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After such a mild autumn, it was amazing to still see leaves on the trees in early December. The gales soon blew most of these off, before the first frosts of the year finally signalled the arrival of winter in the week before Christmas.

As has been widely reported, 2006 has been the warmest year since records began, and this has had an undoubted effect on wildlife. Even so, I was amazed to be told that five house martins were still flying around the power station at Sizewell on 19 December. They should be in Africa by now!

Earlier in the month, we even had bramble bushes in flower, so I was half expecting to be able to pick blackberries for Christmas.

On 17 December, I helped with a coordinated count of roosting marsh harriers on the Suffolk coast. Not many years ago marsh harriers were just summer visitors in the UK, but as the population has increased, more and more stay for the winter. An incredible 102 were seen going to roost at various sites, including nine at Minsmere and 20 at RSPB North Warren.

Marsh harriers are superb birds to watch, and it's hard to believe that only one pair remained in the UK in 1971, when they nested at Minsmere. With more than 350 pairs now nesting, and the population having spread out of East Anglia, these fantastic birds are becoming a more familiar sight for birdwatchers.

So, after another eventful year, I hope you've had a great Christmas and enjoy a fruitful New Year. Why not visit Minsmere this year as we celebrate the reserve's 60th birthday in 2007? Look out for details of various events to mark this major milestone.

Just as I was preparing to attend the I Count rally in London, we were reminded of the increasing threats to our wildlife from climate change.

On 1 November, strong northerly winds and a surge tide caused considerable erosion of the sea defences on the Suffolk coast. The waves that morning were the most impressive I've seen on the east coast.

At Minsmere, the dunes at the northern end of the reserve were badly eroded and breached completely in one place. This exposed the inner, secondary defences to the power of the sea, threatening the important freshwater reedbeds in North Marsh. Although a small amount of saltwater did overtop these defences, there should be no lasting damage to the freshwater habitats.

A few miles to the north, RSPB Dingle Marshes nature reserve once again came off much worse. Almost two kilometres of shingle bank was washed out to sea, flooding most of the reserve with saltwater. Two deep channels remain, allowing the sea to flood through on every high tide.

Dingle Marshes is important for nesting bitterns and marsh harriers in the reedbed and lapwings on the grazing marshes. These are likely to be affected next year by a lack of food as many fish, invertebrates and earthworms, on which they feed, have been killed.

Later that week, we were pleased to welcome Geoff Hoon MP, Minister for Europe, to Minsmere to see how the RSPB has successfully spent EU LIFE money to benefit bitterns and other reedbed wildlife, and to manage the Scrape for avocets and terns.

After such a dramatic start to the month, the rest of November seemed much quieter in comparison particularly when our usual starling roost failed to materialise. Instead of 50,000 starlings per night, we only have a few hundred at present, as they have chosen to roost elsewhere.

Other wildlife has been more obliging. There were several sightings of otters, regular visits from Bewick's swans, and increasing numbers of wildfowl. The continuing mild weather also meant that a few red admirals were still about at the end of the month, and I even saw two house martins over nearby RSPB North Warren nature reserve this week.

October is the month of the red deer rut. Many of you probably watched BBC Autumnwatch and saw Simon King bringing us all the news and stories from the rut on Rhum. It's much better in real life, where you combine the sight and sound with smell, especially as Minsmere's red deer are even bigger due to better quality grazing.

We ran several guided walks to watch the deer rut this month, all fully booked, but the deer didn't always play ball. The rut started early this year, which meant it finished early too. This just highlights the joys and frustrations of watching wildlife.

It has been an excellent autumn for fungi. I'm not very good at identifying these fascinating plants, but there seem to many more than usual at Minsmere, including a superb group of poisonous fly agaric toadstools.

Large parasol mushrooms have sprouted up on many grasslands, and the stinkhorns in the woods lived up to their name – the smell really is pungent. Adam Rowlands, Minsmere's Senior Site Manager found an enormous puffball that must have measured at least 30 cm across.

Although the leaves have been slow to change this year, our grey squirrels and jays have been busy collecting and storing acorns and chestnuts in the woods. On the Scrape, hundreds of ducks have now returned for the winter, and we will soon be witnessing one of nature's most spectacular sights: thousands of starlings gathering to roost.

Judging from how busy we've been this month, many visitors have enjoyed the beauty of an autumn on the Suffolk coast. I'm sure the superb weather must have encouraged people to enjoy a late break. The school half term has been one of busiest weeks of the year, with many children enjoying making bird feeders on our Feed the Birds Day event.

