Trip to Minsmere RSPB Nature Reserve, Thursday July 10th, 2014

Today Class 3 travelled to Minsmere in Suffolk.

When we arrived the helpful staff gave us some background about the reserve and showed us some of the unusual birds we might see on our visit.

Everyone was given a set of binoculars and off we went to explore. First we looked at woodland habitat.

Then we walked out towards the sea and looked at the cliffs where the sand martins live..

We looked at the sea defences, including a sluice gate, which prevent flooding from the sea and the salt sea water from mixing with the fresh water. This could adversely affect the creatures that live in the freshwater environment such as frogs, toads, fish and eels. We learnt that young eels are called elvers.

On the photograph below the sea water is on the left of the path and the freshwater is on the other side of the path to the right.  You can see the sluice gate on the left. The sea is straight ahead.

On the next photo you can see the sluice gate on the right:

As we neared the sea we came across a sculpture made from recycled plastic found in the beach.

We went onto the shingle beach to find objects to make artwork of our own...

Someone found a stone with a speech bubble on it!

Someone else found a stone which had a picture of a horse on it...

And we also found a crab shell and a bone:

We used cloths as the backdrops for our pictures...it was very windy!

Some children created a face:

Others made an alien called Bob, a vase of flowers and a dog....

We also created a bird with a fish in its mouth:

We returned the flotsam and jetsam to the shore and walked to the nearest bird hide, looking at some of the interesting plants and birds along the route.

This is sea kale:

We saw cormorants flying overhead:

We also found some sea holly:

And some horned poppy. The 'horns' contain seeds which shoot all over when the pods are dry. The poppies are yellow - they have died off now.

We went quietly to the hide so as not to disturb any of the birds or bird watchers who were already there.

After we had done some bird spotting we walked back to the centre for lunch...

Letting off steam after our break...

Here are some of the sights at the visitor centre:

A few of us enjoyed some relaxation after all our walking!

Once we were refreshed we walked to another hide.

This time we saw a heron, ducks, deer, cows, an avocet and a hawk harrier...

On the walk back someone spotted a female pheasant having a dust bath:

One of the mums kindly took a photo of the whole group...

As you can see we had a great day out! Thank you once again to all the helpers who came along to lend a hand.