Our final installment of bird outings in the UK took us to the county of Suffolk on the east coast of southern England to an RSPB wildlife reserve called 'Minsmere', near to the famous Sizewell B Nuclear Power Station.

Minsmere offers a variety of habitats, from woodland, open fields, reed beds and lagoons. A number of hides are positioned around the reserve to give you a chance to get good closer views to much of the wildlife.

The weather on this particular day, the 3rd June, was absolutely stunning. The temperature was a bit cool, but the sunshine more than made up for it. The skies were a crisp deep blue that remained unblemished by clouds for the entire day. It was incredible.

The downside to it all was the for the purpose of photography, it played havoc as the light becomes very harsh very early on in the day.

Almost immediately after setting off from the visitor's centre, there is a sandy bank of earth with lots of holes in. These holes are the nests of Sand Martins and we were able to see them coming and going. They were so fast I didn't even try getting a shot.

To try and avoid shooting into the light, our first stage was to head out to the coastal path and enter one of the hides that faces back inland to watch the waders in the lagoon. The time was already 09:30++ and the sun was getting high, so the light wasn't too good for photos. To make matters worse, quite unbelievably, there was already a heat shimmer in the air that is no good for photography, especially birds at a distance, so it was quite a disappointing outing for taking pics.

Just before entering the hide, I managed to get a quick shot of a hovering Common Kestrel. As you'll come to see from reading this article, the light was ALWAYS wrong, and this shot is no exception.

Upon entering the hide, we immediately sat down and noticed a pair of Eurasian Oystercatchers together with a cute little chick. They would keep a watchful eye over the chick, but he was scampering around at his own free will.

Close by were some nesting Black-headed Gulls. Nice birds to look at, but they are very aggressive towards other birds and this works to their advantage as the number of breeding pairs in the reserve is quite remarkable. The Black-headed Gull is an all-year resident in the UK and is not restricted to coastal areas, as it's easy to spot them all across the country.

While we were observing the Oystercatchers, one Black-headed Gull scurried over and had the Oystercatcher chick in it's bill, only to be chased off by an angry parent. The chick was fortunate on that occasion, but there's no telling whether the Gull's ended up winning. Even after the attack, the Oystercatcher parents continued to let their chick roam free which seemed a bit risky to us.

Also present around the hide area were Barnacle Geese, Common Redshanks, Gadwalls, Lesser Black-backed Gulls and Pied Avocets. Most of the above had chicks with them. Little fluff balls with big feet.

After the hide, we returned back towards the visitors centre (stomach was grumbling, and the smell of Cornish Pasties and coffee was in the air). Along the reed beds, we heard some chirping and cheeping. Up came a Bearded Tit (a.k.a. Bearded Parrotbill) and quickly sank down back into the reeds. Then up came a Reed Warbler for a few seconds, and then the call of the Cetti's Warbler.

After a couple of scones and a Pasty, we headed through the woodland towards the 'Bittern' Hide.

I always wondered if this hide would ever live up to it's name as we'd not seen the said bird on our previous trip to Minsmere, well, on this day, it did.

Just a few minutes after taking a seat in the crowded hide, the Great Bittern was spotted flying in towards us. I'm sure people on the other side of Minsmere will have heard the chorus "BITTERN!!" boom from within our hide as we watched him land amongst some reed beds to the side of the hide and subsequently vanished.

We were able to see a number of Western Marsh-harriers flying around over in this part of the reserve, always a nice sight.

A few minutes later, possibly a second Bittern appeared from amongst the reeds again, to the 20-strong chorus of "BITTERN!" and slowly waded across an open area. I managed to get a few shots, but yes, the light was terrible and couldn't possibly have been any worse.

After the Bittern, we were then busy trying to locate a Cetti's Warbler that must have been nesting nearby to the hide. He kept calling, appearing for a few microseconds and then flying off into the unknown, and returning a few minutes later. I focused the camera on a perch which I'd seen it use twice and waited patiently for his return. Alas, he never came back. Bummer!

Not all was bad, we spotted a deer walking straight towards the hide from the right-hand side of the marshland on a trail. It was a European Roe and it was oblivious to the 20 people crammed inside the hide watching it. It's summer hide showing up in a reddy brown.

From the now aptly named 'Bittern Hide', we ventured off further into the woodland and then out to the meadows/fields to build up an appetite for lunch. Not much to see except a Common Chiffchaff, some Eurasian Linnets and a Green Woodpecker.

Back at the visitors' centre for lunch (Cornish Pasty again, with Bread Pudding and Caramel Slice for dessert, woohoo!), we sat and watched the birds around the feeders and noticed an unlikely visitor.

There's often a Common Pheasant pecking away at the seeds which have dropped on the floor, and the Black-billed Magpies, which I was actually pleased to have got a shot of, as they're often extremely shy, due to the threat from humans, but in Minsmere, they're safe and fairly easy to photograph. This guy was just taking a lunch-time nap (with the sun on his back ), and the image that follows is of a juvenile perched on the edge of the bird bath.

OK, so back to the unlikely visitor. While tucking into the Cornish Pasty, my Mum noticed this bird on the nut feeder and she immediately called out 'Nuthatch!'.

'How unusual', I thought. But sure enough, there he was on the nuts. He didn't hang around long, and we soon noticed that he was feeding a young one in a tree nearby where we were sitting.

A great opportunity for a shot, but look at the light in the photo. Yep, the sun's behind the bird, so it's not as good as it could have been. Bloody light!!

To walk off some of the lunch, we ventured back out to the coastal pathway and headed north for a while, but the birds seemed less active at this time of day, around 3pm.

What did take us by surprise was a Reeve's Muntjac that just wondered across a field without really batting an eyelid at us. Normally, wild deer are easily startled, but not this chap.

It was a pleasant walk nonetheless and we called it a day at about 5pm.

A great day out, and a highly recommended place to visit should you find yourself anywhere near the south east of England.

And that concludes our trip reports for our recent UK trip. 

Thanks for reading

Here is our full bird list for Minsmere Nature Reserve

Click here to read our trip report for Farne Islands, Bempton Cliffs and Blacktoft Sands

Click here to read our report on Bedfordshire, Paxton Pits and Chicksands Woods