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.
No comments:
Post a Comment