Westleton - Day 3 - RSPB Minsmere

After another excellent breakfast we drove to Minsmere, we had discussed walking as it's only about 2 miles away, but though it would have been too much.  (Today I have over 10,000 steps, and it's not time for dinner yet.)

Here are the birds I recorded as seeing, the most interesting ones are highlighted.

Carion Crow
Great tit
Long tail tit? / Redstart
Robin
Magpie
Red Breasted |Merganser
Great Black backed gull
Chaffinch
Blue tit
Red crested duck
Small duck red head grey wings B&W tail white underside
Sparrow (small)
Pale yellow breast, grey head (Reed bunting female?)
Widgeon
Brent geese
Little egret
Teal (male & female)
Marsh harrier
Bittern
Mallard (male & female) x2
Moorhen
Grey Heron

 

I spent WAY too much time looking in the book, trying to identify birds.  I need more practice.  After lunch, we arrived in Bittern Hide to much excitement.  The hide was busy, one of the staff had spotted a bittern.  It was pointed out to me 4 or five times, I looked through his focussed telescope, my binoculars, and someone else's phone.  The only place I saw it was on someone else's phone.  Then I tried my binoculars again and eventually spotted it. He described it a cinnamon coloured, well it was perhaps a little lighter, but I saw what he meant.  We watched it walk from one hiding spot to another and almost instantly disappear - they are so well camouflaged.

While all this was going on, the Marsh Harrier went across the front of the hide, and I got the binoculars pointing in the right direction and watched it fly.

Walking back, the little egret flew across our path and landed in the pool on our left, I've never seen one so close up.

Close up pictures are impossible, I don't have a zoom lens yet.

In the evening, we travelled to the Eel's Foot Pub for dinner.  We went to locate it in the light first, to be sure it was worth a visit and to be sure we knew where it was. 

That proved a good decision because as dusk fell, fog started to form, and Google Maps wanted to take us down an unmade road near the Minsmere reserve.

The Eel's Foot is a lovely country pub, there is no booking - just arrive, find a table, order food.  It was not full, but there were enough people there to make it feel comfortable.  The owner is very easy going and friendly.  I had 'pigeon wellington', it's a dark meat and fairly tough, but once the edges are trimmed it is quite tasty

How did it get that name? Here what we were told:

1) Because when eels were trapped in wicker baskets the traps were called boots, so when recovered it looks like the eels have feet.

2) Because there were once 3 businesses in the building, one a cobbler, and it was originally called Heel's foot.

Take your choice, but it's an unforgettable name.