Dipper 25/10/2016

The river at Needham Market

Although common up north, DIPPERS are rare visitors to Suffolk, with individuals making trips to this county every 3 or 4 years. And luckily this one was easy accessible, making its temporary home on the river that flows through Needham Market, a town only five miles from where I live.
When I arrived at the site there were around ten people huddled into a corner overlooking a river. It transpired that the dipper was viewable on the river only from a certain angle. Despite an annoying clump of nettle that proved a partial obstacle I was able to get fairly good views, as it ducked and bobbed in the water.

The river the dipper was on, just about present on the top edge in the photo

 



Two no shows and a sprint round Minsmere 23/10/2016

Went to Westleton Heath today to look for the deer rut and to twitch two shrikes that were present. These two were a GREAT GREY SHRIKE and a RED-BACKED SHRIKE. They were very elusive, so I heard, and indeed they weren't there when I turned up. One group had 2 sightings in 4 hours of the RED-BACKED so I didn't bother hanging around too long. Even the deer rut, a feature of the Minsmere area in October, when red deer stags come to compete for the hinds, seemed to be over.
So I ended up walking the short road to Minsmere.

 

East Hide looking across the scrape

 



Now Minsmere is a great place to go bird watching, in my opinion the best, but occasionally, occasionally mind,  it can be a bit samey and that was what it was like today. I only had a couple of hours to look around which in bird watching terms in a place the size of Minsmere, it is a very short time indeed. It felt like a sprint going round.
There were the usual lazy ducks, mainly TEAL, with smaller numbers of SHOVELLER and GADWALL and 3 PINTAIL were also present.

 

 

This picture of a TEAL got me 30 likes on Facebook. Well over a thousand were present at Minsmere

Waders feeing on the last bits of mud as water levels rise for the winter included 3 SPOTSHANK, 1 GREENSHANK and 1 RUFF.
CETTI'S WARBLERS were beginning to sing and there was a STONECHAT and a small SISKIN and REDPOLL flock by West Hide.
It was an ok day, but when you've been bird watching as much as I have, it all feels bit same old. But hey its not a hard life and I'm very lucky such places as these exist so I can't complain.

A harrier and winter waders at Snettisham 13/10/2016

 

 After lunch we made it to Snettisham, and the immense wilderness of the Wash estuary. For as far as the eye can see there is just gloopinous mud. This provides lots of food for wading birds, and they were here in their (at least) tens of thousands.

 

 

By the time we got there it was 14:30, which was pretty much at mid tide as high tide was 17:15. We had the intention of looking round the reserve before hopefully hitting high tide, when all the birds would come close to shore  in their (we hoped) thousands.

Other than the mudflats the reserve had some gravel pits just behind the sea wall which were extremely popular with the usual ducks. 2 BLACK-NECKED GREBES provided a most satisfactory find.

 

 The geese are unfortunately only greylags

Beyond the furthest lake, behind the shelter a male HEN HARRIER flew in off  the sea and quartered the grasslands there for a while before disappearing. I didn't get a picture, but here's what one looks like. The most amazing ghost-like bird and a great find.

 

 

Finally after some waiting the tide came in. Unfortunately it wasn't a particularly high tide so not all the mud was covered and the bigger bird flocks, on the water's edge, were still quite distant.



 

 The black birds are mainly oystercatchers

 

 

The usual birds were present, DUNLIN, KNOT, BOTH GODWITS, CURLEW, OYSTERCATCHERS, GREY+GOLDEN PLOVERS, TURNSTONE, SHELDUCK, PINTAIL and may more.

This ended a great day with some excellent birds, it was a good experience.



 



Bird ringing at Holme 13/10/2016

To reinvigorate my birdwatching, I took a trip over to north west Norfolk, specifically Holme Dunes and Snettisham. In this section I'll deal with Holme Dunes Reserve.
This is the first time I've been here in 13 years, when I last visited back in 2003 after hiking the North Norfolk path.
Holme is a great reserve on the corner  of North Norfolk, that is a windswept mix of large dune complex and the grazing marshes nestled behind them. It is positioned such on the map, to attract loads of migrants from all over the country and western Europe.
October is great for birds. The sheer dynamic of a coastal site at this time of year, as thousands of birds fly in from the sea on their migration routes.
The reserve was buzzing with large flocks of hundreds of REDWINGS and STARLINGS around. There was also a RING OUZEL in a field grazed by ponies.

 

There was also a few STONECHATS about. On the long sandy beach were a few waders with GANNETS flying not far off the coast.

There is a second reserve at Holme the Holme Bird Observatory. It is a small area of pine trees swallowed by the bigger NWT reserve. Here they ring birds that come in as migrants.  I saw them ring a DUNNOCK,

 

ROBIN

and BLACKBIRD.

