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.