Minsmere Bittern.

 On our way home from Norfolk, we called into Minsmere RSPB reserve. Although it was slightly out of the way, the diversion was well worth trying. It was a reserve that both Lisa and I had only visited once before, although not together as both visits were long before we had met.

I had seen a post a few weeks before that concerned a certain Bittern at the reserve that had been seen at quite close quarters a few times. It was certainly worth a punt as neither of us had seen Bitterns particularly close before.

Once we were in the hide where we thought we had the best chance of a Bittern, we had a long wait, seeing a few Marsh Harriers flying past, along with some fleeting views of Bearded Tits. However, there was not a hint of a Bittern. One couple had sat at one of the windows for all the time we had been in the hide, and as it was really the window we had hoped to view from it was a little frustrating we couldn't view from there. However, all was forgiven when after 90 minutes or so, the couple called us over as a Bittern was walking across the ditch just below the window. As I had a 600mm and Lisa had a 500mm lens on, it was actually far too powerful for the Bittern. I could only just fit the head and shoulder in the image. Lisa was even worse off as her lens was on the wrong setting and she couldn't focus on the bird at all!!

Bittern.

Fortunately, I had planned for such an event and I had also taken my lightweight 300mm lens as well. So I very quickly went to my bag and grabbed the smaller lens and changed over. However, in those few moments the bird had wandered back into the reedbed. We saw it through the reeds as it moved down the ditch below us, where it soon reappeared and then stood very still as it hunted the small fish in the water. I was soon taking more photos as it hunted.

Bittern Hunting.

I then quickly let Lisa use the 300mm on her camera, as she had totally missed all the action so far. She then got very lucky as the Bittern actually caught a fish whilst she was photographing the bird. In all we must have had close to 10 minutes watching and photographing this special creature. A wonderful moment, and it certainly made the diversion to Minsmere an excellent decision.

We then moved on to a different hide, where we were greeted with the sight of a Hobby hunting dragonflies. On several occasions we saw Hobby's flying past at top speed, and seeing them several times, plucking a dragonfly out of the sky.

Hobby Hunting.

We also had some very good sightings of Marsh Harriers hunting over the nearby reedbed.

Marsh Harrier.

Unfortunately, the hide was quite busy with many people watching the birds, but as ever, some people didn't seem to realise that although they were hidden by sight from the birds, they still had to keep quiet. In the end, both of us got slightly fed up with all the noisy chatter, and we moved on. It was now getting quite late in the day, but we didn't fancy hitting the M25 in the rush hour, so we decided to have a long walk around the coastal part of the reserve. Here we enjoyed seeing many Sandwich Terns flying in with small fish for their chicks.

Sandwich Tern.

By the time we eventually returned to the carpark, the visitor centre had closed for the day. Earlier in the day, we had seen a Tawny Owl in the woodland track between the visitor centre and the hides, and on our return, we saw it again in a different spot. We both managed a few images of this rarely seen bird. It brought a fitting end to our very successful trip to Norfolk and Suffolk.

Tawny Owl.