Also around the reserve 2 GOLDCRESTS and a ROBIN were caught in drift nets and unable to escape. Free flying birds in this reserve were 2 REDPOLLS and a BRAMBLING.

October at Landguard Point 8/10/2016

So I decided to take my monthly sojourn down to Felixstowe today, trying to catch up with a rare type of stonechat. The bird seemed to be blown all the way from Siberia and was a real rarity. Of course it wasn't present when I turned up. There was nothing much else about, apart from a couple of RING OUZEL, marking the start of their Autumn migration.
The day promised a lot with stormy weather looking to ground migrants. There were more birds present than when I came down last month with flocks of GOLDINCHES and LINNETS around the more bushy northern section and MIPPITS on the short grassland to the south. Also present were a few lingering WHEATEARS, the last gasp of summer, with a few SWALLOWS flying south.
CHIFFCHAFFS and BLACKCAPS were present and there was one GREY WAGTAIL amongst all the PIED.
It's been a while since I've seen anything unusual now so, with all my local patches coming up empty, but you know fingers crossed and everything. Here's to the future couple of months.

The West Coast - Buskett, Dingli and Hagar Qim



At last after binging on architecture and culture it was now time for some bird watching. Malta isn't really blessed with much natural heritage, being a heavily urbanised, desert, where large scale hunting is allowed. But there were a few sites and Buskett Garden was the most recommended. This entailed a trip to the more rural west coast. Buskett Garden is a cross between a garden for a stately home and natural woodland. Whilst here I saw some hobbies and a couple of black kites, but not really much about.

 

Buskett Gardens

 

 

With nothing much at Buskett we moved onto Dingli cliffs.

 

Dingli Cliffs

 

I saw some large pipits with distinctive markings which I took for Tawny Pipits. But again there wasn't much about. And it didn't get much better...

Up till now the weather had been very sunny with temperatures reaching the late 20s. But today the weather started off as overcast, and by the time we reached Dingli (around noon) it started raining. As we waited for the bus it was full on. By the time we got to Hagar Qim it was like a monsoon. It only relented when we left the site to travel back to Valetta.

 

 

Hagar Qim is very much like Ggantija in Gozo, a temple of standing stones that were created right at the dawn of civilisation. There were a large number of large temples spread around the area, all situated on the rocky cliffs..

 

Hunting in Malta

 

While I was in Malta I saw no hunters so I guess it was out of season. However on the west coast there were large number of hunters hides, pretty much everywhere.

 

 





 

 



The interior - Mdina and Rabat

With Gozo and Valleta dealt with, it was now time to direct our attention to the middle of Malta. So we took the bus to the towns of Rabat and Mdina. Now don't confuse Maltese buses with Britiah ones. Maltese buses are punctual and well used. They are new and clean, and the driver didn't stop the bus in a random place to go out and have a ciggie like they do in Britain.

 

 

 

The town of Mdina is and ancient walled fort, which overlooks the much larger Rabat. It still functions as an inhabited place where the residents mingle with the throngs of tourist. The architecture was very ornate, and like most of Malta, was crushed into a small area.

 

 

Down in Rabat the attractions included Roman catacombs and St Paul's grotto. I wasn't sure about the St. Paul's grotto. It was jammed packed with tourists underground and when I got to see it the photo didn't turn out too good. The catacombs were fairly nondescript just passageways underground.

 

 

 

 

 So it was kind of interesting to see the area, and there is a lot to see. Malta sure does pack a lot in its small area.

 

Gozo - The Northern Isle

So waking up for the third time in Malta, the decision was made to go to Gozo. This is Malta's second island, situated just to the north of the main island. It is large, less urbanised and more easy going than its bigger sister. Despite its association with Malta, Gozo has a strong identity of its own. We went to Gozo the day which is probably not really long enough to scratch more than the surface of the island. Definitely worth a visit.

Mgarr -Harbour of Gozo

 



Travelling the straits to Gozo, I was expecting to see lots of sea birds, but like most of Malta was relatively bird less. The large ferry boat docked in at Mgarr, where we took a open top bus to Victoria. Victoria is the islands main city. Its a small town, but is still quite ...In the olden days the entire population of the island had to sleep in the fort, due to the risk of marauders from the sea.

 

Victoria

The fort was positioned towards the top of the  city, which must be a very long walk if you wore armour. From there were good views over the surrounding countryside.

From Victoria we took the short route to Ggantija. This is a temple of standing stones that have a history dating further back than Stonehenge and the pyramids. It was a UNESCO site which demonstrated its importance. I have to apologise but I thought it didn't look like much more than a pile of rocks.

Ggantija - nothing more than a pile of rocks

 

 

As usual when we got back we had dinner and drinks in Sliema.