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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...

Hi all, Things have been wild over the last few weeks what with gale force winds, driving rain and snow. With all the damaged and windblown trees making the headlines we faired not too bad. We are taking some comfort in its a better more mild winter than the previous two which is better for our wildlife...

This is 'Irwin' he's a Boobok Owlet (native to Australia) who belongs to a Falconer friend. I painted this water colour this morning, he's very cute!

So another year ends. It's been an exciting one. Here's just a few of the highlights (I'm bound to have missed a few): funding received from Heritage Lottery Fund to allow us to start work on the Minsmere Discover Nature Project. For details of the other funders for this excting project...

This week has seen the return of one of our most popular birds: waxwings ! Jon Gibbs spotted a flock of about 20 outside the visitor centre on Wednesday afternoon, and they were seen later that day in North Bushes. About 30 were in North Bushes yesterday too. I've not had any news of them yet today...

Many of you may have noticed the rapid spread of Little Egrets through the country in past years. I remember well, dashing off to a WWT site in Northern Ireland where the first few of these tropical-looking birds visited Strangford Lough a few years ago, and now they are to be found throughout much of...

I hope you enjoyed our cuckoo feature in the latest Birds magazine. Thanks for your letters and e-mails, so far - and for sharing your own stories of cuckoos heard and cuckoos seen. Derek and Sarah Niemann came back from their trip to South Uist to study cuckoos with a great selection of photographs...

We wouldn't be British if weather was a key topic of conversation. Birdwatchers are no different, except that we often want a different type of weather. The last two days have had almost the perfect combination of weather conditions to entice keen birdwatchers to the east coast in search of migrants...

Got a fright last night when this hit our patio window. Any ideas of the type of owl?

Hi. Can anyone make a suggestion for the identity of the bird that we hear at night calling in the fields and woods surrounding our tiny Devon hamlet? Can't see it (it's dark!) and it seems to call before flying from one perch to another .. we can hear a faint reply sometimes. Its call is a long...

Have been going to Lakenheath to see bittern (plentiful) and hear golden oriole in recent weeks so have somewhat neglected my local patch. However, Sunday morning was as rewarding a couple of hours' birding as I've had at Fowlmere, not least for the sheer beauty of the place. In terms of birding...

The Spring Celebration weekend once again proved to be highly successful. The format is simple. Our wardens and volunteer guides are stationed around the reserve at key locations to help visitors to learn about Minsmere's special wildlife. The tricky part is the unpredictability of the wildlife that...

Yes folks, it's dawn chorus time again. These walks remain incredibly popular - despite the 4 am start. Five of the six are fully booked: there are still 13 places left for the final walk on Saturday 21 May - if you are quick! This week it was my turn to lead, and Robin Harvey and I duly met 28...

After a winter of lovely sights - bearded tits, bittern, lesser and mealy redpolls etc., spring has definitely sprung. We've had some lovely visits in recent days (mostly mornings). Among the recent late March and early April highlights: Passage migrants: Wheatear (almost daily, visible from...

For the last 3 weeks we have heard an owl in our garden and in the garden across the road, today we saw it and I'm pretty sure it is an eagle owl.

Some HD video footage of a Tawny owl perched halfway up a tree along the Aird meadow trail 29/08/10. Apart from captive owls, this is only the second time I have seen a wild owl , so , I was quite excited to be able to photograph the sleepy chap as well as take some video footage of him too:-) ...

Hi, They fear nobody.... I remember reading years ago that Eagle owl pellets had even been found to contain Peregrine bones- I guess they attack roosting birds. S

So lucky to get a glimpse of this Great Horned Owl on its nest in broad daylight.

My husband and I found this baby Tawny Owl asleep in one of our trees at the bottom of the garden and we are both over the moon. We found him yesterday evening and he is still there today so we are really pleased....dead cute!!!

After having 4 seasons in one day here at loch strathbeg, i watched a Short Eared Owl hunting along the gorse only to be joined by a Barn Owl.This made up for the broken scope and the camera being packed in my bag for going home but a great moment.

i was lucky enough after a few days of waiting to get a few good shots of our regular Short Eared Owl huntig along the Gorse at Loch Strathbeg.

When i was a younger my favourite birding spot was redcastle on the beauly firth, as i was going home on a frosty winter afternoon through the mist flying low over the fields was a ghostly barn owl i wasn't looking for one but it made my day!!

Scraping the windows on my car one frosty morning at dawn, and turning to see a barn owl gliding along like a ghost, only metres away. I missed my train because I couldn't stop watching it glide around the field, but I didn't care, it was too nice!

I was driving home from work, when a barn owl swooped across the road just inches from my windscreen. As I watched it glide above the field to my left its body was sillhoueted against a dark blue dusk sky. My heart leapt and I punched the air!

On my way to a Cumbrian pub, I passed a churchyard. A tawny owl calmly watched me from a few feet away. I remember the eyes; limpid black pools that swallowed eternity. Frail human concepts such as mercy held no sway here.

A black night and i'm hanging out of the car window for air. A Tawny owl is sitting on the branch of a pine tree watching my passing with distaste, he obviously doesn't approve of greedy people who eat too much cake, it was magic!