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This time last year, I was enjoying the delights of a South African safari on my honeymoon. This year, I’ve swapped giraffes, zebras and white rhinos in Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park for red deer, rabbits and foxes on Westleton Heath.

It’s amazing, but I’d go as far as saying that Minsmere’s deer have been an even bigger draw than the African big game.

In Africa, they always refer to the Big Five, and at Minsmere we’ve got our own Big Five. Ours are avocet, bittern, marsh harrier, bearded tit and nightingale, with nightingale replaced in autumn and winter by red deer. It’s these species that generally attract the biggest interest, and on the evidence of the last month I think red deer may have shot to the top of the pile.

They say a year is a long time in politics, but it seems only yesterday that we marvelled at the majesty of black-browed, shy and yellow-nosed albatrosses in the Southern Ocean on our once-in-a-lifetime pelagic out of Cape Town.

A year on, and Lindsey and I are preparing for another once-in-a-lifetime experience. This one promises to be even better, and the prospect is both scary and exciting. Any time now we are expecting our first child, so it will be a few weeks before I write again – when I’ll let you know how we’re getting on.

In the meantime, I’d like to welcome Louise Gregory to the Minsmere team as our new Volunteer Development Officer. You may have heard from Louise via this year’s Osprey Diaries from Loch Garten, and she’ll soon be sending you her thoughts on life at Minsmere on these pages.

Watch this space for more news on the exciting comings and goings at Minsmere.

Do you ever do something and then wish you hadn’t? The red deer viewpoint on Westleton Heath has been a bit like that. But it has been so popular that we’re glad we did organise it, despite the subsequent hassle that it has caused!

The viewpoint attracted an incredible 1100 people over the three evenings, and all went away happy, even when the fog rolled in and hid the deer. Mind you, their deep bellowing will have been even more impressive with zero visibility. The staff and volunteers on duty coped admirably, given that we had been expecting about 100 people per evening! We’ve drafted in extra staff and volunteers for this weekend as the weather forecast is good again.

Just after I posted my last entry, I took Minsmere’s Wildlife Explorers group out looking for footprints. Not surprisingly, we found a good supply of red deer tracks, allowing them to take plaster casts of the hoof prints. Incredibly, one group of four deer allowed us to approach to within a few metres – even with 18 excitable children and their parents. Just another case of Minsmere’s wildlife becoming unusually confiding.

An even better find on this event was a small whitish dropping, found by one parent. This proved to be a green woodpecker dropping. Looking carefully at it, we were able to see the remains of ants – and the nearby holes in the ground indicated where the woodpecker had been probing for them. It just shows what you can find when you start looking carefully at the ground!

Of course, there’s plenty of birds to see here too. The star attraction for the last few weeks has been a colour-ringed great white egret. This bird was ringed as a chick in northern France this summer, and seems to be quite at home in Minsmere’s reedbed – often feeding alongside a grey heron and little egret at Island Mere.

October at Minsmere means different things to many people. Maybe it’s the first leaves changing colour signalling the arrival of autumn. Or perhaps it will be arrival of winter migrants and the expectation of something rare – a yellow-browed warbler or Pallas’s warbler among the goldcrests maybe?

Given the chill wind today, perhaps October signals the start of winter. Afterall, it’s only three weeks till the clocks change.

For many though, October means deer. Red deer to be specific. For October is when the deer rut takes place. When hormone-filled stags compete for control of harems of hinds and the chance to spread their genes to next generation. When the deep bellow of these impressively large beasts echoes across the heaths.

The deer rut is always a popular spectacle at Minsmere. With one of the largest herds in England, it’s perhaps not a surprise. Especially given that these are largest land mammals in the UK.

Minsmere’s red deer rut guided walks have always been oversubscribed, even though they start at a chilly 7 am! This year we’ve decided to give many more visitors the chance to discover these stunning creatures.

We are opening a special red deer viewing area on Westleton Heath, complete with mobile information point and telescopes. The viewpoint is open for the next three weekends, on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, from 3 pm till dusk. Why not join us and take in the sights and sounds of the deer rut?