Yesterday was one of those strange days where I had several interesting sightings, despite not actually heading out onto the reserve.
The excitement began when driving out of the reserve on route to a meeting at our Orford office. As I drove past Scotts Hall Cottage, my eyes were drawn to a stunning patch of red on top of a bush. It was a male bullfinch, looking respendent in the full sun. Bullfinches are not always easy birds to see, although Minsmere is a good place to look, but this one was clearly soaking up a few rays on a bitterfly cold day.
The rest of the journey was fairly uneventful, save for a buzzard soaring above a wood between Snape and Sudborne. Not so many years ago this was a very rare bird in Suffolk, but buzzards now breed widely in the county and the Orford area is one of the best places to look.
The return journey was equally exciting. First a brown hare ran across a field just Orford - a good area to look for these popular mammals. Then, just after spotting the third kestrel of the short journey, we saw a little owl hovering low over the middle of the A1094. Now I've seen many little owls - although they can be tricky to find locally - but this is the first time I've watched one hunting in this way. Kestrels and barn owls regularly hover over roads, but not little owls. I'm more used to seeing them sat on top of a roadside telegraph post or old oak tree.
But these were just the warm up acts. The best was yet to come.
As I drove out of Minsmere for the second time to head for home at 5.30 pm, in the semi-darkness of the post-dusk evening, I had one of the most unexpected sightings I can ever recall at Minsmere. Just beyond Canopy Hide, a large, sleek, dark mammal lolloped across the road right in front of the car, and disappeared into the woods. My first thought - for a split second - was fox or badger, as both are often seen in this part of the reserve. But there was something different about this mammal. It was much too slim for a badger - and lacked any white patches. It was also much too sleek and dark for a fox - and completely the wrong shape. No, only one thing could possibly fit the profile of the mammal I had just seen: an otter!
Of course, we've been seeing some incredible views of otters so far this year, but they've been in the reedbed from Bittern and Island Mere Hides. But this otter was running from an open grassy area (Whin Hill) into deep oak woodland. It was already at least 300 metres from water, and the next water in the driection it was heading was even further away. I know that otters often travel over land (i remember some incredible descriptions from one of my favourite books, Tarka the otter) but I still didn't expect to see an otter disappearing into Minsmere's woods!
An otter at Island Mere by Ian Clarke - possibly the one I saw?