It was a beautiful day at Minsmere today, hot but with a pleasant breeze to stop it getting too oppressive. It was a bit quiet on the birding front – I guess it's just that time of the year. However, we did get a couple of good close views of Bitterns flying over the reeds and there were a few Marsh Harriers cruising about and being agressively mobbed by Common Terns. Pretty feisty birds those terns.
The real stars of the day, however, were reptiles and amphibians. On the track to the West hide we found a lovely Slow Worm, which is something I haven't seen for years. Photo here:
http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=93154
On the way back from the hide we noticed several people watching something in the pond by the old car park. I assumed it would be the Water Voles which have set up home there. When we arrived, however, it turned out to be a Grass Snake in the water which had grabbed hold of a Frog by the legs. It was trying to drag the Frog under the water, presumably to drown it, but the Frog was putting up a fight and had inflated itself to about twice its normal size, making it very difficult to swallow. It was grabbing hold of reeds to prevent the snake from dragging it under.
Apparently the struggle had been going on for about half an hour and every so often the snake would let the Frog go, and then return for another attack. Watching the Frog fighting desperately against the inevitable outcome, through binoculars, was actually rather harrowing and when we left the snake had released the Frog and swum to the side of the pool. However the Frog wasn't swimming away to escape so I think it was destined to end up inside the snake before the evening was finished.
That was how we left them but sometimes nature can be just a little too … 'natural'. It's hard not to get anthropomorphic about it.
Ron
