A week near Minsmere (1 Viewer)

ClarkWGriswold suggested I should post this in the main forum rather than ex-beebs so thought I'd do so, though I should stress that I'm no hardcore birder and prefer to wander around and look for general wildlife rather than chase reported sightings.

Just got back today from my spring holiday to Suffolk, lots of wandering around the heaths and forests in the countryside around Westleton, Dunwich and Minsmere. Saw loads of stuff, will attach a list below, the highlights being Stone-curlews, Little owls, Turtle Doves, mating Green Tiger Beetles, Nightingales, Cuckoos and Red Deer (which I got rather closer than I was comfortable with at Minsmere!).

Didn't spend 'that' much time at Minsmere itself as the crowds tend to put me in a foul mood and I prefer walking around the heaths and woods out in the regular countryside. That really was wonderful and we saw much more interesting stuff on those outings than we did at Minsmere, though watching a singing Cetti's Warbler near island mere was great and seeing a sparrowhawk attempting to hunt swifts over the island mere was quite something!

We had a fantastic cottage, there were pheasants in the garden, along with blackcaps and bullfinches and from the back door you could hear tawny owls and cuckoos calling nearby and distant bitterns booming. We could also hear Stone-curlews a short walk down the road, where there were also wood larks singing. The work they're doing around this area seems to be working as we heard Stone-curlews all over the place! I had some suet pellets and tamed the garden birds with them - we had a woodpigeon come into the kitchen looking for them and robins, blackbirds, dunnocks and a female pheasant at the door too. Also had a female chaffinch coming down to collect bits of the coir door mat while we were sitting at the door with it open and Red Mason Bees making holes around the doorframe. Was great but made dragging yourself away to go out a lot more difficult than it should have been!

We found two male Adders in different places (one at Minsmere in the same spot where I'd previously seen a Slow Worm) but met a lot of people that had been looking for them without success... impossible to say but the bad weather may have affected them. The people at Minsmere said the Bitterns started booming a month late this year. We also saw lots of Green Tiger Beetles, and saw two of them mate - we got a really good view of them and were able to show them to some other people walking there. Also saw one hunting and it caught an ant and ate it in front of us, which was very cool!

This is the species list I drew up over the holiday, though I'm sure I've missed off some and my brother still has to work out some of the insects we saw.

Barn owl
Little Owl
Tawny Owl
Chaffinch
Bullfinch
Greenfinch
Goldfinch
Linnet
Yellowhammer
Reed bunting
Coal tit
Blue tit
Great tit
Long-tailed tit
Bearded tit
Robin
Dunnock
Wren
Goldcrest
Blackbird
Mistle thrush
Song thrush
Nightingale
Stonechat
Wheatear
Nuthatch
Starling
House sparrow (more than I saw in previous years, which is somewhat encouraging)
Cetti's warbler
Chiffchaff
Willow warbler
Blackcap
Sedge warbler
Whitethroat
Pheasant
Red legged partridge
Kestrel
Marsh harrier
Sparrowhawk
Buzzard
Red kite
Carrion crow
Rook
Jay
Jackdaw
Magpie
Moorhen
Coot
Little Grebe
Mallard
Shelduck
Tufted duck
Shoveler
Gadwall
Canada goose
Barnacle goose
Greylag goose
Mute swan
Grey Heron
Cornorant
Bittern
Lapwing
Redshank
Godwit (not sure if bar or black tailed)
Oystercatcher
Avocet
Stone curlew
Black headed gull
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Large gull (herring? too far/bad angle to ID)
Wood pigeon
Collared dove
Stock dove... possibly, but too distant to be sure of ID
Turtle dove
Cuckoo
Swift
Swallow
House Martin
Sand Martin
Green woodpecker
Great spotted woodpecker
Skylark
Woodlark

Bats (mainly pipistrelle I think)
Red deer
Muntjac deer
Foxes
Rabbits

Adder x2!
Smooth Newts

Spider hunting wasp (anoplius viaticus)
Green tiger beetles mating
Red mason bees
Orange tip butterfly
Peacock butterfly
Small copper butterfly
'blue' butterfly (possibly holly blue)
Leafhopper
Crane fly
Bumblebees
Carder bees
Bee fly
Common blue Damselflies
Large red Damselflies
Wolf spiders
Wood ants
Tiny wasps - both gall and ichneumon I think
Springtails
Shield bug
Ground beetles
common heath moth
Caddis fly larvae
Backswimmer
Whirligig beetle
Pond skater
Water snail?
Rove beetle
Minator beetle
Smaller dung beetle
Hoverflies - various
Sawfly
Mosquito
Weevils - various
Blowflies
St marks fly
Garden cross spider
7 spot ladybird
Harlequin ladybird

...and Owl Midges

Nice report it's a great area but the crowds at minsmere especially at the weekend can be a bit much get there early is the key!

I got up to minsmere quite early on friday and the island mere hide was completely deserted but within half an hour the rest of the reserve was filling up and by the time I'd been to bittern hide and the visitor centre I'd had enough of all the people and headed out of the reserve to walk some of the footpaths around the woods and farmland/heaths for the rest of the day, which was much more enjoyable.

Thankfully the areas outside the reserve are much quieter and people seem mostly to zoom in by car and head straight for the reserve hides, which seems crackers to me but it keeps most of them away from the nice little quiet areas. :t: