserve along the Suffolk coast we were asked to survey the beach between Aldeburgh’s Martello tower and the National Trust coastguard cottages at the north end of Minsmere. The task was for us four volunteers to walk the approximately 16 km (10 miles) stretch…

It's been a while since I posted an update on the ongoing work to replace the predator-proof fence around the Scrape.

When I let you know about our plans before work started, in a blog back in November, we were expecting to finish the work this week. While work has progressed well, we're not quite complete, so with the permission of Natural England we will be continuing for a few more weeks.

Recognising that…