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Happy 60th birthday Minsmere!

On 25 April 1947, the RSPB signed an agreement to begin managing Minsmere as and RSPB nature reserve. A few weeks later, avocets were found nesting here, and the long association between the two was formed.

Sixty years on, Minsmere is still home to one of the largest colonies of avocets in the UK, and these elegant wading birds represent one of the great conservation success stories.

Minsmere regularly makes the local news headlines with stories of breeding bitterns, marsh harriers or stone-curlews or interesting insects. This week the local media has descended en masse to help us to celebrate our 60th birthday. I’ve been inundated with calls from TV, radio and newspapers. There’s more information elsewhere on the website.

April’s weather has been superb, and many visitors have enjoyed fantastic views of avocets, black-tailed godwits and Mediterranean gulls on the Scrape or bitterns and marsh harriers in the reedbed.

Some migrants, including lesser whitethroats and swifts, returned early, but others were delayed by poor weather in Spain. Our nightingales only just got back in time for the first dawn chorus walk, and the common whitethroats were at least two weeks late.

To celebrate our 60th birthday, we’re organising a special weekend on 28 and 29 April with free entry to Minsmere, plus free guided walks, pond dipping and more. Why not come and visit? But come early, because we’ll be busy.

Look out for other events during the year to celebrate our birthday.

Hi

I love this time of year, as you really don’t know what to expect next once migrants start to arrive. Chiffchaffs are singing everywhere, and we’ve already seen a few early summer visitors at Minsmere, including willow and sedge warblers, wheatears, sand martins, the first swallows and a stunning black redstart.

Marsh harriers are sky-dancing over the reedbeds, at least eight bitterns are already booming, and avocets are bickering on the Scrape. These are sure signs that spring has arrived.

However, sometimes it’s the common species that give the greatest pleasure, and that’s been the case this month. The pond in the old car park was almost bubbling a few weeks ago with the activity of mating amphibians.

Large groups of frogs and toads were massing, with a dozen or more males clambering onto a single female in an attempt to mate with her. The accompanying frog chorus was quite impressive too.

The result of all this activity has been strings of toadspawn around the reed stems and masses of frogspawn among them. There could be plenty of tadpoles in a few weeks.

April will see the return of most of our summer visitors, including nightingales, various warblers, cuckoos and swallows. Will they bring anything unusual with them this year?