Went to my parents house for possibly our last New Year celebration there. Didn’t get to bed until about 3am, so was a bit of a late start, leaving their house just after 9:30am after seeing the first bird of the year, as usual, a Robin.
Within ten minutes of arriving at Minsmere I had about a dozen or so Waxwings fly over my head near the North hide, heading towards the visitors centre. A good start to the year to say the least.
Next, I had some excellent views of a Bearded Tit, and even managed a poor photo:
Then round at the East Hide I saw three Smew (two drakes) and a Kingfisher, a bird that I’ve not seen at this site before. As well as the Smew, there were a very large number of other ducks, especially Teal; the mere was flooded which swelled the number I guess, at the detriment of waders, of which there were none at all.
I then met up with the family for a lunchtime walk at Dunwich. A nice walk in the sun, but with no special birds, though my father saw a Peregrine.
The walk finished around 2:30, so this time with Tom, I went back to Minsmere where we managed to add a few good birds, particularly two Tundra Bean Geese on the South levels. The Smew count also increased to four (two males and two red-heads) just before dusk. Whilst walking back to the visitors centre at dusk, we were lucky enough to have a flock of about twenty wild swans fly, mostly made up of Whooper Swans, but also with a couple of Bewick’s' Swans. Whilst watching these, two Peregrines flew around disturbing the ducks. A fine end to a very good day.
