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.