Minsmere Part 2 - GLOSSY IBIS, BEWICK'S SWANS & DEER - 12/2/2018

 The GLOSSY IBIS at Eastbridge (the bigger bird) amongst similar shaped CURLEW

 

The public footpath that we walked from Minsmere took us to Eastbridge, and more specifically the Eels Foot Inn. My brother had some lunch, but I already had a packed lunch so didn't bother. From there we went to look for the IBIS. We walked the approach road to Minsmere and came to a flooded field just on the outskirts of the reserve. Within a couple of minutes of looking we found the bird, mixing in with a small flock of CURLEW. It was a beautiful bird, something truly exotic for a flooded field in Suffolk. The strong sun really showed off the colours of the bird. Initially it appeared black, but then metallic rust colours appeared on its neck, and then green on its wing, giving it the glossy appearance of its name.

This seldom ever happens in birdwatching, actually finding a bird present where people had reported it, and then having such good views. Surprisingly there were no other birders about, although a few turned up when we were about to leave. There were also three SNIPE in the field.

 

KONIK PONIES were grazing the reedbed area on the other side of the road to the IBIS

 

We walked the road back to Minsmere centre, through the woods, which were still quiet of winter, with just the odd tentative song of the GREAT TIT, calling out 'teacher teacher' over and over again.

We saw several MUNTJACS in the woods, very tame, and not worried by our presence. 

 

Although an invasive alien species that is detrimental to woodland, MUNTJACS sure are cute

 

 

We arrived at the Island Mere hide and for the first time came across a crowd of people! No seats were available, due to all the pensioners taking them, but it was alright as I could manage standing for a while. Not much was on the mere, with a few MARSH HARRIERS flying over the reedbed, my attempts to photograph them just ending up with generic bird of prey silhouettes .

 

 MARSH HARRIER

 

We made it back to the centre, without seeing anything interesting. Looking at the sightings board, there was a report of a flock of BEWICK'S SWANS near Westleton. When I asked one of the volunteers where abouts they were, he told me to take the road north of Westleton towards Blythburgh, just before you get to the 'five points'. Now I didn't know what the 'five points' were but they must be important to have such a grand name.

 

 

The way back, swans, deer and owls

 

We left Minsmere, heading towards Westleton. Near towards the turning off to Westleton, at the edge of the reserve we saw a herd of 25 RED DEER on the old heathland recreation site, feeding amongst some sheep. We got out to have a look, and by leaving the car in the road ended up creating a traffic jam.



 

 The RED DEER herd at Minsmere is the largest in lowland Britain

 

We entered Westleton and took the main road and as instructed, headed north. Around three or four miles out we saw the flock of BEWICK SWANS grazing in a ploughed field - this never usually happens - today we have been so lucky.

There were fourteen SWANS in total, but most importantly only four juveniles. The lack of young birds is having a serious impact on the SWAN'S population -  they just aren't fledging enough birds. Anyway, away from places like Slimbridge and the Ouse Washes BEWICKS SWANS are hard to find, usually present in small flocks dispersed throughout the country.

 



 



We went back to Westleton then onto Yoxford and the A12. As we entered the A12 just north of Yoxford we saw a BARN OWL hunting in a grassy field, seeing it swoop down then arise with its prey.

So a great day, with lots of good sightings, tricky ones that are often hard to find. This is probably the best February birding I have ever done and one of the best Minsmere days. It just seemed that everything aligned in the right way, and surprisingly we saw everything we went out to see.

Minsmere part 1 - 12/2/2018

 

With so many high winter birds present in the county - particularly a long staying GLOSSY IBIS - it was time to catch up with some of them and where better than at Minsmere, the bird watching mecca. We caught up with the IBIS, and had some great views, as well as lot of other species, both avian and mammalian. It was a day of great quality, but surprisingly low in quantity, with much smaller numbers of wintering birds than usual.

It was a beautiful day, easily the warmest of the year so far, and outside of the wind it was quite hot. It has been a strange winter of harsh frosts mixed in with warm sunny days and brief snow flurries and it seems that a lot of wintering birds have decided not to turn up, preferring to holiday on the continent. 

 

Ipswich Station

So the plan was to meet my brother at Saxmundham train station, and that meant catching the train from Ipswich. Because I have no children I didn't know it was half term so was unprepared for finding the place heaving as parents and children waited for the trains to London. It was a lot busier than I expected for a Monday morning. I boarded the 10:17 train on platform 4B, then as the train was scheduled to go an announcement came over the intercom telling everyone to get off the train. We were then told to go to platform 3 where the same train we were on was making its way. So we ended up reboarding the train only this time on platform 3. A bit pointless really and typical of rail travel.

I got to Saxmundham, the station of a small market town, forty minutes later and ten minutes late, where I met my brother and he drove us to Minsmere.

 

 

Minsmere

 

Being half term the visitors centre was heaving with families, the café was packed so we had to head off without a coffee. The good things about families is they don't tend to move very far and so we found the reserve to be very quiet thereafter.

On the bird feeders, by the centre, COAL TITS and MARSH TITS were present among the commoner more garden type birds.

 

 

We went to North Hide, which as the name suggests is placed on the northern part of the scrape. The path does a circle around the scrape with a hide at every navigation point. The one thing that stood out was how quiet the scrape was. The water levels were extremely high and West Scrape was frozen over completely.
In the short grassland immediately in front of the hide LAPWINGS were starting to create territories for the breeding season, whilst a couple of SNIPE were about and there were also some CURLEW.

