Fingringhoe & Abbots Hall Farm - 26/7/2018

 

Its not often that I head south and cross the border into Essex. I don't  know why, its not that far from where I live, its just  that the reserves in Suffolk and Norfolk seem to offer more. Essex, although having some great reserves, doesn't have that big bird reserve on the scale of Minsmere or Cley.
Having exhausted a lot of the reserves in my usual area it was time to visit somewhere different and we entered unknown territory.
The first reserve of the day was Fingringhoe, just five miles out of Colchester. Its an old gravel workings completely grown over by scrub with good views of the Colne estuary courtesy of a load of hides. It is managed by the Essex Wildlife Trust (EWT), and was their first ever reserve.
Two months into a heat wave and the day was absolutely boiling - we were sweating buckets. This was a day with temperatures ranging over 30 degrees and we were feeling it. Vegetation was still green but everything was slowly dying off under the heat. As it was we saw very few small birds, and all the larger birds were present but mainly just sleeping, not wishing to exert any energy in this heat.
The reserve is a maze of footpaths, with many paths branching off going to areas you weren't sure were the right direction. However we walked a rough circle, starting along the side of the estuary before walking further inland to see the main part of the reserve.
The first hide gave great views over the estuary and a huge area of saltmarsh. The tide was high with many CURLEWS and GULLS roosting on the saltmarsh. On a scrape closer to the hide there was a flock of around forty GREENSHANK, mainly just sleeping, which made ID quite difficult, as they had no distinguishing plumage really.

Roosting GODWITS

 



Further hides over looked the estuary but provided little due to the high tide. Further along, the Kingfisher Hide overlooked a scrape where amongst roosting  GODWITS and LAPWINGS there was a COMMON SAND and a LITTLE GREBE.
The final hide overlooked an area that was once farmland but was allowed to be flooded by the neighbouring estuary over the past decade. When we visited it was high tide with WADERS roosting on the nearby bank, which was the old sea wall. Mainly GODWITS, there was a good variety of other birds as well. A few AVOCETS, around five SPOTSHANK, several GREY PLOVER, and singles of GOLDEN PLOVER and KNOT, the latter still in its brick red breeding plumage, looking very dapper.

 

On the way back we explored further into the reserve, and we disturbed something sunning itself on the path - an ADDER. Although it was only a brief view it was an unmistakable grey with black diamonds on its back, a real treat, I haven't seen one before this year.

In the centre of the reserve there is a small lake. On it there was an old brood of TUFTIES, a pair of TEAL and a single POCHARD.

We chilled at the centre for a while, surprised at how quiet the reserve was people wise. We still had a couple of hours left to beat rush hour traffic going through Colchester, so we decided on another reserve to visit.

 

Abbots Hall Farm

Maybe five miles away from Fingringhoe was Abbots Hall Farm, an EWT reserve, mainly working farmland where an area of land next to the estuary had been flooded, to turn farmland back to saltmarsh, which would have been its  original habitat before human interference. It was one of the first attempts at this rewilding of its kind and has had around 16 years to form. This kind of habitat is what Hazelwood Marshes near Aldeburgh will eventually turn into (see other posts in my blog for details). It also forms the offices of the EWT.

Most of the reserve is farmland worked for wildlife, which meant smaller fields, more hedges and a greater diversity of crops than normal farmland. However considering how hot it was there were few birds about, with only a couple of BROWN HARES for company.

So with blistering heat and a rule which sees EWT reserves closing at five - which made us feel we were rushing things - we didn't have the best time. There was a problem with the hides in the fact they were badly sited and they didn't overlook anything. Seriously one hide overlooked a tiny stretch of river, and there was one hide which was on the map but didn't exist in reality.

It was interesting to see the reserve, as it was my first visit here, but I don't think I'll come back again. Too many reserves exist with birds often congregating at the best of them. In the end a farm is still a farm and doesn't provide anything that much different to my local patch. That's  not taking away from the work the EWT does. I'm sure the farm is completely different to when they took over and wildlife has probably increased a lot since then. Its just not Minsmere.

 

Today was alright I guess, Fingringhoe was quite good, but there was nothing that really grabbed me today, something that would draw me back to this area in future. Maybe we should have gone to nearby Abberton Reservoir instead of Abbots Hall Farm, but with no real knowledge of  the area it was difficult to really know what we would see around here, especially on a swelteringly hot day like today.



Titchwell - 19/7/2018

 

 

 Moulting male RUFF

 

For today's birdwatching trip we crossed over the border into deepest darkest Norfolk, all the way to the north coast and to Titchwell. It all went safely and we managed to get out and back to Suffolk unscathed. In fact we had an amazing day, Titchwell was absolutely heaving with birds, something I have never experienced before in any of my previous visits here.

It is a long, long journey up to the northern coast from where I live, just under two hours driving, so we ended up arriving around half eleven.

