It's not everyday that we get a superstar visiting Minsmere, so you can imagine our excitement when we heard that Mr Bond was at Minsmere. Yes, 007 himself. Here on the Suffolk coast.
OK, so this Mr Bond is not the spy who has single-handedly thwarted every international terrorist for the last 50 years in endless films based on the novels of Ian Fleming. It is, in fact, a swan!
Not just any swan though. This is a Bewick's swan fitted with a neck collar to allow it be tracked more easily by scientists from the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust. The neck collar bears the lettering 007T, so staff at WWT have named him Mr Bond. You see, every single Bewick's swan is individually identifiable by WWT scientists due to the unique pattern of black and yellow on the bill, so hundreds of swans have been given names. We wouldn't usually know these names, unless we were able to read a leg ring, but neck-collared birds are easier to spot.
Quite apart from the collar, Mr Bond's arrival is slightly unusual. By mid February, Bewick's swans are often preparing to begin the long journey back to Arctic Russia, yet Mr Bond and a few companions (he certainly seems to have a mate) has only just arrived from Holland - where he was last spotted. It's likely that the mild winter encouraged these swans to stay farther east than usual, before the recent cold snap finally persuaded him to move west. Mr Bond was first seen on Thursday, and Bewick's swan numbers peaked at 56 on Sunday.
The Bewick's aren't the only wildfowl still migrating west much later than usual. Smew numbers peaked on Thursday at an incredible 29. This is almost certainly a reserve record count, and probably the biggest flock in Suffolk for 25 years. Numbers have fluctuated since, but there are still at least ten birds present. They were joined by a goosander over the weekend too.
During the severe cold weather over the weekend, almost the entire Scrape and Island mere were frozen, with large flocks of ducks roosting on islands or sliding across the ice. As the thaw has set in, many of these ducks have spread out across the reserve, with big flocks of wigeons grazing on the Levels this morning. Among them is a very unusual bird. It is a hybrid between Eurasian and American wigeon, with head markings like an American wigeon but body plumage more like that of our familiar Eurasian birds. It's likely that the American parent was blown across the Atlantic by autumn gales, then paired up with and migrated with the Eurasian birds. The offspring has now found its way to Minsmere. It showed well on the Scrape during the icy weather, but sadly I couldn't pick it out on the Levels this morning.
During a guided walk this morning we saw three pintails, three pochards and about a dozen tufted ducks on the Scrape among the gadwalls, shovelers, mallards and teals. Most of the lapwings have moved south to escape the cold, but there was a redshank on the Scrape and three dunlins on Lucky Pool this morning. Fiona the flamingo stuck it on on the frozen Scrape until Monday when she moved back to RSPB Boyton Marshes.
Woodcocks were much more visible than usual during the cold weather, including ten near Bittern Hide on Friday, and up to eight water rails have been seen at Bittern Hide. A few lucky people have still been seeing bitterns and otters - including one visitor who watched an otter emerge from the sea yesterday and run up the dunes! I saw at least five common seals offshore this morning, as well as flocks of red-throated divers and great crested grebes.
Among the smaller birds, the feeders were, predictably, alive with tits and finches, flocks of redwings and blackbirds have been foraging in the leaf litter, and bearded tits have been showing well at Island Mere, North Wall and near the Konik Field.
A family party of Bewick's swans comes in to land (the youngster is in the middle). Photo by Jon Evans