Minsmere Bound

New Year meant a trip down to Minsmere as I was keen to see the Temminck's again. and to add to my Christmas break feast of avian goodies! I bumped into David B. and his wife (nice to see them both as I haven';t seen them for a while) in the car park who siad it could be seen distantly from North Hide plus Redpoll in with Siskins on the walk to West hide. I made my way to North Hide and at the pond I met Andrew E. Good to see him too. The sun was shining directly at us and it was clear we wouldn't see the bird this way so we walked to the West hide and no sooner had we entered a packed hide, the a chap announced the Temminck's was on the nearest island and so it proved! The fine Temminck's Stint was constantly walking around feeding and as soon as I got onto it walked around the back of the island out of sight! It then flew to an island further away where there were a bonus 2 Water Pipits. The bird then flew back onto an island close to the left hand side of the hide and I took a few pics of it here before it flew once more. A fine Water Pipit flew in reasonably close too. Andrew E. soon left and not long after I saw 4 Goosander straight out in front of island 191, a roosting Redhead and 3 male Goosander swimming right in front of the East hide. Looking around the scrape, Mallard, Teal, a Wigeon and some Pintail too. Walking back by the Alders I spotted a group of c10 Siskin feeding and about a foot down from the top on the left of the main trunk, a fine Redpoll fed too. Back at the Centre, the feeders were full of Blue and Great Tits feeding, joined by up to 2 Coal Tits, shyer than their brethern a wait of 15 minutes and I saw a fine Marsh Tit briefly feed on the more popular left hand feeder briefly. I drove back to Westleton Health car park, emptied my water bottle in the puddle. I walked east to the Archer's archery area and no sooner had I done so than 2 fine Crossbills calling "chip chip" flew over the track and settled just west in trees but I couldn't pick them out again. At Henham quarry over the grassy fields, I saw 6 Curlew and 1 Common Gull. A look around Mutford and Ellough (and College Road failed to reveal any Partidges (fields had a long grassy type crop) other 2 Red- legged Partridge running around in the Industrial Estate and a few flocks of c20, 30, 30 Lapwings around Mutford, plus a male Pheasant by the side of the road. When I arrived home a delightful family of 10 Long-tailed Tits flew in feeding on insects in the front garden bushes literally inches from me, wonderful!