Last night I had the pleasure of visiting the Theatre Royal in Norwich for an evening of superb entertainment as the cast and crew of The Sound of Music came to town.

There are so many familiar songs in this musical, but one song in particular got me thinking - hence the title of this blog. If I was writing these lyrics, what would I include?

Obviously my wife and son would be top of the list, as would a good roast dinner, apple crumble, West Bromwich Albion Football Club (sorry to all those who don't follow football, but the season does start again tomorrow).

For this blog, though, I thought I'd focus on some of my favourite things about Minsmere, in no particular order:

  • the cheese scones and cakes in the tearoom - the former are especailly popular with my family too
  • watching dragonflies around the pond or butterflies on the Buddleia bushes
  • early morning or late evening strolls around the reserve, taking advantage of excellent light and often having the reserve to myself (not that I get much chance to visit out of hours these days)
  • meeting many of our visitors, enthusing them about their visit or exchanging information about sightings
  • helping children and families to discover nature, as we did to great effect at our family day yesterday. If you haven't brtoght the family yet, then we have three more family days planned on the next three Thursdays. Activities are free and there's no need to book. Our new facilities, that will be open by Easter 2012, will offer even more for families to do 
  • watching the annual deer rut in October - look out for details of our viewpoint on these pages soon
  • listening to nightingales and warblers from the office in spring
  • sitting quietly in Island Mere Hide waiting for a bittern to appear, watching marsh harriers drift by, or simply forgetting about the world away from Minsmere. I'm really excited about the new Island Mere Hide that will be built this autumn
  • the unpredictability of wildlife watching - who would have thought we'd have a flamingo take up residence this spring, or a lesser kestrel paying a visit last year?
  • the people - staff, volunteers, visitors - who make working here so much fun, even when the Inbox and to do list are bursting at the seams

My son Thomas enjoying pond dipping - combining several of my favourite things!

There is so much more that I could say. I think you get the picture. Minsmere is just such a fantastic place to work and visit that it is definitely one of my favourite places. In fact, come to think of it, I could say the same about any of our Suffolk caost reserves - North Warren, Snape, Havergate Island or Boyton Marshes, and many other RSPB reserves further afield.

Oh, and one more thing. One of my absolute favourite things is being an RSPB member and knowing how that helps the RSPB to acheive so much. If you haven't joined yet, please consider doing so.