Though I walk these thousand miles .....

Even if using home as a holiday base, to catch up with all those things you've been putting off doing, it means you get time to relax and take five. It also gives the chance to take the odd day out to go and do something else.

Still recovering from the weekends Joe euphoria, I set off with my friend Derek for a days birding. We'd been planning this trip for a week or two but had been undecided at to where we should head. The debate was not over what birds we might see, but which of the two venues, Titchwell in Norfolk, or Minsmere in Suffolk had the best tea room. Both places are about the same distance and travelling time away. The debate also centred around where we might easily purchase fresh fish.

The decision was finally made on a chance visit to the pub the previous Thursday. There, a colleague mentioned a pending family holiday to the Suffolk coast the following week and he'd heard Otters were being seen frequently from one of the hides at Minsmere. I've never seen Otter in England. I stopped in a cottage a year ago right near the path to that very hide mentioned and two colleagues, keener to leave their beds one morning than me, saw two Otters a few yards away from them, at the side of the road and within sight of the cottage.

So, Minsmere it will be, we also decided the tea room there does have the edge. Readers will note, still no mention has been made of what birds we might like to see on our little trip.

Setting off not too early, we arrived at the reserve just after it opened at 10:00am. We failed our first intelligence test in actually how to get into the place from the car park. They've had some building done since my last visit and linked the visitor centre to the toilet block with a new reception area. In order to get to the toilets, which is where we first wanted to head and subsequently the shop, tea room and reserve, you have to go through the new reception.

Once suitably relieved, we headed off through the reserve woods and alongside reedbeds, stopping at hides to overlook the marshes. The Marsh harriers were in fine fettle, putting on some superb courtship displays between fetching bits of materials to build their nests. There was an occasional grunt and boom from Bittern's lurking in the depths of the reed, but disappointingly no sign yet. Bearded tits were also somewhat elusive as it was a little on the breezy side. Understandably they were keeping their heads down, showing only occasionally when their incessant 'pinging' calls gave them away. The other thing we'd become aware of was the lack of migrants, in fact there were more blackcaps (3) singing at home that morning than at the reserve (0)!

After visiting the last hide which is where the Otters have recently been seen, needless to say not today, we headed back to the visitor centre for lunch. At lunch, we met the colleague and his family who'd mentioned the previous week about the Otters. As they were leaving to explore the reserve more, they were somewhat amazed when we said we're about to head off to Aldburgh to buy some fish before the they sold out and closed. Its nice to know we take our birding so seriously.

Just before leaving we decided to visit the conveniences, here we had the first comedy moment of the day and the subsequent theme for this blog title.

While using the urinal, there was someone in one of the cubicles, with one of those pedometers that talk to you, telling you how far you've walked, how fast you are travelling now and how many calories you've burned off, etc. Well Derek and myself, along with another chap who'd been in there found it extremely difficult not to snigger loudly at the robotic voice of the pedometer.

Our second comedy moment was to come on our shopping trip.

Having arrived at Alburgh, we headed for the parade of sheds selling their freshly caught wares. Armed with a shopping list from two colleagues back home and not decided about our own choice, we set about checking prices and availability so we could contact our friends and they could confirm their orders and quantities based on our information. Sole and Seabass were the main targets, very little of which we found at the first two sheds, although the second shed did have some Herrings at £5 for 5 pounds in weight. At the third shed we found our quarry, more available Seabass and importantly lots of Sole of three different sizes. We discussed costs with the people and as they don't take credit card we said we'd be back shortly while we went to get some cash from the town, now we'd found what we needed. We passed a forth shed on our way. This had lots of fish but was a little more expensive than the previous one.

When we returned about 15 minutes later the shed selling all the Sole had closed and gone home! Doh!! Why oh why on earth did they not say to us that they would be closing after we'd told them what we were after. Luckily for us, shed four had what we wanted and we were able to recover the situation, I just nipped into shed two for my herrings on the way back to the car. It was while walking back to the car we saw our only Swallow of the day heading in off the sea to fly up the coast.

Having been shopping for about three hours, more than we'd spent so far birding, we finally got back to Minsmere at 15:30 with a sudden realisation and panic that the tea room would be closing in 30 minutes! Heavens above, we cannot go without our afternoon tea and cake.

