Big Garden Birdwatch - 28/1/2017

I woke up as early as I could on a Saturday morning - 9:30 - to conduct the garden birdwatch. This is an annual count of all bird species and numbers that appear in gardens over the period of an hour. My garden is fairly big, shared between four flats, dominated by grass and with a variety of different sized trees. Being a suburban garden, near to the country  I  had quite a few species come through.

Ok so here are the records:
Blackbird - 7 - the largest number I've seen in the garden
Starling - 8
Wood Pigeon - 5
Collared Dove - 5
Blue Tit - 2
Goldfinch - 5
Magpie - 1
Crow - 2
Long Tailed Tit - 2
Chaffinch -1

There you go, not much, but I didn't have to leave my flat, so there's an upside to it.

The Blyth Estuary and Hen Reedbeds - 22/1/2017

Spent the morning further up the Suffolk coast at Blythburgh and Hen Reedbeds. These are two areas I don't really have the chance to visit too often, so I like spending my time there.
Hen Reedbeds was artificially created by flooding some species poor farmland and turning into a large area of reedbeds. And it worked. The reserve looks great and totally natural.
Due to the recent cold weather pretty much every area of freshwater was frozen over. This meant all the reedbeds and the pools were turned to ice.
From the viewing platform, near the car park four MARSH HARRIERS were in flight, while a SNIPE shot passed, all above the wild ponies grazing the edges of the reeds.
Crossing the  road to get to the other half of the reserve, things were pretty quiet. The tide was out along the river running parallel to the footpath and reserve, but there wasn't much about. A KINGFISHER zoomed passed the first hide while a party of 15 BEARDED TITS were by the second hide. But with everything frozen  it was a hard job finding anything about.
Over in the distance huge flocks of BARNACLE GEESE were in flight over the Southwold marshes, making quite a spectacular sight.

Over at Blythburgh where it meets the estuary the tide was out, but there were still lots about. The species seen were pretty much the usual estuary type waders, gulls and ducks. A lone RINGED PLOVER was a first for the year.

Goose bonanza at Trimley Marshes 19/01/2017

Nothing better than a beautiful day on my favourite local reserve. The marshes were showing well today with lots of birds, despite it being mainly frozen. Star birds were the BEAN GEESE on the summer flood mixed in with a large flock of GREYLAG and BARNACLE GEESE, as well as two WHITE-FRONTED GEESE. I'm not sure how many were present as I didn't have my scope with me but there were at least three. These birds are extremely rare winter visitors with only two regular wintering grounds in the UK (the nearest to here is in the Norfolk Broads). It's been a long time since I've seen any, the last time at Tophill Low, when I lived in Hull.

 

There were good amounts of water on the reserve but it was mainly frozen, with both the Reservoir and the Winter Flood both frozen over. The permanent lagoon had unfrozen areas and attracted maybe a thousand birds all mainly asleep on the islands.
Today I arrived by train, then a half hour walk to the marshes reserve, along the river wall, passed the Managed Retreat until the path arrives at Loompit Lake before heading back to the station, the route a rough circle, that's about six miles long, although the last bit's a bit boring as it is mainly farmland.
Loompit Lake was also frozen over apart from the northern, area, which the cormorants use, and attracted the normal lake birds there (COOT, TUFTED DUCK, etc.).
The river Orwell, was unfrozen, and as a result attracted waders, at a low density, but considering the extent of the mudflats meant there were lots of birds in total. There were good numbers of BRENT GEESE; REDSHANK were the commonest waders, but there were good numbers of other birds.

Smaller birds included a pair of BULLFINCHES on the approach to Trimley Marshes, and another towards Loompit Lake. A ROCK PIPIT was on the river wall, and a STONECHAT along the Managed Retreat. A cheeky LITTLE OWL was also seen by the Managed Retreat, seen in flight.

 

 

 

So, all in all a good day, saw as much as I expected to see and rewarded with some decent sightings.

Local Patch - River Gipping Lakes - 14/1/2017

The area of the River Gipping I look at stretches from Needham Market in the north down and through Ipswich in the south to end in the Orwell. The stretch I visited today were two groupings of gravel pits which lay on the river and are separated by several miles.
One area is Pipp's Ford and the other area a pair of pits called Stanford Mere and Causeway Lake.

Pipp's Ford
I haven't visited this area since August, and since then they have reprofiled the 'finished' pit adding in what looks like wet grassland, which will hopefully attract more nesting lapwing. However this area was fairly empty. On the pit they're still excavating there were good numbers of wildfowl, mainly GADWALL with around 50 present. There were also 7 SHOVELLER, 1 SHELDUCK and 1 SWAN there. A wintering GREEN SANDPIPER was flushed from there as I walked around.
Not much on the smaller lakes, with a pair of SWANS and a very showy KINGFISHER on River Farm Pit and nothing on Pippin's Lake.

Stanford Mere and Causeway Lake
These two fishing pits lie a couple of miles south of Pipp's Ford, and sometimes I ignore them because they're not very good for birds. Causeway Lake is often very busy with fisherman but it seemed to be out of season today with no one about. Still there was very little birdlife here with just 5 SWANS and 2 GADWALL.
Stanford Mere is usually better, but apart from about 50 GEESE there was only 2 SWANS and 2 LITTLE GREBES.

So the joys of local patch watching. Sometimes you pick up a tricky bird to find or sometimes you don't find any birds at all. I'm still awaiting a repeat of the GLOSSY IBIS I saw at Pipp's Ford last July. Now that was a good find.

Hollesley and Boyton Marshes - 8/1/2017

Today I decided to concentrate on the two southern Suffolk RSPB reserves - Hollesley Marshes and Boyton Marshes. These are a couple of small reserves, with no real facilities, and as a result are fairly under watched by birders. The day was pretty mellow,  averaging around 10 degrees, and the air was still, but there  was no sun.

Hollesley Marshes

This reserve is an area of wet grassland with a large scrape. WIGEON were the number of the day with around a thousand present in four groupings feeding on the marshy/grassy areas.
On the scrape also present were smaller numbers of SHOVELER, PINTAIL and TEAL.
Further along the marshes the tentative song of a CETTI'S WARBLER hinted to spring in the air.



 

Driving through Boyton there was a flock of five BULLFINCHES, and through Butley there were three more.

 

Boyton Marshes

Further up the river from Hollesley is Boyton Marshes a predominately grassland reserve with a couple of wet areas. Along the footpath there was a male STONECHAT and some REED BUNTINGS.
Out on the reserve amongst a flock of 200 + CANADA GEESE was a lone WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE.
On the Butley River there were two SEALS always a delight to see, as they move down from their main colony in Norfolk.

Pair of GOOSANDER at Christchurch Park - 4/1/2017

Just a quick note to say that a pair of GOOSANDER are wintering on Christchurch Park's Wilderness Pond. Despite the first record for this location being as recent as January 2014, this species has now been recorded in every year since then.
Nothing much else apart from the usual gang of MALLARDS and CANADA GEESE hustling for some duck feed and there weren't any mandarins about.
Further into the park Mable the owl was absent from her perch, while a GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER was drumming near the playground.

This tree has been literally sliced in two