Snape - 25/12/2018

The village of Snape is surrounded by a great bird rich landscape, which includes several RSPB reserves and one from the local wildlife trust, as well as the Alde estuary. This area holds many different habitats, from heath to wet grassland, to mudflat and reedbed.
I  had a pre-Christmas meal walk into this wild yet accessible landscape. I  walked from the village of Snape, to it southern limit and down over the Warren, an area of heathland managed by the RSPB. Being winter it was fairly quiet, desolate maybe. The path then went down to and then along the estuary. The tide was fully out and numbers of birds were thin on the ground, mainly the usual species, with some AVOCETS, and some TEAL.
The path came out beside Snape Marshes, a Suffolk Wildlife Trust reserve, an area of water meadow in places overgrown with reeds. Towards the back I found a hunting BARN OWL, floating over the landscape like something ethereal, not of this world. It would fly around for as long as I was there, sometimes resting on a fence post. I've found OWLS hard to come by this year so it was a great sighting. In the reedy areas REED BUNTINGS were calling and coming and going.
Later on I followed a series of footpaths that went out west of the village, to overlook the reeds at Abby Farm RSPB reserve to look for a STARLING mumuration that had been reported from there, Unfortunately maybe because of the weather or they had been spooked the birds didn't turn up.

Well, this is it from me for this year. I hope 2018 has been good for you bird wise, its been good for me. I wish you all a happy new year and a bird filled 2019.

Lackford Lakes - 19/12/2018

 BLUE TIT

After spending the  morning at the Suffolk Owl Sanctuary the day continued with an afternoon trip to Lackford. Lackford can be a bit hit or miss, its a reserve with lots of common birds, lots of waterfowl, but it doesn't really attract anything unusual. That vein continued today, I saw lots of birds, but left feeling I could have had more. But I still enjoy going, because its a nice reserve, well laid out and because you do get good views of the birds.
On the entrance track to the reserve, REDWINGS and FIELDFARES were feeding along the hedgerows gobbling up the last meagre rations of berries left. The car park was fairly full, this reserve can be very popular, which just shows how important this reserve is for the area. The reserve centre had the usual birds feeding on the feeders outside, which included a MARSH TIT. No news had yet come back from the reserve about the birds that were there to see, so I wasn't holding my breath for anything out of the ordinary.

 MARSH TIT on the visitor's centre feeders

 

The reserve can be split in two, the Western Lakes, comprising the Sailing Lake and the Slough, and the Eastern Lakes, comprising five lakes of various size. The majority of the lakes are looked over by hides providing good views of the birds on them. The path follows the contours of the lakes running from west to east and back again.
The Western Lakes are the best for birds, attracting the vast majority of DUCKS.
The first lake on the way is the Sailing Lake, the largest of all the lakes and being winter there was no sailing, so the lake was absolutely full of DUCKS, with hundreds present. The majority were COOT, GADWALL and TUFTED DUCK, which were the main species to be found on all the lakes on the reserve. Found on the Sailing Lake and nowhere else in the reserve were POCHARDS with 60 - 70  present, mainly in the middle of the body of water.

POCHARDS on the sailing lake

 



The next lake was the Slough. Water levels were high here, and as a result the numbers of TEAL were quite low with around a hundred present. Again this species of duck was found only on this body of water on the reserve.
Three hides overlook the Slough. In the middle hide photographers pack in because it overlooks a sheltered area of water which attracts KINGFISHERS. Five photographers were all waiting for a perched kingfisher maybe with a fish in its bill, to take a hundred of pictures all the same as the other four photographers in the hide. There were no KINGFISHERS here today, but a LITTLE GREBE was attracting attention for having caught a fish that was half the size of its body. On another lake a LITTLE GREBE had caught a smaller fish and was constantly being mobbed by a GULL, who couldn't dive for fish, to the extent it seemed the GULL just didn't like the GREBE and just wanted to pester him.

 LITTLE GREBE

 

The Eastern Lakes were quiet. The furthest hide - Steggal's - was probably the best place. There was a group of five GOLDENEYE - four females and a male - with a further male on his own on a different lake. A SNIPE was doing what they do best, camouflaging itself into the surrounding vegetation with its cryptic plumage, but the bird would occasionally flap its wings to show us where it was hiding. A KINGFISHER flew around the lake a couple of times, calling, without stopping to perch. Only one EGYPTIAN GOOSE was found on the reserve, despite this bird being usually very common here. Other DUCKS included WIGEON which barely made it into double figures, and single figures of SHOVELLER.