 

A LESSER YELLOWLEGS had been kicking its heels around the reserve for the last couple of days and after enquiring at the visitor's centre confirmed it was still at the reserve.
The layout at Titchwell is really simple. There is only one path that leads straight up to the beach. It passes a variety of habitats that turn from woodland to beach, including reedbeds, freshwater marsh, brackish marsh and intertidal mudflats.

Parrinder Hide overlooking Freshwater Marsh

The reedbeds were fairly quiet, with a pair of RED CRESTED POCHARDS on one of the pools, turning into eclipse plumage. The eclipse is a period in late summer when the male ducks shed all their colourful feathers, to grow new ones for winter and the breeding season. As a result all ducks in this period look like the females, mainly brown and dowdy, making it harder to tell apart closely related species.

A different moulting male RUFF

 



After the reedbeds we came across Freshwater Marsh, and boy were we in for a surprise. Now I mainly visit Titchwell later in the year when things quieten down. However today there must have been some freak conditions to create this spectacle. There were just thousands of birds. Mainly AVOCETS, GODWITS, GULLS, GEESE and DUCKS, a period when the breeding season had coincided with Autumn migration is the only way to describe what we saw. The variety was amazing too. In the first patch of mud were just loads of RUFF. In all there must have been at least thirty birds on the Freshwater Marsh, numbers I haven't seen for a long time. At the moment it was just males, moulting out of their summer plumage, non breeding birds, the females and juveniles would come later. A juvenile BEARDED TIT was seen feeding on a patch of mud a habit I haven't seen before in this species, and its also good to see juveniles.

 Two SNIPE

 

We walked along the path where we met some volunteers who put us onto three CURLEW SANDPIPER, still in brick red breeding plumage, amongst a flock of DUNLIN. They also put us onto the LESSER YEELLOWLEGS, a lifer for me, which was a bird we saw before, but had dismissed as  a REDSHANK. As I have mentioned the bird resembled the previously mentioned species, with yellow legs and a dark spotty back. Not the most spectacular of birds but nice in its own way. There was a LITTLE TERN roosting on one of the islands. Like Minsmere the reserve held few young AVOCET with only five counted.
At the top end of Freshwater Marsh is Parrinder Hide, very stylish for a hide, which looks over two sides - south to Freshwater Marsh and north to Volunteer Marsh. On Freshwater Marsh we got better looks at the CURLEW SAND, and there were three SNIPE immediately in front.
On the other side Volunteer Marsh was more tidal and held only a few REDSHANK, making quite a difference between the two habitats.

 

LESSER YELLOWLEGS

 



 Moving on we came to the third marsh - Tidal Marsh, which as you may guess is a tidal area. On an island in the water was a flock of SPOONBILLS resting, slightly bigger than the accompanying LITTLE EGRETS, and would occaisionally preen themselves with their spoon shaped bills.
Eventually the path made its way to the beach and the North Sea. The beach is unspoilt and goes on for miles and miles. Scattered along the water's edge were small flocks of summer plumaged SANDERLING, quite different to their white winter plumage. On the sea were lots of different varieties of TERN, a small flock of GANNETS was observed.
On the way back a different flock of six SPOONBILL flew over, the other's were still present in the same place as before. The LESSER YELLOWLEGS was more accessible this time and I was able to take some photos.

Weeting Heath

On the way back from Titchwell we decided to stop off at Weeting Heath. This reserve is famous for its STONE CURLEWS, where hides look over the heaths at the birds, making it the most accessible reserve for this species.

 

The reserve has a pine belt which you can walk to the hides from the visitor's centre. Here we found a couple of SPOTTED FLYCATCHERS birds that are hard to find, let alone as breeding birds.

The Heath is mainly overgrown grassland, burnt brown by the sun. We managed to see two STONE CURLEWS walking in and out of clumps of grass, distinguished by their yellow bill and large eyes.

Further on we went on a walk through an area of pine woodlands north of the reserve. In a large TIT flock we saw both a TREECREEPER and a NUTCHATCH. However the paths were poorly marked and we managed to get lost a couple of times before completing the route.

On the way back we saw a third STONE CURLEW, in a different area to the other two.

 

Well there you go, it was a completely unexpected July day's birdwatching. Little did I expect to see so many birds in a time of year I dismiss as an "inbetween" period. Migrating WADERS were in great supply, with the added bonus that the birds were mainly in summer plumage, looking quite stunning. As the heat intensifies more and more pools will dry up, leaving places like Titchwell the only place to find fresh water. This will concentrate more and more birds into smaller areas making August an interesting time. Its heating up to be a good WADER passage.



