Beautiful Birds: Goldcrest at Minsmere

I had never had a definite sighting of a Goldcrest before our move to Suffolk, so it was a thrill to watch two of these fine birds last Saturday at Minsmere. They are very small and skittish, and hard to catch on camera! They love to be in among the twigs; and while Saturday was a beautiful day, the sun brought its accompanying shadows, which added an extra level of difficulty to our photography challenge!

You can just about make out the distinguishing gold crest in the photo above. Apparently the Goldcrest is the smallest European bird.

© David Gill, used with permission!

This photo (above) was taken by David: can you spot the bird?

This is an enlargement of it.

It was lovely to see the pussy-willow buds developing apace ...

... and we thought these coloured nestboxes were really fun, though the only nestbox we saw that seemed to be attracting a bird was a plain brown one. A Blue tit was hovering about and perching on it. 

This lovely Wren was hopping about in the undergrowth. This must be one of the smallest European birds, too!

Several Marsh Harriers were hunting over this bit of marshland.

What a change to have blue skies!

We came home 'via' Southwold, where we ate our chips, watching the starling roost, with its amazing murmuration of corporate flying formations. It was a dazzling performance, set off against a fabulous sunset. Perhaps Spring is here at last. You can watch a similar spectacle here on this video about starlings returning to Israel. And if you would like to read about this murmuration and roost phenomenon, I highly recommend Crow Country by Mark Cocker.