Black-Tailed Skimmer

A whole day spent volunteering at Minsmere today. Spent the morning session on the North Wall and rather stupidly didn't take a hat. Forgotten what harm strong sun can do when you are fully exposed to it for a few hours! Still it was lovely meeting lots of visitors from all over the country - from Scotland to Cornwall - all brought to Suffolk by this wonderful place. Luckily I was able to 'produce' good sightings of juvenile Bearded Tits for many of them (I'm sure one lady thought I had a tame posse secreted about my person, she thanked me so profusely!)

After recovering from a mild heatstroke at lunchtime I headed back out to the hide accessed from the beach and overlooking The Scrape. Once again quite a few visitors to the hide, all grateful to have someone to ask about what they were seeing. Thankfully there aren't that many waders about just now and I can identify a Spotted Redshank from a Godwit! we were all rather marooned in the hide for a while as the skies darkened and we had quite a bit of rain, heavy at times.

Springwatch has certainly had a positive impact on the reserve and brought it to a wider audience. It's nice to have the opportunity to share it with others.