Three go Mad in Suffolk

Minsmere in mid summer. No better place to be. Back in the depths of winter we had promised ourselves this trip with a particular purpose in mind, and weather and opportunity was just right so Mike David and I set off on another magical mystery tour.

Arrived just after 11, straight down to the dragonfly pool where we duly got the first few of many Norfolk Hawkers, a couple of early Willow Emeralds, and Broad Bodied and Four-Spotted Chasers. Then on to digger alley, and Bee Wolfs and Pantaloon Bees. I assume these are not particularly scarce, and I know digger wasps occur in all sorts of paces, but the good folk of the RSPB have got information boards here so it makes appreciating the creatures so much easier.

Then onto the North Wall, and following reading the RSPB blog, we looked for and found Six-Banded Clearwing. a small digger-wasp-like moth. As the blog said, you had to get your eye in, and realise that the small yellow-and-black thing flying around was not a wasp. The method of flying was distinctive, and  when it settled the moth-nature was apparent. There are some great photo's here, and here's mine which is crummy but is mine. Next time I find a mass of birds-foot trefoil I'll know what to look for.

A Bittern flew over, then from the scrape hides 6 Spotted Redshank, 3 Green Sandpipers, 2 moulting male ruff, 6 Little Gulls, and a few Little Terns, Avocets, Mediterranean Gulls, 2 Stonechat families then back to the centre with a Marsh Harrier on the way, and lunch.

Six-Spotted Burnet moth 

Then the woodland walk. An early quiet and shaded walk, we had 6 White Admirals, 2 Silver Washed Fritillaries, 3 Purple Hairstreak, lots of Norfolk Hawkers and Ruddy Darters, Ringlets, and a pair of Marsh Tits.

White Admiral. The best I could do was from this side.

Despite an excellent list across all wildlife classes, we weren't finished. Our two main objectives were yet to come. I enquired in the centre where we might see these, and a very helpful ranger got a large scale map, and marked two areas with a pen. We went to the first, Westleton Common. I thought the late hour may be against us, but soon David was frantically waving, and on coming over we saw he had some Silver-Studded Blues. The underwings were much in evidence, and a tatty male with lead-blue and brown upper wing was showing. (for better photos see David's blog) Also amongst the heather was a large Queen bee. It was huge, over an inch long. It clambered slowly round the heather as if it had all the time in the world, which in a sense it had, its life cycle being the epitome of free-riding. The shiny back, and yellow fur edgings on the tail indicted cuckoo bee, and I assume, as it is the commonest in my area, Vestal Cuckoo Bee.

an absolute unit. Presumed Queen Vestal cuckoo Bee

After a visit to the Eel's Foot at Eastbridge for an excellent meal, we went to our last venue,  Westleton Heath for much hoped-for Nightjar, my previous experience being of just one brief view many years ago. We waited for a while, and at 8:50pm churring commenced, and then a repeated frog-like call. Mike, with more experience than I, called this as the flight call, and after a frantic scan we managed to locate one flying round the area and into a group of trees - result! But then more calls, and the bird came back, flew just a few yards from us, and settled on a branch about 30 yards away where it started to churr! We got the scope on it and even though it was now 9:30ish, still got excellent scope-filling views of the bird churring. It didn't seem possible to fit those elegant long wings and tail so evident in flight into the compact log-like apparition sitting on the branch. What a fantastic sight, and I now realise why so many birders are fanatical about Nightjars!

There was lots of other wild-life around too. We saw 10 Red Deer - mainly young but some large hinds, move slowly through, a Hobby flew over, a Dartford Warbler sang unseen, and we could hear the weird calls of Stone Curlews in the distance, and then David called one flying over. As a magical hour drew to a close we walked back down to set off on the two hour journey back to Stortford.