The Suffolk Broads - Beccles to Oulton Broad South - 20/6/2017

There were lots of REED BUNTING singing from the large amounts of reeds

Although all the best birdwatching places in the Broads are in Norfolk, a slither of National Park land exists in Suffolk, along the river Waveney, a long river with large sections free from any human development. It is wide and reed fringed, with the occasional leisure boat put-putting along its quiet waters.
I decided to walk a large section of this river, from Beccles train station in the west to Oulton Broad South station in the west, just on the outskirts of Lowestoft, if that means anything. The walk is about ten miles long, but with tropical humidity and temperatures in the late twenties, it sure felt longer. The scenery is also pretty monotonous with flat vistas over cattle grazed marshes. There were some Suffolk Wildlife reserves about, but they seemed to fit into the landscape, so I wasn't able to tell where they started or ended.
And there was little bird life about.
GRASS SNAKES were occasionally observed, disturbed from sunning themselves on the path. I only had a long lens camera so was unable to photograph them. Several CUCKOOS were about, with the wealth of prey available in all the REED WARBLERS present in the overgrown ditches. MARSH HARRIERS drifted over the grasslands, often shepherded by a crow or similar bird. Nice, but not worth the effort.
By the time I arrived at Oulton Broad, at the finish, I was planning to look at the reserves that lie around there - Carlton and Oulton Marshes - but I was so knackered I skipped them and headed to the train station to get back home. Believe me when I say this walk nearly killed me.
Ok, so I have been planning this walk for several years now, and it took me until today to finally get around to doing it. Now I've done it I will never have to do the walk ever again, and I mean that. Sure there are some good reserves about here, but they are just a short walk from Oulton Broad station, no need for the massive hike I undertook today. I think I'll come visit again in the winter, where maybe there'll be more about, ducks, maybe owls, who knows, but more than there was here today.

A typical vista of Broadland countryside