An unusual visitor to Suffolk was a red-flanked bluetail. This rare visitor from Siberia spent ten days at Thorpeness, on the edge of RSPB North Warren, and attracted large crowds of birdwatchers. It was a lovely bird, if a little lost.

I hope many of you can join me on 4 November, when I'll be joining thousands of other people concerned about climate change at the Stop Climate Chaos's I Count rally in London. See you there.

Last month I mentioned one of our most distinctive summer visitors, the hummingbird hawkmoth. Over the last few weeks, you may have noticed stories in the media, or on this website, about other moths at Minsmere.

The reason? We have been celebrating the discovery of the 1,000th species of moth and butterfly found at Minsmere. This was a moth called the many-lined - a scarce visitor from the continent. Since announcing this fantastic news, we have added yet more species to the reserve list.

How do we know how many moths there are here when they mostly fly at night? One of wardens, Robin Harvey, and a volunteer called Jeff Higgott, have spent hours recording the moths that visit special traps. The moths are attracted to bright lights, then caught in a box full of cardboard egg boxes to be studied and released the following morning.

Over the last three years, Robin and Jeff have discovered many new species at Minsmere, including the Minsmere crimson underwing - a species never seen in Britain until being found at Minsmere two years ago. Minsmere is now firmly established as a superb place to watch insects, as well as birds.

Minsmere is also important for mammals, and our large red deer herd will soon start their annual rut. You should be able to see the deer from the roadside as you enter or leave the reserve this month.

Throughout the summer, water voles have obligingly shown themselves to visitors near our pond dipping area. And over the next few months, we expect to see a bit more of our otters on Island Mere due to the low water levels while we carry out reedbed management work.

All this confirms that to manage a nature reserve for birds, we also need to manage it for everything else. Minsmere is a great example, with incredibly diverse populations of a wide range of species. Why not visit us this winter and learn more about this superb reserve from our guides by joining a guided walk?

Typical, isn’t it? After such glorious weather in July, our family activity days took place in dull, windy weather – though at least we missed the rain.

Despite the wind, we still welcomed about 300 children and their parents over the two days. Everyone learnt about how our world is changing, with activities about coastal change, recycling, albatrosses and much more. Our volunteers and staff are fantastic, as it takes a lot of time and effort to run these events.

For the children, the pond dipping and bird ringing demonstrations are always fun, but the other activities give more learning opportunities. For many families, completing an eco-footprint quiz was quite enlightening. We hope a few will change their lifestyles to reduce their scores. Our guest stars, Owlbert and Squeak, were popular too.

August has been generally wet, with many very heavy showers interspersed with lovely sunny spells. On our last pond dipping day, families continued pond dipping even during a torrential shower!

Despite the rain, there have been few birds on the Scrape, as it needs a few weeks for the invertebrates to breed and ‘restock’ food supplies for the wading birds and ducks.

As last month, insects have been one of the main attractions in August, especially hummingbird hawkmoths. Up to six of these fascinating moths have been feeding on the buddleias all month – even in the rain!

As their name suggests, hummingbird hawkmoths look and behave like hummingbirds, hovering close to flowers and probing their long tongues deep into the flower in search of nectar. They are scarce migrants, and this has been a good year. You may even have seen one in your garden.

As autumn approaches, we now have our winter events programme available. Copies are available from the reserve, and all events are listed on this website. We’d love to see you on the Suffolk coast this autumn.

The British weather is always a popular topic of conversation, and for the last month it has been very hot news - literally as well as metaphorically.

July looks set to have been the hottest on record, and at Minsmere we have seen no more than a few drops of rain all month. The result has been a gradual drying out of the Scrape and other wetland parts of the reserve. Usually in such circumstances, we move some water from the reedbed to replenish the Scrape, but we haven't been able to this year as several bitterns are still nesting.

One consequence of the low water levels has been the earlier than usual departure of most of our avocets and a decline in migrant waders. Where there is still water on the Scrape, it is attracting a good variety of gulls and terns.

Elsewhere on the reserve, there has been a profusion of butterflies and dragonflies. The buddleias outside the visitor centre are covered in peacock, red admiral and painted lady butterflies and silver Y moths. Many of these are migrants from the continent, as was a lesser emperor dragonfly, which was the reserve's first record.

The first of our pond dipping activity days this summer attracted about 50 children plus their families to explore the mysteries of the pond. Adults are as excited as the children to catch dragonfly larvae, newts, water boatmen and a variety of other tiny creatures.

This week (3 and 4 August) we have our popular annual family event. Titled 'Our changing world', there are a range of activities about climate change, pollution and recycling, including pond dipping, games and craft activities. Owlbert and Squeak, two of the RSPB wildlife Explorers characters, are due to make special guest appearances. Why not bring the family for a great day out?

