Boyton & Hollesley Marshes - 22/10/2017

With a pub lunch on the cards we only had a limited amount of time for birding today, so we decided to do the smaller reserves over at Boyton Marshes and Hollesley Marshes. With my brother we have done so many reserves this Autumn, and yet there are still so many more to see. The Suffolk coast must have the highest number of RSPB reserves of anywhere in the country.

Boyton Marshes.
So we started at the little reserve at Boyton, a small, overlooked reserve. It is an area of rough and wet grassland, managed as a farm, heavily grazed by cows,with a few pools.
The field behind the farm buildings and car park had a flock of  SWALLOWS also held a HOUSE MARTIN, which may be my latest ever record for this species. At the first pool from the car park, amongst the usual DUCKS and WADERS there was an AVOCET.
Upon getting up to the river wall we were hit by a gale of south westerly's from some storm over in the west coast of the country. We headed north along the river before heading back south, along Butley Creek to where it entered the River Ore near Havergate Island, covering most of the reserve.
It was around mid tide with mud exposed on the creek and the main river estuary, just not many birds beyond the usual GODWITS and REDSHANK.
The reserve was fairly empty nothing much was on the grasslands except some cows lazily chomping away.
Along the dyke reedbeds that run parallel to the river wall was a small group of BEARDED TITS. A KINGFISHER flew along the river on the north edge of the reserve at the ferry.
A very late WHEATEAR was on one of the concrete tank traps, the huge second world war era buildings that standout amongst the grassland of the reserve, and more SWALLOWS flew down Butley Creek.
Best bird of the day was a MERLIN seen flying low across the agricultural fields on the edge of the reserve and there was also a MARSH HARRIER quartering the fields.
So although we saw a couple of good sightings here, there wasn't that much on the reserve. To be honest, an area of grassland isn't really going to attract many birds, not the flocks of birds you associate with wet grassland especially as there is only one pool on the reserve. However though, which ever way the RSPB manage this reserve, I'm sure they know what they're doing and its all for the best.

Hollesley Marshes
With time on our hands we decided to take a quick look at Hollesley Marshes, another small reserve just down the river from Boyton. Hollesley Marshes is basically a scrape surrounded by an electric fence with some area of grassland.
There were two viewpoints overlooking the scrape, and on looking from the first point, it was noticeable how dried out the scrape was. There were large areas of dried mud, and there wasn't any birds in those areas. Closer to the river there was more water and as a consequence more birds.
It was the usual estuarine WADERS and DUCKS, as is usual for this time of year, the TEAL and SHOVELLER feeding on the water and flocks of WIGEON feeding on the grass nearby. Two male PINTAIL were also present.
By the first viewpoint were a pair of STONECHAT, with small flocks of GOLDFINCHES everywhere.
What was probably the same MERLIN as at Boyton flew over the reserve, and there was also another MARSH HARIER.
So like Boyton, Hollesley is solid, with some birds in a small, easily accessed setting. Without anything special, really, sometimes its hard to fit all these reserves in. Its a good way to kill a couple of hours out in this area of the world though, especially combining with the nearby heaths.