Am I a 'proper' birder now? ...

My time at home during the Easter holidays would not be complete without at least one trip to the RSPB's Minsmere reserve seeing as it is only a 35 minute drive from home. Alas with the weather predicted to take a turn for the worse, and other plans filling what remained of the good weather, I was forced to become a real birdwatcher and leave the house before sunrise on a Sunday.

So the normally mundane journey up the joyless stretch of road which is known only by the designation A12 began. It seems to be true what they say about the birds being more confiding and generally more active at dawn and as the sun rose to my right I saw pheasants by the bucket load, the silhouette of a heron heaving it's self through the sky, corvids leaving their night time roosts and the sublime sight of a barn owl carrying off an unwitting rodent from the roadside verge.

I arrived at Minsmere at about 6:30 and managed to negotiate my way around the outside of the new visitors centre (which looks lovely) and onto the reserve. After a stop in North hide I headed across the recently rebuilt North Wall when suddenly the redshank and lapwing population screeched into action drawing my attention to the Peregrine which was speeding over the Scrape. After everything settled I continued to East Hide where I was confronted by plenty of waterfowl and a bewildering array of gulls.

Wigeon - RSPB Minsmere - Apr. 2012 - Mike Ixer

Having had a good 'whistle' at me, this male wigeon decided to pose quite nicely for a photo.

Wigeon - RSPB Minsmere - Apr. 2012 - Mike Ixer

Having searched through the relatively easy to identify waterfowl my gaze turned to the masses of gulls. The vast majority were black-headed who were all either engaged in scrapping or making amorous advances - it seems to be a subtle line between the two. In amongst the black-headed gulls were handfulls of both common gulls and the truly black-headed members of the Minsmere gull family, the Mediterranean gulls.

Spot the Med. - RSPB Minsmere - Apr. 2012 - Mike Ixer

Of the larger gulls the adult herring and lesser black-backed were easy to spot and the comparatively huge juvenile great black-backed gull stood out. The final gull species which I'm pretty sure was present was an adult caspian gull, though this is stretching my gull i.d. too it's limit - a limit which was pushed to breaking point by the numerous large 2nd calendar year birds. But I guess you can't complain at seven gull species from one hide!

Other birds worth mention from this hide would be the not so numerous waders who still seemed to be pretty lethargic at this early hour. A couple of groups of avocets were balancing on one leg whilst still kipping, as were two spotted redshanks until one was good enough to raise it's head to allow me to i.d. it. The three ruff were the exception to the general wader lethargy as they were busy feeding the whole time I watched.

The walk around the rest of the scrape provided very few highlights from the hides, however whilst looking over the flooded area where the Konik Ponies often are I heard a rustling over my shoulder in the reeds. Without turning around (for fear of disturbing the unknown rustler) I peered over my shoulder to see a stunning male bearded tit sat the the top of the reed no more than 3ft behind me. It was one of those glorious and awful moments where you can look and appreciate a perfectly contented bird knowing full well that the slightest hint of you turning around, either to ease the discomfort of peering over your shoulder or to photograph it, will send it diving deep into the reeds. Further around the path when I was between South and West Hides a usually elusive Cetti's warbler decided to perch all to briefly in front of me - what a missed photographic opportunity!

I entered the woodland to continue my early morning stomp by heading towards Bittern Hide and promptly got distracted by that rarest of birds - a pheasant. It is not the greatest of pictures, but I think it shows both the stunning markings on the birds and it's pearlescent colourings.

Pheasant - RSPB Minsmere - Apr. 2012 - Mike Ixer

I arrived in Bittern Hide at about 9:45 and saw one other birder in there - the first time I had shared a hide this trip! The first thing to catch anyone's eye when they arrived was not a bird, it was these four.

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

Shortly after my arrival one of Minsmere's volunteers arrived and started chatting to the birder who had already taken up residence. "Seen much this morning?" the volunteer asked.
"There were 3 bitterns wandering around in the open earlier" said the birder.
"Wow! What time did you get here?" the volunteer exclaimed, at which point I was feeling smug thinking I did the proper birders thing this morning by getting here at 6:30.
"I was sat in here at 5 this morning." said the birder.
"DAMN, I'm still not a proper birder!" I thought. Oh well...

The sun was not in the best of positions so I ended up with plenty of silhouetted shots, like this one.

Water Rail - RSPB Minsmere - Apr. 2012 - Mike Ixer

And this one.

Female Marsh Harrier - RSPB Minsmere - Apr. 2012 - Mike Ixer

Then came the chance to make up for the frustrations of missing out on the earlier Cetti's warbler when this obliging individual made his way through the undergrowth below the hide and then sat and sang for us!

Cetti's Warbler - RSPB Minsmere - Apr. 2012 - Mike Ixer

I waited a bit longer for one of these three bitterns to reappear, or possibly the return of one of the otters he had also seen that morning, but eventually, as time was pressing, I decided to move on towards Island Mere and met this chap on the way.

Muntjac Deer - RSPB Minsmere - Apr. 2012 - Mike Ixer

Island Mere was more busy and there were some seriously large camera lenses pointed out the window - but no sign of anything unusual, especially bitterns. After a while of people shooting hundreds of shots of marsh harriers, I saw this silhouette circling overhead.

Glossy Ibis - RSPB Minsmere - Apr. 2012 - Mike Ixer

I put out the shout to the hide (a nerve-racking experience in it's self) that there was a glossy ibis overhead. Everyone picked it up and watched as it circled around a number of times before coming to rest out in front of the hide. By this time the sun had moved (or the Earth had moved so the sun appeared to have moved Mr Science Teacher) so that everything in front of the hide was pretty silhouetted. I did however manage to get these pictures which were definitely better than nothing!

Glossy Ibis - RSPB Minsmere - Apr. 2012 - Mike Ixer

Glossy Ibis - RSPB Minsmere - Apr. 2012 - Mike Ixer

Eventually, still bittern'less but richer thanks to the ibis, I had to leave to get back home with the bird still parading around.

It was well worth the 5:30 get up and I would recommend it to all!