 Although still winter some LAPWINGS were creating breeding territories in the short grass in front of North Hide

 

 

Upon leaving North Hide, there was nothing much in the scrub and reedbeds as the path made its way to the sand dunes and out to sea. Perhaps for the first time I have ever seen it the sea was very calm, like a millpond, although not many birds were present, mainly GULLS  lazily flying up and down the coast. Dotted on the water were a few RED-THROATED DIVERS and GREAT CRESTED GREBES, getting tricky to see right on the edge of viewing distance - you really need a telescope when sea watching.

 

East Hide is accessible from the beach, and overlooks a large part of the scrape. DUCK numbers were low with all the commoner DABBLING DUCKS present in small numbers. Amongst them I counted seven PINTAIL, always rare away from their favoured wintering spot. Also present to the left of the hide was a female SMEW. Females of this species are called REDHEADS, because of there, well, red heads, they also support a white cheek. These ducks are a good wintering bird to find, with only around 200 in the country and Minsmere is probably the best site in Suffolk for finding them.

 



The Scrape, the distant SMEW is the duck in the left middle.

 

We carried along the dunes making our way to the South Levels an area of wet grassland, which with the recent wet weather was largely flooded. DUCK numbers weren't high and in amongst the birds were a few GODWITS. We saw a female STONECHAT in the gorse bushes in the dunes.

At the Sluice the path splits in two. One path takes the route around the rest of the scrape on the reserve, whilst the other was a public footpath that went to a palce called Eastbridge a little village near Minsmere. We decided to take the footpath because we had heard there was a GLOSSY IBIS residing there. The path went behind the grazing marshes, around the reedbeds, before finishing up at Easbridge. Surprisingly we saw few birds along there, just the one STONECHAT.

I shall describe the rest of our adventure in the second part.

 

 

Local Patch - 29/1/2018

There are lots of JAYS around at the moment, mainly in singles and pairs

 

With the mild ending to January it seems that the seasons are all melding into each other, and weather wise there isn't much difference between today and a day in Spring - this could easily be late March. Evidence of Spring came with my first SONG THRUSH, singing in the evening 27 Jan, with one a couple of days later in my garden. This is quite early - I don't usually start hearing them until well into February. However I haven't heard them since. The SONG THRUSH is only behind the NIGHTINGALE as the UKs greatest songster. It bellows out a phrase twice, then moves onto another phrase twice, one which is completely different to the phrase before. Its hard to explain, but the bird is quite common, so listen out for it.

On the permanent pasture of the Suffolk Punch field a BROWN HARE zoomed across, too far and too quick for my camera. I see them occasionally on the patch, but usually they are just passing through.
 

SNOWDROPS have flowered a bit later this year. They can be found in a small area of scrub at the start of the patch.

 

There are still signs of winter out on the local patch - an area of farmland behind north west Ipswich. There are at least three REDWING flocks around, numbering around 20-30 with two GOLDFINCH charms again numbering 20-30. There was also a flock of eight STOCK DOVES - a bird that doesn't usually flock - and ten SKY LARKS beginning to establish breeding territories on Lark Field.

 

 



Don't know what's happening here - they seem to be burning manure

 

However one of the features of winter at the local patch - the large YELLOWHAMMER flock - has diminished in size. From a high of 50+ birds at the start of the year to less then ten today, over a period of less than a month, is quite a down turn. This maybe due to the Spring weather forcing birds to start establishing territories, because the wintering flock seems to comprise mainly of local birds. With Spring arriving there is the mad dash to start breeding. However winter came back with a vengeance on the night of 4/2 as there was a snow storm. I shall talk about this on a separate blog.

 



Christchurch Park, Ipswich - 1/2/2018

A male GOOSANDER had turned up on the pond, but there was no sign of the female that was present earlier in the month (see blog from 19/1/2018)

 

So in May last year I spent a lot of money on a camera kit. I had bought a CANON 80 D camera body and a large SIGMA zoom lens, which put me back close to two grand. Since that time I have not taken a single good shot with that camera set. All my best shots have been taken on my trusty CANON SX 50 bridge camera, which being small I take everywhere and having had that camera and a similar older model for eight years or so know it inside and out.



 

So it was a case of last chance with my camera set. If things don't improve then it was time to sell it on E-bay (which was my second choice after throwing the camera against a brick wall).

So I booked myself on a photography workshop day at Lackford Lakes - see my post from the 29/1/2018. The tuition was good but the results were terrible, and I didn't come back with single decent image. On the Lackford Lakes blog I failed to mention it was a photography tuition day just because the results were so bad.

So I enrolled on a Jessops photography level 1 course which took place the day after the Lackford Lakes debacle. It was a small group in a building in Bury St Edmunds comprising people who have never managed to get passed the automatic mode on their camera. The course was good, we went over the basics, such as shutter speed, ISO and other functions to use the camera manually.

 

So a couple of days later I went to Christchurch Park with a feeling that this was the last chance for my expensive camera equipment. If I was to follow the advice I was given at the Jessops course and still not succeed then that was it.

Christchurch Park Wilderness Pond is probably the easiest place to do bird photography in Suffolk. Large numbers of MALLARDS in a multitude of colours, CANADA GEESE and beautiful MANDARIN DUCKS all hang around waiting to be fed. The birds are so tame they don't usually bother with humans unless they have duck food with them.

 

 

So these photos are the results of my session. Not bad me thinks, there's potential and so I've decided to keep my camera for the time being. Such a complex machine will take maybe a life time to fully master, and that is a challenge I accept, because just maybe I will take that one shot that will linger into eternity.