Minsmere - 11/4/2018

Having booked three days off work I still had one day left in which to do some birding. My brother was still hanging around in Suffolk, and without much thought or creativity, we decided to take a trip to Minsmere -again. Its pretty much the go to choice when you're not sure about where to go.
We left around mid morning, but soon discovered that the misty weather that affected my time in North Norfolk was still hanging around the countryside making visibility very poor.
The usual arrival routine was followed: park up - walk to the visitor's centre - show our membership cards - ask what's been seen - drink some coffee - set off for the hides. A routine as old as time itself.
In the old car park SAND MARTINS had returned for the Spring and were busy flying back and forth into their nesting holes in the sand cliff.
A thick fog had descended on the scrape and visibility from the North Hide was poor, but some of the usual birds could be just made out in the gloom. Exiting from the hide and passing though the North Bushes which were again quiet, passing the Stone Curlew field which might have held stone curlews its was just impossible to make anything out. The reedbeds from across the North Wall were deathly quite - no warblers had returned yet - and then we made our way onto the beach to look out to the sea.
With a mist on the sea nothing much could be seen. We walked along the beach to East Hide. In the fog a couple of MED GULLS could be made out, but maybe numbers might have dropped off since the last visit. A pair of STONECHATS seem to be nesting in the gorse bushes among the dunes. A pair of SANDWICH TERNS flew over and came back again several times.
We took the path to the final two hides from the beach, but again the mist was heavy and not much could be seen. Either a WEASEL or a STOAT ran across the path - it was too quick to tell which - but not much else. A quick note - CETTI'S WARBLER numbers seem to have been decimated by the cold snaps. Usually Minsmere has loads - 100+ pairs but I have heard none since the cold spell. They are a fairly recent colonist from the Mediterranean so are suspect to the cold of this country. We have to wait and see.
We took a break for lunch - a jacket potato in the café, and then headed to the reedbed hides. Bittern Hide was strangely empty, although it filled up after we entered - everyone was looking for bitterns - but I've never seen one from this hide. The hide is up a flight of stairs at around tree height and gives a panorama over the Minsmere reedbeds. However as there are no pools of any size not much can be seen. Three RED DEER were present on a grass bank in the reedbed - then two more came, coming out of the reedbeds, swimming across a dyke before joining the herd. That was a nice sight, even though it always seems so strange to see these big wild beasts in the countryside of Suffolk.

Three of the RED DEER - as you can see it was very misty

A BITTERN was heard booming, a deep fog horn blasting over the reedbed, a real atmospheric sound, one that is so rare way from the giant reedbeds. We walked further along to Island Mere hide, the last hide really on the itinerary. It overlooks a large lake - the mere - situated amongst the reedbeds. MARSH HARRIERS are guaranteed - and we saw several, although there were no bitterns or bearded tits. The usual DUCKS were around in small numbers and both GREBES were seen.
So not really much to report really, visibility was poor and that was key to today. Who knows what birds were lurking in the gloom, and it was definite we could have seen a lot more had there been no fog. Such are the pleasures of birdwatching and a visit to Minsmere is always a good time spent.