There and Back

This is one of our favourite places to visit and so we were looking forward to today. After all, spring is here, and we should see something of interest? We did - and here are some of my efforts! In among the gorse, we were entertained by the family of Stonechats. Apparently, On heathland in the south of England, Dartford Warblers can often be seen following Stonechats around, perhaps catching the small insects that the larger bird disturbs. We were lucky / unlucky enough to see a Dartford Warbler flit past while we were photographing the Stonechats, but were not quick enough to get the picture! Two youngsters deciding who was to have the worm. Dunnock sitting on the gorse A Whitethroat, but the quality is rather poor due to the distance it was away from me. Although a common bird with a dubious reputation, the Magpie is a rather good looking bird, especially if you catch one in sunlight. A Redshank walking the edge of the Scrape

Minsmere is a great place to spend some hours, which we have done on numerous occasions. Today being one of those days, albeit with large numbers of other people! The Wikipedia entry gives a brief description of the place:- RSPB Minsmere is a nature reserve owned and managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) at Minsmere, Suffolk. The 1,000-hectare (2,500-acre) site has been managed by the RSPB since 1947 and covers areas of reed bed, lowland heath, acid grassland, wet grassland, woodland and shingle vegetation. It lies within the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and the Suffolk Heritage Coast area. It is conserved as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), Special Area of Conservation (SAC), Special Protection Area (SPA) and Ramsar site. The nature reserve is managed primarily for bird conservation, particularly through control and improvement of wetland, heath and grassland habitats, with particular emphasis on enco