Minsmere - 12/7/2018

 

 

Another month and another trip over to Minsmere with the chance off catching some early returning WADERS as Summer slowly turns to Autumn in the birding calendar. July is quite an inbetween period for birds with the breeding season pretty much ending and migration yet to fully take off. However this is Minsmere and there is always something to see at any time of year so a trip is always worthwhile.

The choices about what to take equipment wise is always a problem. Do I take my long lens and DSLR, or do I sacrifice it for a telescope which will give me better views of little distant brown waders. As my brother who was birding with me wasn't into photography I decided to take the scope and used my little Canon bridge camera instead.

 



RINGED PLOVER

 



So the usual arriving ritual, park up, show our membership cards at the reception and grab a cup of coffee. With both me and my brother having refillable cups it was nice to have 20p knocked off each cup. Not much but a nice touch.

GULL ID: 2 BLACK HEADEDS with 1 MED GULL

 



As usual we started our birding tour of Minsmere at the North Hide. With the vegetation in front of the hide so overgrown, any birds seen were some distance away in the shorter areas of East Scrape. A GREEN SANDPIPER was seen over at West Scrape, but apart from that very little.
We walked past the North Bushes, stopping off for a look at the STONE CURLEW field, but didn't see very much. We walked the North Wall, again with not much about and hit the beach. On the sea were a pair of COMMON SCOTER, a male and female. We walked along the beach to East Hide which overlooks a large chunk of the Scrape, a part that still had some remaining water.
There were the usual assortment of post breeding GULLS, both BLACK HEADED and MED, with a large number of KITTIWAKE, here and on South Scrape. COMMON TERNS were still nesting, whilst SANDWICH TERNS were busy fledging their young. They are unusual breeding birds for Minsmere so its good to see.
Passage WADERS were low on the ground, with just the one summer plumaged DUNLIN, whilst the usual oversummering GODWITS were about. AVOCETS were also about in plenty of numbers, but didn't have any young with them at all, it seems they have all failed this year.

East Scrape

 



We exited East Hide and went to the Public Viewpoint, which overlooks South Scrape. Amongst all the usual GULLS were a large flock of LITTLE GULLS numbering around forty in total. Now these GULLS are very small, hence the name, about the size of a TERN. They have an all black head, different from the brown of a BLACK HEADED GULL.
On this part of the Scrape there were some COMMON TERN chicks the first I have seen this year, this species being a late breeder.

 

A pair of nesting COMMON TERNS on East Scrape

Walking along the beach we came upon a RINGED PLOVER. It was sounding its piping call in consternation and pretending to be injured as it ran along the beach. As we watched it another plover appeared, and as we walked back to give them room we saw what they were protecting - a tiny little plover chick. These birds nest on the shingle beach, but are constantly in danger of having their nest trodden on by the hordes of tourists who visit the coast. They nest in a little fenced off area on the beach to protect them from people. With numbers in Suffolk being decimated by the sheer number of visitors, its nice to see some success. Little baby plovers make conservation work worthwhile.
We walked over to North Levels, which at the moment was a dried up area of rough grassland. On gorse bushes on the dunes we encountered a pair of STONECHAT, which were probably nesting there.

EMPEROR DRAGONFLY

 



We stopped at the South Hide which gave a view of the South Scrape from a different angle, but saw little else different from before.
We walked over to West Hide, where we found a large chunk of the Scrape here had dried out and become overgrown with marestail. With large areas of mud around there were more migrant WADERS about. We saw five SPOTTED REDSHANK,mainly in a smart black plumage. There was one RUFF, a male, looking great with its white head. A WHIMBREL was also seen in flight.

BITTERN in flight

 

After the Scrape we walked up the road to the woodland trail, which starts at the Canopy Hide and winds its way to the Dunwich path, before exiting at the road that leads to Island Mere. The plan was to find SILVER WASHED FRITTILERIES, which we did find, I think, on a hazel tree in some numbers. It was a large orange butterfly. There were also lots of commoner BUTTERFLY species flying around.
On the way to Island Mere we encountered a FOX sauntering along the main footpath. It didn't seem particularly perturbed to see us and nonchalantly disappeared into the marshes. This is my first ever record of a FOX at Minsmere, a good one because they are such charismatic animals.
At Island Mere things were quiet with a raft of GADWALL, some SWANS and a nesting GREBE, which is a very late time to start a family.
The Bittern Hide was next and surprisingly we were able to see a BITTERN in flight here, the first time I have seen this species from its self titled hide. Also about was a HOBBY which is normal as they nest in the area. After this it was a walk back to the centre and the car park, and we went home.
A good days birding all told. For a rather unremarkable July day we still packed in a whole load of birds. That's the magic of Minsmere where pretty much anything can happen. Over the next month WADER migration reaches a peak, but it maybe pushing it to see if any water will be remaining in Suffolk to attract them. We need rain.