Well, I did it! I managed to complete the 40 miles of the Suffolk Coast Sponsored Cycle Ride. It was hard work though, as I hadn't ridden my bike for a few years.

Cycling is a great way to see the countryside, and to enjoy wildlife that you miss while sat in a car. For example, I very rarely see yellowhammers when I am driving to work, yet I heard many of these lovely buntings on the ride.

Luckily, the cycle ride didn't take too much out of my legs, as I had to lead several guided walks in the following week. We've been pleased to welcome several groups for special visits to Minsmere this month, including hosting one of the Aldeburgh Festival Walks.

The Aldeburgh Festival, at Snape Maltings Concert Hall, is a popular event for classical music fans, and one of the highlights of the year locally. We welcomed about 120 festival goers to Minsmere for a guided walk and lunch. The weather was superb, which added to the enjoyment of the day.

The bird highlight of the month was a summer plumaged spotted sandpiper at the start of June. This wader from North America was the first one ever found at Minsmere and attracted many twitchers. As it turned up while I was working at the Suffolk Show, I was pleased that it hung around for a couple of days. It was a very welcome and unexpected bird.

As usual, June was barely two weeks old when the first south-bound migrants returned. Having been to the Arctic, and failed to breed, the first spotted redshank arrived at Minsmere on 10 June. We had more than 20 here this week. Other waders and wildfowl are already on the move, too.

The other big event in June was the discovery of a red-veined darter, a rare migrant dragonfly. Sadly I didn't see it, but it was another example of what a fantastic place Minsmere is for wildlife, not just birds.

With rain on and off for most of May, who'd have thought we were in the middle of a drought? Luckily, despite the damp weather, most of our wildlife appears to be thriving.

By the end of the month, several female bitterns had started doing their feeding flights - a sure sign that they have hungry young waiting in the nest. The first avocet and black-headed gull chicks have appeared on the Scrape, too.

Our reedbed birds of prey have performed well for the crowds. Marsh harriers have recovered from just a single pair at Minsmere in 1971 (the only ones in Britain), to 350 nesting females in Britain last year, including 12 at Minsmere. The announcement of this massive increase in their numbers generated a lot of media interest, much of it focused on Minsmere.

Marsh harriers are almost guaranteed on any visit to Minsmere. The hobby is less predictable, so it's always a joy to see this spectacular falcon. Hobbies are summer visitors, returning to Britain in late April before heading back to Africa in October. They are extremely agile, and can even manage to catch sand martins on the wing.

For most of the year, though, dragonflies are a hobby's main food. I never tire of watching hobbies cruising over the reedbed before darting after a dragonfly, which they catch in their talons, in flight. Still flying, they lift the dragonfly to their beak, remove the wings and then swallow the insect. This month, hobbies have regularly been seen hunting in front of Bittern Hide in small parties. Wonderful!

The May blossom (hawthorn) and bluebells have been in full bloom for the last few weeks, adding a sweet aroma to the air. Now the duneland flowers are coming into bloom, and with young birds everywhere, why not visit us this June?

On Sunday 18 June, I will be cycling 40 miles in the RSPB Suffolk coast bike ride. If you'd like to join me, please send an SAE to us at Minsmere. Alternatively, you can sponsor me to raise money for Dartford warblers. Just contact us for details.

At last it feels like spring has sprung, although many plants are still a few weeks behind. The hedgerows are full of blackthorn blossom, with the yellow flowers of Alexanders lining the verges, but it won’t be long before our bluebells come into bloom.

Most of the summer visitors have now returned, although the sand martins are yet to start cleaning out their nest burrows outside the visitor centre. At the sluice, our regular swallows have returned and are already playing to the crowds by sitting on fence posts and walls and allowing visitors plenty of good photographic opportunities.

Some of our usually elusive species are performing particularly well. At least one bittern is spending so much time in the open outside Bittern Hide that one visitor recently referred to it as illiterate because it hasn’t read the textbooks.

I think this is a good description. I have often commented that we need to put it back in its cage or switch the remote control off! If all bitterns were such show offs they’d probably lose their appeal.

Nightingales are always a popular attraction at Minsmere in April and May, but they are typically difficult to see as they skulk in thick undergrowth. With many leaves sprouting later than usual, there’s less cover around this year, so some people have been lucky enough to have good sightings of these wonderful songsters. A couple of weeks ago I even managed to get several good photos of a nightingale – I hope you like this one.

Our dawn chorus walks have been as popular as ever this year, so we’ve also run several nightingale and warbler walks a little later in the morning.