After finishing that, and seeing a Mediterranean gull pass over head, which we first picked up on call, we headed out to visit the famous scrape. It was here that I finally got to start taking some pictures at last. Not before finding about 100 or more Red throated divers on the sea, many of which were in beautiful summer plumage. Too far away to photograph.

The following is a selection of shots taken from the hides on the east of the scrape. I was unable to take any pictures of Avocet. The only things vaguely resembling them had bodies and looked nothing like those depicted on the RSPB logo.

Black-headed gulls (c Rotton Yarns)

Shovelor (c Rotton Yarns)

Black-headed and Mediterranean gulls (c Rotton Yarns)

After our walk along the coast, we headed back into the reserve to visit the hides on the west of the scrape, where I took the following snaps of views across the scrape. The second shot shows the cliffs at Dunwich in the distance, if you look hard enough you might even see the Dartford warblers.

(c Rotton Yarns)

(c Rotton Yarns)

Then, while listening to a booming Bittern, I also took some atmospheric reedbed and sky shots.

(c Rotton Yarns)

(c Rotton Yarns)

(c Rotton Yarns)

As we left the marshes to head through the wood and back to the car, the willow weavers was just packing up for the day having nearly finished a willow house which looked pretty awesome.

(c Rotton Yarns)

As we were about to leave the car park for home I suggested we should take a convoluted route past the back of the reserve and out through East Bridge in the hope of seeing the Barn owl which hunts regularly in that area. We arrived by the bridge where a couple with binoculars were hanging around, while another couple sat a short distance away in the field looking like they were staking it out for the owl. Typically, I'd packed my binoculars away - something I never used to do. However, Derek, with a little more sense had his to hand and randomly decided to look at a pool that had been dug out near the reed bed. There, much to our surprise was a Glossy ibis which we were aware of being in the area. Although neither of us have seen them in the UK, we were not to fussed at making an effort in seeing it, as it could have been anywhere over such a vast tract of land. As far as we could tell the couple by the bridge were not aware of its proximity to them, but did tell us the barn owl had done its rounds half an hour before we'd arrived.

Over the whole day, we managed to see a total of 64 species in about six hours birding and walking several miles - don't ask how many coz I don't posses one of those talking pedometers.

This leads one to harp back to 'The beauty and the beast' post from January in which I made the point about why I can never be bothered to go birding in UK. Our attitude there remained the same lackadaisical approach we always take and yet by comparison, we saw 39 species - that's only 25 less, in half the time and barely walking half a mile if that!

Grrr, why is our wildlife becoming so depleted?

Below is the list of birds seen on the day. If you think I'm going to link each with the RSPB A to Z bird guide, think again! I've got better things to do so I'm afraid you'll have to do it yourself :o)

Species List for Minsmere (02/04/2012)
Red-throated Diver
Little Grebe
Great Crested Grebe
Fulmar
Great Cormorant
Great Bittern
Little Egret
Grey Heron
Glossy Ibis
Mute Swan
Greylag Goose
Barnacle Goose
Common Shelduck
Eurasian Wigeon
Gadwall
Eurasian Teal
Mallard
Northern Shoveler
Common Pochard
Tufted Duck
Eurasian Marsh Harrier
Common Pheasant
Water Rail
Common Moorhen
Common Coot
Eurasian Oystercatcher
Pied Avocet
Northern Lapwing
Black-tailed Godwit
Common Redshank
Ruddy Turnstone
Mediterranean Gull
Black-headed Gull
Mew Gull
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Black-legged Kittiwake
Common Wood Pigeon
Green Woodpecker
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Meadow Pipit
Winter Wren
Hedge Accentor
European Robin
Mistle Thrush
Cetti's Warbler
Common Chiffchaff
Bearded Tit
Long-tailed Tit
Marsh Tit
Coal Tit
Blue Tit
Great Tit
Wood Nuthatch
Eurasian Treecreeper
Black-billed Magpie
Jackdaw
Carrion Crow
Chaffinch
European Greenfinch
European Goldfinch
Common Linnet
Reed Bunting