A flock of SISKINS were found in the lakeside alders identified by their 'sighing' call. A pair of MARSH TIT were calling to each other in Ash Carr, maybe establishing territories, or interaction between two potential mates. Annoyingly I forgot to bring along any bird seed, so I couldn't take any photos at the Stump.

 A flock of LAPWING roosting on the Slough, would often fly in the air at the least persuasion.

 

It was an interesting afternoon spent on this reserve. There are a lot of birds around, and as I get to know a reserve its fascinating to see it change with the seasons, see birds come and go, increase and decrease in number. However as I have mentioned before there were a lot of common birds present without anything unusual. But all in all habitats like they have at Lackford are rare in this area of Suffolk, so it exists as a centre for  a lot of species found nowhere else in the region.

 

 

 

 

Suffolk Owl Sanctuary - Stonham Barns - 19/12/2018

 

 

 

It was photography day, a time I take every so often to concentrate on developing my skills of capturing still images. This often entails going to a place where the birds are particularly photogenic and easy to capture.

 



This time I decided to have a go at photographing birds of prey at the Suffolk Owl Sanctuary located at Stonham Barns in mid Suffolk.

Stonham Barns is a real hodge-podge of random shops all collected together in this farm complex, with the Owl Sanctuary the main centre.

There were to be no official displays today at the sanctuary. However they did release some of the birds to exercise them.

These pictures show a pair of RED KITES. They were released from their cage and were allowed to fly around for half an hour during which time they flew around the grounds and collected food from their exercisers.

There were two exercisers looking after the birds.

When the bird's exercise was up their cage was reopened and the birds were allowed to go back in on their own time. Its amazing they didn't just fly away.

After that I had a look around the sanctuary. It was small, with cages holding all manor of bird of prey and owls, including many familiar birds like the LITTLE and TAWNY OWLS, to the more exotic like the TURKEY VULTURE.

 

Although a lot of the birds are flown it does feel a shame that they are kept in cages. Some of the birds were ex-display birds living out their retirement there.

Whilst looking around I was told that a BALD EAGLE was to be exercised.

This was a great chance to see a species native to North America in flight in rural Suffolk.

The bird was released and it flew to a tree where it decided to stay for around ten minutes. However it did decide to fly and came over to sit on a nearby bird cage giving fantastic views.

Well, what can I say. I came with the intention of photographing birds, and I succeeded. I had some great photographic opportunities, especially of birds in flight, which are so hard to get. Whatever your view on caged animals, most of the birds do get exercised, to fly naturally.

Bonny Wood - 4/12/2018

 

Another Suffolk Wildlife Trust reserve near Ipswich is Bonny Wood, near Barking, East of Needham Market. The reserve is half of an ancient forest, one of several in the area, one that can be dated back to ancient times.

Bonny Wood from the outside

 

It is one of the hardest reserves to find, several miles from the nearest road, along a labyrinth of footpaths. It is set in a really beautiful area of Suffolk, not many roads, lots of paths, undulating fields with thick hedgerows, and blocks of ancient forests.

I entered Bonny Wood around midday, the weather was sunny, but there had been a heavy frost the night before. The woodland is predominantly coppice, spindly trees with lots of trunks stemming out from their base. There were also isolated 'standard' trees, ones that were left uncut to grow tall. In this type of  wood, because of centuries of being managed in this way, there are no ancient trees.
In the heart of the forest light couldn't penetrate through the trees so it was cold and gloomy. A MARSH TIT was seen. I disturbed a BROWN HARE on the arable edge of the forest. A small herd of ROE DEER ran across the path, only briefly lightening the quiet cold.
I came out of the forest and took another path along the southern edge, and the more open conditions attracted more birds. A male BULLFINCH was seen amongst a small bird flock, always a delight to see.
The aim of this visit was for a quick reconnaissance, but I plan to have a more thorough visit sometime in April/May time to see the flowers and the Spring birds. There are more woodlands in the area to explore, its just that accessing them is so awkward, being so far from roads and the spider's web of footpaths that crisscross the area.

The spindly trees typical of coppice woodland

 

Back at Barking, where I had parked, a very healthy flock of HOUSE SPARROWS existed, maybe thirty or forty, in what is in effect a hamlet, which is great considering how rare they are becoming in a lot of places.

 

Pill box Barking common

 

I saw this reserve on a map, a green square with a little blue bird symbol on it, and wanted to see what it looked like in reality. This reserve is one of two in the area, mere pin pricks on the map, whilst all around they are lost in a sea of intensive farmland. Places like this are so special, yet thy are so small and so alone in the countryside, and the people who own them can do nothing to extend them, to join two woods to make one giant one, to return the land to how it originally looked.