A morning at Minsmere

The plan was to arrive early and have a walk around Dunwich Heath before spending the rest of the morning at Minsmere. Unfortunately, upon arrival, we found out there was no access to the heath car park without prior booking the previous day. 

Westleton Heath is only two miles from Dunwich so we decide to stop there and have a leisurely stroll hoping to connect with Dartford Warbler. There's plenty of Stonechats perched up on gorse bushes and several Woodlark are also seen and heard. Dartford Warblers were proving much more elusive. Eventually, we managed to find a single bird.

Signage at the car park

On route to Minsmere, we stopped close to Saunders Hill just a short distance from the entrance track to the reserve. The target bird was an Iberian Chiffchaff, which had been present since the 18th May. As soon as we stepped out of the car the bird was heard singing close by. Could this be the same bird that was at Dunwich Heath last year? 

At the reserve itself, there was plenty of evidence of the coronavirus impact, from keeping plenty of space between cars when parking, a one-way system in place for the toilets and the shop, cafe, and hides all remaining closed. The only hide open was the public hide overlooking the South scrape and we headed towards it stopping several times to scan the east scrape from the dunes. A scan of south scrape added two more year ticks with numerous Sandwich Terns and a single Little Gull present.

Minsmere beach, looking south towards Sizewell in the distance

View across south scrape from the public hide

Having struggled to find Dartford Warblers earlier this morning we enjoyed excellent views of at least three birds among the gorse and dunes outside the public hide.