Christchurch Park - Summer - 2018

 

 

Around the beginning of May, the first CANADA GEESE parents of the year appeared, proudly showing off their recently hatched young. Small and yellow the GOSLING looked very cute, as it explored the area under its parent's care. Idly they swam around the Wilderness Pond, when out of nowhere a LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL flew in and tried to take the gosling. It caught the gosling but dropped it again before the goslings parents flew in and managed to scare the gull away. The gosling survived that attack but in the end it wouldn't survive the repeated attacks of the gulls. Of the ten pairs of CANADA GEESE that nested on the Wilderness Pond none managed to fledge any young. The GULLS nest on buildings around the park and mainly feed on the rubbish people leave around the place. They are truly having a negative effect on the park's wildlife.





 

 

Christchurch Park is a large park in the centre of Ipswich. It is a grassy area with scattered trees, many ancient, as well as a wooded nature refuge, where you can find the Wilderness Pond. Probably the best place to birdwatch in Ipswich, it is ostensibly a duck pond, with lots of mongrel MALLARDS, CANADA GEESE, and a population of MANADARIN DUCKS.

 



 STOCK DOVES are common in the park. Two pairs nest by the Wilderness Pond where they feed on food given out to the ducks. Around ten pairs nest in the park as a whole.

 

 One of the mongrel ducks. The pond has wooded islands where wildfowl attempt to breed.

 

 Several families of BROWN RATS nest around the pond. Unusually for rats they are very open and engaging and often feed right out in the open. Several baby rats were seen at the end of June.

 

 SNAKES HEAD FRITTILERY growing in the fen area just north of the pond at the beginning of May. By the end of June the area is overgrown by nettles.

 

 Several released TURTLES sun themselves on a log on the pond. The bigger one has been here for several years.

 

There is a very tame ROBIN around the Pond one that would often pose for photos.

 

Being an urban site the brdwatching is fairly limited, but those birds that are here are very approachable and allow photos to be taken. It is a very peaceful area for central Ipswich and provides a place to unwind whenever I am in town.

 



River Gipping Lakes - 6/7/2018

 

 

 

The time of year when June turns into July is usually the quietest time - the breeding season is finishing and the Autumn migration has yet to fully begin. With this in mind I didn't have high hopes when visiting the local patches - the lakes that hug the river Gipping.

 

 

I had decided on an earlier start today, to get the proverbial worm, and also because this June has been absolutely scorching. Afternoon temperatures often reach thirty degrees, enough to wilt the hardiest of souls. So I got up early, cycled to Pipp's Ford and arrived at eight o'clock.
Despite the early time the men were busy working in the active quarry, with many lorries coming and going, filled up with sand.



The active quarry at Pipp's Ford

 



I met another bird watcher at Pipp's Ford - a local. He told me about the breeding season they had on site. Apparently five pairs  of LAPWING had nested but all but one failed due to flooding in April, hard to believe in this bone dry June. Strangely enough we saw two small LAPWING chicks on site today, incredibly late - they usually hatch in May - lets hope they survive. The LITTLE GREBE brood from last week were still there, and it seems the OYSTERCATCHER pair have young from the way they are acting. There were also several LITTLE RINGED PLOVERS about on different areas of the quarry.
A TUFTIE flew over, as did a KINGFISHER. LINNETS were beginning to form loose flocks and SKYLARKS were still singing. The local birdwatcher considered the area to be start becoming past its best for waders as the areas of exposed mud becomes overgrown and dried out in the summer sun.

 A single TUFTIE and GREBE in company Needham Lake

 

 

Anyway I said goodbye to the Local and headed upriver. The usual pits held the usual birds. Just before Alderson Lake, close to Needham, a mustelid ran across my path, at first I thought it was an OTTER, but I felt it was too small and too dark so it must have been a MINK.
I walked all the way up to Needham Lake, which held in the centre a single TUFTIE and GREBE in company with each other. Other than that there were the usual mongrel Mallards, fat from all the bread they have been fed.

 

I left Pipp's Ford a bit disappointed not to have bagged a migrant wader and headed back homewards where I stopped off at Barham Pits along the way.

 

Apart from the breeding birds I saw last week, there was an extra brood of GREBES on Barham Pit B, making three in the area in total, which is a good record, especially as the owners aren't particularly tolerant of fish eating animals.
Over at Great Blakenham Sluice a pair of SPARROWHAWKS had successfully fledged one young, flying above the tree with its parents. At the Sluice, looking down into the river Gipping, the water was full of FISH, I'm not sure what kind, I'll have to look it up, but its an amazing sight giving how polluted our rivers are supposed to be.

Barham Pit B

 

A day on the local patch in early July doesn't really give much cause for celebration. Sure it wasn't entirely bird less but anything interesting was few and far between. But this hobby wasn't supposed to be too easy, otherwise what would be the point. Anyway Autumn will soon be upon us before we know it and hopefully it will bring in some good birds.