Minsmere RSPB

Finally I'm nearly up todate with my postings. On the last day of our extended Easter Break (04/05/11) Laura and i headed to Minsmere, hoping that the White-winged Black Tern remained, however well aware with the change in wind conditions it would probably have gone. On the way we stopped near Halesworth to look for the Woodchat Shrike, we met four other bird who hadn't seen the bird but after 30 minutes or so i found a distant perched bird through the growing heat-haze. With the bird facing away the white scapulars were the only obvious feature. Although always distant the bird did move to give a conclusive ID. At Minsmere as expected the WWB Tern had moved off, and also the North Wall path was closed, so we walked via West and South Hides to the beach where we had lunch in the dunes before looking at East Hide and returning via the same route. The scrapes were all dominated by Black-headed Gull but i did manage to pick out 2 Med. Gull, 1 Caspian Gull and 2 Yellow-legged Gull, as well as Common, Sandwich and Little Tern. At least 3 Common Sandpiper were seen along with 2 Curlew Sandpiper and the usual waders. On the return trip i thought I'd check the sightings board in West Hide, and as i did so 2 Black Tern were being added to the list. They briefly stopped on the scrapes before heading towards Island Mere. A quick stop at the pond by the centre gave us views of Hairy Hawker, Common Hawker and 4 Spot Chaser, before we returned home via Southwold for an ice cream.