It’s amazing how many people will turn out in the early hours to experience the magic of early morning birdsong. The combination of hearing nightingales and booming bitterns is such a unique opportunity that many of you are prepared to forego a good night’s sleep to experience it. Luckily, our wardens and volunteers are happy to lead the walks too.

Last month I posed the question of what the spring would bring. This month I feel like asking, 'What spring?'

With temperatures well below the national average, and cold northerly or easterly winds were more reminiscent of January than March, even the daffodils decided not to bloom, so it was hardly surprising that summer visitors were slow arriving. One advantage of the cold weather is that the shore lark and smews stayed until the last week.

Avocets usually return to Minsmere in good numbers in early March, but this year they were very unpredictable until late in the month. During the last few days there have been more than 200 avocets on the Scrape.

We're pleased to see several Mediterranean gulls on the Scrape and hope that they might decide to breed again.

The first summer migrant finally returned when a black redstart took up temporary residence on the visitor centre for a few days from 24 March. Sand martins, wheatears, chiffchaffs and even a few swallows arrived over the next few days.

I've been busy this month helping colleagues put together the information needed to put in a bid for external funding for our planned major visitor facility developments. If you want to find out more about these plans, please give us a call.

I also managed to fit in two trips to RSPB Havergate Island to help with training their volunteer guides. If you've never been to this wonderful island I really recommend it. Remember though, that places are very limited, so you need to book in advance.

Now we are planning for a busy weekend of guided walks, pond dipping and other activities on 22 and 23 April when we hold our first 'Spring on the Suffolk Coast' celebration weekend. Please come and join us.

If you're going to the RSPB Members' Weekend in York next week, come and say hello. And why not join me for the early morning bird walk? It's fun, really!

Two of Minsmere’s special reedbed birds have hit the headlines in February: bitterns and marsh harriers.

Chris McIntyre, one of volunteer guides, heard the first booming bittern on 1 February. This is an exceptionally early date, and a quick trawl through the records showed that it only just failed to beat the earliest ever record – 31 January 1997. The story generated a lot of media interest, and helped us to have a very busy half-term week.

When bitterns start booming, it sounds more like a grunt than a full boom, while they tune up. Booming remained intermittent during the month, and the current cold snap will probably mean that bitterns fall silent again, but from mid March they should become much more vocal. At least one bittern has regularly been showing in front of the Bittern Hide, too.

A much easier bird to see at Minsmere is the marsh harrier. These fabulous birds of prey should be seen here on any visit, yet as recently as 1971, there was only one breeding pair in the UK, at Minsmere, while in the early 1980s less than twenty marsh harriers wintered in the country.

On 9 February, several staff and volunteers carried out a co-ordinated count of roosting marsh harriers on the Suffolk coast. The result was an amazing 61 harriers counted between Benacre and the Butley River, including 16 roosting at RSPB North Warren. There are similar counts in parts of Kent and Norfolk during the winter.

This morning I had to stop the car to avoid a huge flock of siskins feeding on the road. I presume they were eating alder seeds washed from the trees by the rain. It was an impressive sight, and once again showed the unpredictability of birdwatching.

What will the spring bring?

The unpredictable winter weather hasn't put off visitors to Minsmere. I hope even more of you will be inspired to visit by the article about Minsmere in the latest issue of BIRDS magazine. We've certainly had a lot of interest.

Our first family event of the year, to make bird feeders ready for the Big Garden Birdwatch, was popular. We hope many of these families will return later in the year to enjoy the reserve's wildlife, too.

The wildlife continues to inspire and surprise us. Although we haven't had anything as unexpected as the recent whale in London, many visitors have been pleased to see bitterns, otters or smews.

Drake smews have to be among the most beautiful birds in Britain, with a delicate black and grey pattern on their mainly white plumage - they are also known as 'white nuns'. They can also be tricky to find. One morning I was watching a drake smew on Island Mere, with three females, when an otter swam across the mere. The ducks and coots formed such a tight flock that it was quite difficult to spot the white drake surrounded by about 60 black coots.

Another wildlife highlight for me this month came thanks to a muntjac deer. As I was walking through the woodland, the muntjac ran off ahead of me and flushed a woodcock.

Woodcocks are beautifully camouflaged so that they blend into the leaf-litter - I would not have seen it had it not flown off. Yet another example of how luck as well as patience and good eyesight are needed when birdwatching.

As I have mentioned before in this diary, Minsmere is constantly under threat from the rising sea levels on the Suffolk coast.

To highlight these threats, and explain what we are doing about it, the RSPB and several of our partners have recently published a leaflet called Suffolk’s Changing Coast. Contact me if you'd like a copy.

