Minsmere Moments...

I am fortunate in that the RSPB's Flagship reserve at Minsmere is only a 30 minute drive from my parents home back in Suffolk, and therefore whenever I am home for a visit, I often make the (short) pilgrimage up the A12 to see what delights are on offer. I have found Minsmere's reputation to be both a blessing and a curse for the reserve. This is because people come expecting to have one of the infamous 'Minsmere Moments' which you hear about and read about in blogs, and if they do not experience this it can almost be a disappointment. For example, when I took Beth there for here first visit at the beginning of this year, we had a relatively quiet day (by Minsmere's standards) during which we only saw more marsh harriers than you can shake a stick at and a few avocets and therefore left feeling strangely let down. However, if you visit often enough, you will occasionally be rewarded with one of those moments.

I can think of three particularly special visits I have made - and dozens of other bloody good ones which of course shouldn't be discounted. The first of which was a couple of years ago when one Autumn afternoon the parents and I decided to head up the road after a spate of interesting sightings. For some inexplicable reason I did not take my camera and therefore missed a number of opportunities to get some fantastic pictures of some truly amazing birds. To summarise, in the short walk starting at the visitors centre and circumnavigating the scrape we had seen a wryneck in the North Bushes, a juvenile red-backed shrike from the North Wall, a Lapland bunting on the beach and a little stint from East Hide. It was truly phenomenal! I understand that all of these birds are regular passage migrants in this country and seeing one on a birding trip would not normally become a treasured memory (except possibly the wryneck, elusive little sods!), but to see all four in such a short time will always stay with me.

After an average Spring day walking around the two circular routes I stumbled wearily into (the old) Island Mere Hide and found a man with a huge amount of video equipment set up in the corner quietly looking slightly glazed over. A short while later I had established that he was on a mission from the BBC to film a bittern in the open and since they had been showing themselves very well of late in front of the hide that it seemed the perfect place to come. I also found out that he had been sitting there since just after dawn (it was now mid afternoon) with nothing but a few flight shots at distance - hence the slightly glazed look. Not long after arriving in the hide, a bittern flew into the reeds just to the right of the hide, but more importantly, just next to the clearing - everyone's collective breath was held hoping it would see fit to take a stroll in front of us. The glazed look was now long gone from the cameraman's face and sure enough, a bittern began to tentatively walk out from the reeds. Motordrives on cameras began to heat up as the bird became increasingly bold seemingly oblivious of the shutters rattling in the hide.

Bittern - RSPB Minsmere - Apr. 2010 - Mike Ixer

The bird then paused as if it had suddenly become aware of the cameras. What it had noticed we shall never know, but it was at this moment that it stooped down, began to inflate as it gulped in air and then gave one of the most distinctive bird calls you will ever hear. Yes, we (including the cameraman) had just witnessed a bittern booming right in front of us - truly incredible! If you want to watch the video (and let's face it, who wouldn't!), it can be found here on the BBC website. He (the bittern, not the cameraman) then pranced around a little more offering yet more opportunities for photographs.

Bittern - RSPB Minsmere - Apr. 2010 - Mike Ixer

Bittern - RSPB Minsmere - Apr. 2010 - Mike Ixer

Finally, having walked almost the entire distance across the clearing, he flew off into another part of the reedbed. It was at this point the excitement of everyone in the hide could finally be released after bottling it up so as to not scare the bird - people were borderline cheering after this display!

The final outstanding memory has to be at the back-end of Summer last year. It was the best time to be watching the terns because they were starting to migrate and this means that all sorts can 'tern' up (couldn't resist, sorry). I was in the hide overlooking the South Scrape where it seemed the terns were gathering. After just a quick scan the three breeding tern species had all made themselves apparent, they were common, sandwich and little. After a slightly more thorough scan a black tern suddenly stuck out like a sore thumb. Things were starting to get really interesting and, intrigued by the possibility of finding five tern species from one hide, I had a really detailed look amongst the assembled common terns in the vague hope of finding an Arctic - and sure enough, eventually one was found. At this point one of the volunteers arrived and after talking to him about the assembled mass of terns, I asked the irresistible question "Any roseate terns been seen?". Apparently they had! So commenced a number of detailed searches - but to no avail. After deciding I was just being greedy in wanting to see six tern species in one sitting someone gave the call that they had found the roseate. There it was, glowing slightly pink in the perfect light, thus completing the entire set of terns that you would hope to see (barring the really unusual ones).

This bout of nostalgia over my personal Minsmere moments has been brought on after a visit this weekend and an experience which almost qualifies. I arrived early(ish - not early by birding standards) and headed straight to the Whin Hill Watchpoint after reports of a glossy ibis being viewable from there. On my way there I was confronted by this in the middle of the path.

Red Deer - RSPB Minsmere - Feb. 2012 - Mike Ixer

I don't really know anything about deer, but is it not a bit late for young to still be feeding from mothers? Anyway, after arriving at the watchpoint, I scanned across Island Mere and the fields behind with my binoculars and was greeted by the sight of at least three marsh harriers cutting across above the reeds. Then, another birder allowed me to look through his telescope at the (incredibly distant) ibis. Without this scope I would probably have never seen a bird at that distance, let alone been able to identify it! Well it was still a new life bird for me - but there is definitely room for improvement when it comes to seeing my next one. After some further scanning looking for a great white egret which had also been reported, the call came out that there was a bittern flying over the reeds, and sure enough we all picked it up just as it dropped into the reeds. A few false alarms on the egret later (it is difficult to not try to turn little egrets into great ones when your looking for one) and I spotted what looked like a very large white bird come out of the reeds and start to gain height. After pointing it out to the assembled select group, it was confirmed as being the great egret just as it flew out of sight towards the South Levels. Now, there are not many places (in this country) that you could visit and having stood in one place for 30 mins be able to say you had seen 3+ marsh harriers, a glossy ibis, a bittern, a grey heron, plenty of little egrets and a great white egret. The only reason that this might not qualify right up at the top of my Minsmere moments is that the views, although identifiable, were very distant and definitely out of camera range.

So those are my current outstanding Minsmere moments and I look forward to hopefully having many more in the future.