Hope you all had a good Easter folks.
I spent the break in Shropshire, enjoying a good list of garden butterflies and a thriving colony of house sparrows - something I don't see many of where I live. Also had a great trip to Anglesey to see a selection of birds that are absent here in Suffolk: guillemot, razorbill, puffin, black guillemot, chough and raven, for example.
Two of the seabirds I watched nesting on Anglesey have been spotted at Misnmere today: a fulmar flew along the shore and a kittiwake was sat on East Scrape this afternoon. There have also been a few eiders offshore over the last couple of days.
The Easter weekend proved a good one for scarce and unusual visitors at Minsmere. Our second ever serin was spotted briefly on Friday. A late short-eared owl was present on Saturday. A purple heron flew north on Sunday - how could it possibly resist our lovely reedbeds though. More obliging was a wryneck that spent the afternoon near the sluice on Sunday - although it too remained elusive it did at least stay for a few hours. Yesterday saw an osprey, Montagu's harrier and Arctic skua head over, while yet another red kite has been seen today.
Although the weather is decidedly cooler today, with a chilly northerly breeze, spring has officially sprung for me as I heard my first cuckoo of the year this afternoon. Yes, it was distant, but there was no mistaking that call: "cuckoo cuckoo." I hope it won't be the last time I hear this rapidly decliing species.
North Bushes was alive with birdsong, even in the breeze. In 5 minutes I heard two lesser whitethroats, two nightingales, blackcap, willow warbler (a species that seems to be having an upturn in its fortunes locally this year), several chiffchaffs, dunnock and long-tailed tit.
Male blackcap singing by Jon Evans
There's a good variety of waders on the Scrape at present: two bar-tailed godwits among their black-tailed cousins; a motley collection of ruffs in typically varied plumage; turnstones rapidly acquiring their gorgeous breeding plumage; nesting lapwings and redshanks; about 150 avocets; a greenshank and a whimbrel. There's also good numbers of common, Sandwich and little terns and a few Mediterranean gulls. There seems to have been big increase in common gull numbers today too - mostly non-breeding birds. A drake garganey has been present for a couple of days but hasn't been spotted yet today - they are typically mobile and eluisve.
On the North Levels, the escaped greater flamingo remains at large, and is occasionally seen flying over the reedbed. I'm not sure what the bitterns and marsh harriers make of it! Another escapee is a white-cheeked (or Bahama) pintail from South America!
Our now resident escaped greater flamingo by Jon Evans
The recent mild weather has tempted out some early insects too: large red damselflies and hairy dragonflies were seen over the weekend, along with a brimstone butterfly. Orange tips and peacocks are now abundant, and speckled woods increasing. And several different species of prominent moth were caught in the traps over the weekend.