It's a boy!
It’s a boy! For those of you anxious to hear my news, Thomas was born on Halloween. Mother and baby are doing well. I’m doing pretty well too, despite the expected lack of sleep.
I’m sure if won’t be long before I introduce Thomas to the joys of birdwatching. I like to think that his first bird was a waxwing on our housing estate, but obviously at just ten days old he couldn’t see this stunning Scandinavian invader.
Waxwings have arrived in the UK in force much earlier than usual. There have been several sightings at Minsmere over the last two weeks, including 40 on 7 November, but none of them have stayed for long.
After such an exciting autumn, what will the winter bring? There are plenty more signs of winter already, with regular sightings of snow buntings, bramblings and short-eared owls, six Bewick’s swans and the first white-fronted geese all being seen in recent days.
Autumn 2008 will go down as one of the most colourful in recent years. The various tones of gold, orange and bronze leaves adorning our trees have slowly turned to brown and fallen to the ground. But one colour will be particularly associated with this autumn at Minsmere: red. The red deer rut viewpoint attracted an incredible 4500 visitors during the 18 days that it was open! That’s about five times more than we expected! It just goes to show how popular our wildlife is. Bring on winter!