BLACK TAILED GODWITS
With a fairly quiet June so far I decided to go over to Minsmere on the chance of catching some interesting breeding birds. Unfortunately the warm weather meant that a lot of those species were hiding away, but the first signs of Autumn were already present with returning WADERS already on their way down south.
We started off as usual around the scrape trail, a square shaped path that wanders around the Scrape. First stop was the North Hide. From here it was immediately obvious that everything was overgrown, the grassy areas in front of the hide now covered in reeds, the West Scrape inundated with marestail. Allowing things to go fallow is a deliberate act to allow breeding birds and their chicks to hide amongst the reeds to escape notice from predators like the MARSH HARRIER. In a channel right in front of the hide was a family party of SHOVELLERS, containing six ducklings along with their mum, rare breeding birds with only around 500 pairs in the whole country. The North Hide is not the best place to watch with the Scrape being some distance away, so there aren't really many close up views to be had there, so we didn't linger to long.
SHOVELLER mum with some of her ducklings
We moved onto the the STONE CURLEW field, an area of acid grassland where the HEATH CHICKEN breeds and where it is possible, with luck and a telescope, to see one. Today was not a lucky day and the bird remained elusive. So we moved along to the North Wall, a path that cuts through the northern reedbeds, serenaded by the simple song of the REED BUNTINGS, but apart from that not much else.
We reached the sand dunes but saw nothing much on the sea. We walked further onto East Hide, which looks over a large chunk of the Scrape, almost opposite North Hide, somehow. There wasn't too much here either. The water levels were very low for this time of year with lots of exposed mud. There were large numbers of BLACK HEADED GULL chicks, but in general there was a noticeable lack of any other young birds. Large numbers of MED GULLS were present without seeming to nest and there were usual numbers of nesting COMMON TERNS with some larger SANDWICH TERNS, which may be nesting, they usually don't stay over the Summer at Minsmere.
AVOCETS were nesting, but they usually have chicks by now which wasn't the case today, so it seems they have had a bit of a disaster this breeding season. There was a RINGED PLOVER and a couple of REDSHANK. All these nesting birds use different areas of the Scrape to nest in except the BLACK HEADED GULLS which nest anywhere.
BLACK HEADED GULL fledglings.
The most common WADER was the BLACK TAILED GODWIT with around two hundred present on the Scrape. These birds don't nest here, they are a subspecies that nests in Iceland, but has a surplus population that over summers around here. There were also a couple of KITTIWAKES on the Scrape, a bird which nests on the power station out riggings further down the coast at Sizewell. These are the real 'sea' gulls, spending most of their time out on the oceans.
KITTIWAKES - note the black legs, the clean white head and the jet black wing tips
We went to the Public Viewpoint along the beach from East Hide, but overlooking a different part of the Scrape. From there it was fairly evident there was an unusual TERN. About the same size as a COMMON, it had an all black bill, which was slender like a COMMON'S. Its forehead was bald, with the black crest round the back of its neck, a bit like a monk. I had no idea what it was but I was certain that what we had found was a rarity. The pulse was racing. Present next to the TERN was a beautiful SPOTTED REDSHANK, still in its black summer plumage, spotted with white. This bird is the first sign of Autumn, one that for some reason didn't breed, and will be wintering somewhere to the south of the UK.
From the Public Viewpoint as we walked along the sand dunes we were bombarded by what felt like rain if it consisted of little pellets. It was a swarm of BEETLES, tiny little ones that covered the arms and clothes. What they were doing swarming on a sand dune I don't know, so close to the sea, a sudden gust of wind would blow them out to the water.
We walked over to the Levels, an area of grazing marsh, looking pretty dried out at the moment with nothing much present. From the beach we moved into the hinterland. There were no horses on the Konik Fields, but a beautiful WOOD SANDPIPER was present, ever so tiny, keeping to grassy edges of one of the pools, and not venturing too far out of cover. A great bird and my first ever June record.
View of one of the South Scrape islands.
South Scrape was quiet but we got better views of the strange TERN. There was something about it that just screamed out rarity. I had never seen in a life time of birding seen anything like it. With a very poor record shot from my brother - camera phone through a telescope - we headed back to the visitor's centre to report our sighting.
On the way there we were on a high, wondering what we had seen. At the centre, at the reception point we met one of the staff and told him 'we have seen an unusual tern'.
He had evidently heard this a lot before as we were told fairly quickly that the strange bird was a COMMON TERN, a variety known as the PORTLANDICA TERN, a bird that is quite common out at sea, its a young bird, not quite of breeding age, and this individual came in with an influx of COMMON TERNS. So there you go. How do I keep birding after so many years - the answer is the fact that after all this time I am still blind sided by a strange COMMON TERN.
We had a look at the reedbed hides, but saw nothing in a packed Bittern Hide and an empty Island Mere, of any particular note. SOUTHERN MARSH ORCHIDS were growing along the path to Island Mere Hide, with some impressive spikes poking through the reed fronds.
We strolled back to the car, and exited to go to Westleton Heath.
Westleton Heath
Westleton Heath is an area of heath which joins onto the other heaths of Minsmere and Dunwich creating a large landscape of a rare habitat. Heathland isn't a fertile habitat, like say an oak wood, so the number of birds is quite low, but a large number of birds that nest here do so only on heaths and nowhere else.
We decided to head over to the deer watching mound first of all, a place to view the deer rut in October. We checked the grassland for any HEATH CHICKENS, just on the off chance of seeing one, but we were not in luck there. What we were in luck with was stumbling upon a colony of SILVER STUDDED BLUES.
You can see from the photos they liked the nectar of the BELL HEATHER which was coming into flower. This is a rare butterfly which is restricted to lowland heaths, like the type we get in the Sandlings of coastal Suffolk, and this area is a stronghold. They have a complex life cycle, being reliant on a species of Ant which take in their caterpillars, which in turn feeds on the ant's eggs and grubs. A really strange species and worth protecting because of that. This is my first encounter with this species. Despite all the heath habitat they inhabited only a tiny area.
We carried on the path that ran parallel to the acid grassland and we came upon a herd of RED DEER, which included a hind and a fawn. Most of the time the deer are not bothered by people, but the hind and fawn quickly disappeared from our view.
We crossed over the road and headed north, took a circular route around the heath and through open woodland. The heaths were quiet with the odd pair of STONECHATS. We caught a brief view of a DARTFORD WARBLER, but not enough really to satisfy. There were lots of paths through the heath, a lot of them fire breaks, which meant we could walk around without disturbing any birds. Eventually we struck gold and found a pair of DARTFORDS. They flew low, not much over the heather, and were in and out of the heath, with the occasional bird posing on top. It provided some good views.
With that success we headed back to the car. On the way we heard another DARTFORD singing, so we encountered them from three areas which means some survived the snowy March. After this we headed off back home.
It had been a successful day's wildlife watching, the birds weren't necessarily the stars. For a June's day birding it was very good. Such is the high quality of birdwatching at Minsmere that even in the "quiet" breeding season there is still a lot around to be seen. Such is the range and scale of habitats that make up the landscape of Minsmere it is home to so many rare breeding birds being present that can only be seen in this area of the country at this reserve.
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