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I was walking through the office this morning when something bright caught my eye. A moth, on the carpet, near the door. I just managed to stop a colleague standing on it before it flew to the window and allowed me to take this photo . Now, I'm no moth expert, and our number one moth man is on annual...

Apologies for the lack of a recent sightings update. It's not that there hasn't been much happening. Far from it. We've actually had a really busy couple of weeks for birds. I'll try to summarise the highlights for you. Skuas have featured heavily for those keen enough to try a bit...

Migration. Don't you just love it? The unpredictability. The stories of incredible journeys and survival against the odds. Best of all, is the knowledge that the season's are changing and the natural world is still alive and waiting to spring its next surprise upon us. OK, so maybe not everything...

White seems to be the theme for this week's best birds. Highlight so far is the great white egret that was spotted from Bittern Hide on Tuesday. It was a couple of times within the reedbed yesterday (including once in the same pool as a little egret ), and was on the Levels this morning. I'm...

Every year I lead a winter wildfowl guided walk on 2 February to celebrate World Wetlands Day - marking the signing of an international treaty to protect the world's most important wetlands for wildlfie and people. Minsmere is one of many RAMSAR sites, designated under this treaty, so it seems only...

Just occasionally, it's nice to have the chance to visit new reserves, even if it does mean spending a few days away from Minsmere's glorious wildlife. On Monday, I took a gorgeous train journey across the Broads and Fens, on route to Peterborough, and on north to Middlesbrough. This train...

Wow! What a way to start the new year! Here's a few of the highlights from the first three days of the year: seawatching on 1st - slavonian grebe (very rare at Minsmere), velvet scoter , three eiders , 200+ red-throated divers , 50 great crested grebes geese on 1st included 12 tundra beans...

Our starling roost was particularly impressive again tonight. Numbers remain at about 6000 birds, but however good we are estimating such big flocks, they were reduced by two tonight thanks to the successful attacks of an opportunistic peregrine ! One theory behind why starlings gather in such numbers...

You know how sometimes when one thing goes wrong, so do several others. Well, yesterday was one of those days. there was definitely an air of midwinter madness about proceedings - and it wasn't just from the people concerned! I should have known it was going to be one of those days from the start...

It's not often we say this in December, but the Scrape was heaving with waders today. No doubt the bitterly cold north-easterly gales were a factor, with many of these birds seeking the relative shelter of the Scrape, rather than braving it our on the beaches and estuaries, but it just shows that...

Yes folks, Christmas is approaching, and I don't know what to buy. Lots of you obviously do though as Minsmere's visitor centre was a hive of activity over the weekend for our Christmas Fair. Staff and volunteers were on hand to offer advice on buying birdfood , gifts, RSPB chocolate (palm-oil...

It's always great to try something different, and today that something different was certainly a success. The something different in question was a guided walk as part of the Woodwose Festival . What is Woodwose, I hear you ask. It's a brand new festival - more a celebration of the great outdoors...

Firstly, apologies for the lack of an update for the last week - not enough time in the office between meetings and a weekend off are to blame. It's been an excellent few days on the reserve - typically as I've not been out looking for anything. Two groups of birds have stolen the show - raptors...

Birds of prey never cease to delight me, and they are clearly popular with many of visitors too if the amount of enquiries about where to see marsh harriers are anything to go by. Luckily, Minsmere remains one of the best places to see marsh harriers - so much so that we sometimes forget how rare these...