Minsmere RSPB Reserve, Suffolk
Monday July 28th 2014
My return visit to Minsmere was a memorable one even though the pratincole seemed to have left.
No less than 17 species of wader were seen from the one hide, something I have never experienced before.
Many were close enough to video, such as this adult avocet...
.. and this young lapwing.
You can see how much food is available here, even to short-billed waders like lapwings - the mud is teeming with flies.
This video is half normal speed.
The black-tailed godwits here were mostly adults, as revealed by the patchwork of ginger feathers on their backs, a remnant of their full summer plumage.
The redshanks were difficult to film, dashing about all over the place so this sequence has been slowed down a bit.
I think this is a young bird as its legs were distinctly yellow.
This common sandpiper was pretty rapid as well.
A walk up to the new bittern hide produced two species of deer, red deer and muntjac, as well as a couple of very rare plants that had been signposted by the RSPB - red-tipped cudweed and round-leaved wintergreen.
...here's the red-tipped cudweed
...and the round-leaved wintergreen
Another 8 bird species were added today, mostly at Minsmere but a couple (jay and tawny owl) added back at my camp site.
This brought the bird list up to 95 species over the 3 days, with no less than 50 species seen from the east hide alone!
Minsmere east hide list:
Cormorant
Grey heron
Little egret
Shelduck
Mallard
Shoveler
Gadwall
Teal
Hobby
Snipe
Curlew
Oystercatcher
Avocet
Black-tailed godwit
Redshank
Greenshank
Spotted redshank
Ruff
Common sandpiper
Dunlin
Knot
Sanderling
Lapwing
Ringed plover
Turnstone
Collared pratincole
Lesser black-backed gull
Great black-backed gull
Herring gull
Black-headed gull
Common gull
Little gull
Kittiwake
Common tern
Little tern
Sandwich tern
Moorhen
Coot
Woodpigeon
Starling
Pied wagtail
Swift
Swallow
House Martin
Sand Martin
Blue tit
Carrion crow
Jackdaw
Magpie
Linnet
