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The discontent being at how long the winter is lasting. No sooner do we think things are starting to warm up, then we are back to a cold spell. Just check out the weather forecast below... But despite this, as you may have seen in John's post the other day, we are starting to get "first for...

Last Wednesday when I had a look on the Scrape at lunchtime there was still a very wintry theme with ducks dominating include a cracking drake smew with two females. The only waders in sight were a few lapwings and a couple of redshanks. Today the scene was very different. I could tell even before...

Dear All It has been a while! I have just returned from our warden welly walk around the back of IMF2. It was great :-) A lovely bunch of people keen to learn and lovely sunshine. The last couple of weeks have been wet ones indeed for me. Due to high winds and high tides I have been helping our...

Not a great shot but today was the first time I had ever seen Avocets in the wild and what a sight of 200/300 of them

Despite some mixed weather conditions bird sightings were similar to the week before, with a few exceptions... Out to sea there were sightings of red necked grebe, red throated diver, great crested grebe and double figure numbers of juvenile gannets. The more notable sightings in land were one or...

We're hosting a special celebration event on Saturday to thank our funders, contractors and consultants for their fantastic support during the recent redevelopment work at Minsmere. This event, which will be in the Discovery Centre, is for invited guests and their families. They will all be arriving...

Forgive the lack of updates on the blog of recent times. This is mostly due to late July and August being amongst our busiest times of the year. With hundreds of visitors coming out to the island and continuing with the reserve work including the benthic sampling (seeing what insects live in the mud...

Phew!! What a week, with the arrival of one of this months neap tides, there have been huge numbers of seals and visitors at the creek, with over 80 seals seen at the creek yesterday the sights were simply stunning more than 50 seals hauled out on the bank directly across from the hide. They've delighted...

White herons continue to dominate the sightings this week. Although not quite reaching last week's record numbers, there are still more than 25 little egrets scattered around the reserve. They particularly favour West Scrape and the Konik Field, but many are also hiding out on the Levels. The shallow...

Hi, A rare American wader in the form of a Pectoral Sandpiper turned up near the new Seal Hide on 18 th July. This area was a hive of activity all week with Little Gull, Sandwich Tern, Knot, Common Sandpiper, Black-tailed Godwit and at least 30 Dunlin running around in the mud. However only two Avocets...

A different view of an Avocet demonstrating its' feeding habit. I was there recently (Tues 5th) and had a wonderful time. If only I lived a little nearer!

One of the many here

Taken at Elmley Marshes.

Again taken from Singleton hide 11/08/2011.Adult Avocet feeding.

Taken on Marshlands yesterday

Taken 8/6/11 at Black Toft

Two showing well from the Visitor Centre this afternoon - first record for the reserve since 2008 and a NE Scottish rarity!

This bird was one of the 103 that I counted at Marshlands lagoon on 29 April 2011 As Pat Crofton's shot shows (see gallery) our Avocets provide excellent photo opportunities.