Day at Minsmere

Wednesday 24th April 2019

Day at Minsmere

WEATHER

16’C in car when we arrived. Sunny blue sky.

On the way coming through Henham in the woods there was a carpet Blue, the Bluebells were all out.

The Nest Box with the camera in it has a pair of Great Tits in it and there are nine eggs in the nest.

This week when we stopped at the North Wall, we had a tweet waiting for us! The Stone Curlew was sitting on a nest. Luckily, Steve one of the Volunteer was there and he lowered his Scope so I could have a clearer view. After seeing the Stone Curlew, I had a search through my Binoculars and found a Male Black-Cap sitting in a bush that was the first one I have ever seen and along the North Wall Path, I saw my first Sedge Warbler and a Reed Bunting too. I see the Reed Bunting a lot.

When we were going back for Lunch, the Sand Martins were going in and out of their holes in the Bank.

As it was a nice day, we decided to have Lunch outside, and while we sat there, we could hear the Sea and it sounded rough, it was not just the rough Sea that we could hear the Gulls were making as much noise today too. There are a lot more Gulls around this week and I noticed that there was a number of the Black Headed Gulls are starting to build their nests on the Scrapes.

After Lunch, we walked down to the Sluice, as we got past the South Hide and along the Sluice path; there was a Black Cloud over Sizewell. The next thing we felt was little spots of rain, and then they got a bit bigger, so we turned and headed straight for the South Hide. Once we were settled in the South Hide the rain had stopped and the sky was Blue again. Out the front of the Hide looked like Gull City.

We been in the Wildlife Hide for a while and I saw the Black Winged Stilt fly past and land and the back of the Scrape near the number three marker post. I was not the only person to see it the people sitting on my left saw it too, but did not see where it landed.

That was the end of a great day at Minsmere.

 

North Hide                   Wildlife Hide               Behind Wildlife           South Hide

Little Egret                   Grey Heron                   Mute Swan                    Barnacle Geese

Greylag Geese              Gadwall                                                             Coot

Canada Geese              Teal                                                                   Black Tailed Godwit

Shelduck                       Oystercatcher                                                    Bar Tailed Godwit

Mallard                         Black winged Stilt                                             Redshank

Moorhen                                                                                                   Mediterranean Gull

Avocet                                                                                                      Grt Black backed Gull

                                                                                                                 Sandwich Tern

                                                                                              

Behind South               Pond                             North Wall                   North Wall Path

Shoveler                        Pheasant                      Stone Curlew                Common Tern

                                      Black Headed Gull         Lapwing                        Sedge Warbler

                                                                            Dunnock                       Black Cap

                                                                            Blackbird                      Reed Bunting

                                                                            Magpie

 

Bank                             Car Park                      Café                              Heard

Sand Martin                  Grey Wagtail                Robin                            Stone Chat?

                                      Jay                               Blue Tit

                                                                          Great Tit

                                                                          Chaffinch

                                                                          Goldfinch

North Bush

Bearded Tit

Sorry if this do not look neat I Copy and Pasted it from my Minsmere Note Book in Word.