Just to remind us how serious the threat is, just days after the leaflet was launched there was yet another breach at nearby RSPB Dingle Marshes. Such breaches are now annual events, and cause serious damage to the freshwater habitats and wildlife at the reserve.

At Minsmere, the same high tides caused extensive erosion to the dunes, severely weakening our sea defences. Much of the shingle used to repair a breach two years ago has been lost to the sea, and the dunes are now much narrower than before. We hope that the dunes can withstand further high tides during the winter.

Looking to the future, we have just made a planning application for a major redevelopment of our visitor facilities, aimed at improving the service that we are able offer our visitors. If successful, we will be looking for external funding for the work, which we hope will be completed by spring 2008. For further details, please contact me at Minsmere.

I was lucky enough to spend half the month birdwatching in India. It seemed strange to see so many familiar birds so far away from home, mixed with the many stunning Asian species. A real treat was to be able to watch hundreds of vultures feeding on dead animals - something that few people will be able to see again due to massive declines in their numbers.

Back at Minsmere, there are finally signs that the long autumn is coming to an end and winter has arrived. There were snow showers over the weekend before Christmas, while wildlife highlights included the first waxwing of the year, soon followed by the first returning smew on Island Mere.

Have a great Christmas and New Year.

It seems strange to be sitting typing this in Arctic weather, with occasional snow showers and a biting northerly wind, while many of the trees are still in almost full leaf. The autumn has been incredibly late this year, with house martins still heading south throughout the first half of November.

Despite this, our winter wildfowl have returned, with both Bewick's and whooper swans being seen regularly and record counts of gadwalls. A shore lark has been the first to linger at Minsmere for several years.

There can be no doubt as to the wildlife highlight at Minsmere this month, though. Our regular late autumn starling roost has been spectacular.

Starlings are one of my favourite birds, and a species that I can never tire of watching. Even just watching one or two in the garden or at the birdbath is a treat, especially when the sun brings out the green and purple sheen of their plumage.

If you're still to learn to love these wonderful birds, then I recommend finding out where your nearest winter roost is: they even roost in town centres. If you are able to visit Minsmere over the next few weeks, you can witness one of Britain's greatest wildlife spectacles.

Thousands of starlings start to gather from about an hour before dusk. Many of them settle on islands on the Scrape for a quick pre-roost bathe. So many of them can be present that the islands literally turn black. Eventually, they decide that it's time to head to their roost in the reedbeds.

This is when starling roosts are at their most spectacular. At Minsmere, hen or marsh harriers, sparrowhawks or even short-eared owls may attack them. When a bird of prey is around, the starling flocks split into smaller, tight groups, or all form one huge flock, wheeling around the sky to distract the predator.

The sight of up to 50,000 starlings in the air together is magnificent, and the sound can be equally impressive. As each new squadron joins the flock, you can almost feel the wind from their wings passing low overhead. Why not come and witness it for yourself. You can even do your Christmas shopping while you're here.

To see wild animals up close is always memorable, and this autumn the wildlife at Minsmere has provided many encounters which have been a delight for me and other visitors.

Our deer-watching events are always extremely popular, as people delight in getting close views of Minsmere's red deer. October is THE month for watching red deer. The sound of stags bellowing to assert their authority is rivalled by the sight of these impressive beasts emerging through the mist at first light.

At the other end of size spectrum, goldcrests are Europe's smallest birds. It is amazing to think that thousands of these tiny birds migrate from Scandinavia each year. The effort of crossing the North Sea is too much for some, which will fall into the water and perish. Fortunately, many do arrive on our shores, exhausted, and in need of a rest before resuming the search for food.

Walking along the dunes one morning, I disturbed two tired goldcrests from the path. They landed just in front of me, so I stood to watch them. To my delight, one started hopping towards me. Incredibly, it kept coming closer, and eventually landed on my shoe, before disappearing into the dunes again. Sadly, I was too slow to photograph it.

Later in the month, I finally saw a bittern on the ground from Bittern Hide. I regularly see bitterns at Minsmere, but, being very secretive birds, good views on the ground are rare. There have been many occasions when bitterns have been reported walking around in front of Bittern Hide or Island Mere Hide for several hours - until I arrive.

This time I was lucky. As I walked into Bittern Hide with a friend, the bittern was in the open. It quickly disappeared, only to re-emerge a few minutes later. We watched it for about an hour and a half, until it was too dark to see any more.

To have the chance to watch such rare birds at close quarters is a pleasure. Every movement was in slow motion, apart from the final strike for food. We watched it catching small fish, frogs and invertebrates. A superb way to end the day!