Minsmere, Lakenheath and Frampton.

I headed out early to Minsmere on Thursday as I had not been for nearly a year.
Turned out to be a glorious day with high temperatures and little wind.

Upon arrival the sand martins were in full swing feeding over the area and returning to the sand wall.

A bittern made a very brief hop before dropping into the reeds and not showing again. They could be heard booming during the rest of the day.

Along the sea wall plenty of stonechat's were busy feeding the young providing good views.

A few linnet were also about with one female collecting nesting material from a dead rabbit in  the form of fur.

Common tern are in good numbers and busy heading out to sea and returning with food.

Three little tern were present but never came close and remained on the spit.

Quite a few waders about including turnstone, dunlin, redshank, avocet and sanderling.

A pair of kittiwakes were on the main pool and showing well from the hide.

Up to 4 marsh harriers were also out over the reed beds, along with a few buzzards.

Reed and sedge warblers are in good numbers along the reed beds.

On the way back I called into Lakenheath Fen 30 mins before the centre closed, so decided to do one lap of the main area as this was the first time I had visited.

Bitterns are here in abundance with at least 4 separate heard booming but I still only managed a quick glimpse. 

Cuckoo are also in abundance with 4 separate birds seen but always in a high tree, until a pair flew past calling.

The marsh harrier showed well but with the heat haze it made getting a picture tricky and also the reeds are quite high along the path.

Lakenheath is a great place, at one point a bittern was booming, cetti's calling, cuckoo calling the marsh harrier was up and a kingfisher flew past I did not know where to look or photograph.