Local Patch - December roundup

 

   

 BUZZARDS are very common on site, and I see them pretty much every time I visit the site. This is only quarter of a mile outside Ipswich.

December was a fairly unremarkable month. There were frosty nights at the start of the month, with their accompanying bright sunny days, followed briefly by a flurry of snow midmonth, before ending on a mild note.
As is usual in the festive period I was overloaded with work and was unable to do much birding, the upside being I was able to concentrate more on the local patch, in the brief periods between shifts.

Yellowhammer

There were some decent bird flocks overwintering in the area, and shows how important this seemingly normal site is for birds. A small field recently ploughed attracted a large amount of birds. There was a flock of 30+ YELLOWHAMMERS, which also included a few FINCHES, including a beautiful male BULLFINCH. This is about the normal size of flock for the area and reflects a good breeding season. The flock would commute between the field stubble to roost in the neighbouring hedgerow before drinking from a puddle on the dirt road.
The same field held a flock of 30+ SKY LARKS by far the largest number I have seen in the area, and must be migrants, with a few on territory in Lark Field.
There was a flock, again numbering 30+, of GOLDFINCHES around the entrance of the site, again feeding on a field of set aside left so since the last harvest, which regularly attracts small bird flocks.
On the reservoir, on the 9/12, there was another LITTLE GREBE, my fourth record for the area. Nearby, on the permanent pasture where the cows sometimes graze, there were a few MIPPITS and REDWINGS, feeding amongst the short grass.
Outside the patch, but around where I live, there is a flock of 25 COLLARED DOVES present and several hundred STARLINGS in the area around my house.

 

As is usual for this time of year there were plenty of TIT flocks, their constant energy is uplifting on a dull day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 A large portion of my local patch is composed of horse pasture. The short, permanent turf is important for birds that feed in the shallow mud like THRUSHES and GREEN WOODPECKERS.

 

 

 This WREN has found a roosting site. it would sit on top of it trilling away, announcing to the world that this was its hole.

 

 

Around Snape, Suffolk - 25/12/2017

One of the EXMOOR PONIES that graze the Warren. They use this breed for their hardiness, useful for grazing heather.

 

 

With Christmas dinner to look forward to we went on an early ramble through the countryside of Snape. The countryside round Snape just happens to have some beautiful reserves, such as the RSPB's Snape Warren and the Suffolk Wildlife Trust's Snape Marshes, plus the estuarine River Alde, which makes for some good birding habitats.
However birds were in short numbers on this day, a mild, rather dull day. Large areas of Snape Warren had been recently cleared of gorse and birch trees and we later found the EXMOOR PONIES, one somehow managing to graze on a spiky gorse bush.
Snape Marshes were quiet and on the river were some AVOCETS amongst the usual waders, as well as some WIGEON and TEAL as well as a LITTLE GREBE going nowhere as it tried to make its way up river against the tide.
As we left the river we still had enough time to have a pint, so we stopped at the Golden Key in Snape, where I went for a nice Adnams GhostShip.
So nothing much really, but a chance to get some air, and to make room for the feast to follow.

Hazelwood Marshes - 24/12/2017

I'd visited Hazelwood a couple of times in the past, before it became inundated by the river. Its hide was the only vantage point overlooking that part of the river Alde. The estuary side was always good, but the wet grassland which made up the reserve, was never very good for birds, the odd LAPWING or REDSHANK, but that was all. Since the inundation, back in 2013, when the river burst through the banks and turned the reserve from wet grassland to mudflats, the number of birds has increased massively.

Overlooking Hazelwood Marshes and what used to be wet grassland. The hide is in the mid foreground.

 



We had a quick walk to the reserve before the Christmas Eve meal, at the time the tide was high on the river but low on the marshes. The hide was new, replacing the rickety structure which used to stand there. On the marshes there were plenty of birds including BRENT GEESE, lots of WIGEON and SHELDUCK, and some LITTLE GREBES. Wader wise there were plenty of REDSHANK and BLACK TAILED GODWITS. A female MARSH HARRIER was around, but didn't seem to affect the birds present.
As we walked away from the hide to the exit of the reserve an immature PEREGRINE FALCON was spotted in flight. As we watched it it suddenly tucked its wings in and diver bombed some unknown prey. It did this several times although it didn't seem to catch anything.

View from the hide of what was wet grassland before it was inundated. It is now a species rich habitat so there was a balance to nature, natural forces sculpting the countryside

Unseasonal HOBBY at Barham Pits - 4/12/2017

 

An unseasonal HOBBY, put in the briefest of cameos today at Barham Pit B, for maybe two seconds. I had at the time put my bins aside and was preparing my camera for another shot when it appeared.  A small falcon with dark grey upper parts and a creamy under with red around the legs. It really couldn't be anything else. I guess this is a bird who just left it too late to migrate to Africa, maybe fooled by the warm weather. Anyway it is my only winter record in the UK.

 

 

Meadlands Pit

 

Wildfowl were few and far between with Meadlands Pit holding eleven GADWALL, nine COOT and four MUTE SWANS. There were one each of GREAT CRESTED GREBES on the three pits.

Family party of SWANS on the river

 

KINGFISHERS were present as usual, but all were seen in flight, no chance of photos.

A SPARROWHAWK was disturbed from a branch along the river, and was later seen in flight over the pits.

So the pleasures of local patch birding, most of the time I see nothing, but just on the odd occasion something interesting turns up, and it makes bird watching that much more rewarding.