I had some time this week, using up some of last year's paid holiday, so I decided to have a walk from my home in North West Ipswich to Needham Market, a route that follows the river Gipping, passing a lot of gravel pits along the way. As the crow flies its about six miles, but walking along the bendy river its probably closer to nine, a big difference when you're walking.
I go to these places quite a lot, its my local patch, and I have written about them on different posts in the past. My main gripe, is that despite being an assortment of lakes of different shapes and sizes they still don't attract many birds. Some are intensely managed as fishing lakes, others just aren't that good. But despite this they are still the best birdwatching sites in the area.
The first site I reached was Barham Pits, three different lakes, heavily fished. They are under new management, and a big fence has been put around the bottom pit - Pit 'B'. I guess this is to stop mink and otter from eating the fish, but I think its also to stop people who are walking the public footpath from walking around the site. Time was you could walk anywhere, just chill out watching the lake from a fisherman's berth, but now non anglers are excluded.
Around the pit 'management' work has been undertaken which basically has involved massacring the lake side alders leaving the place bald and ugly. The same can also be said of Pippins Lake near Pipps Ford, where again the lake side alders have been cut down including a lot of really big trees. As this lake isn't fished it beggars belief why they should be so drastic, destroying so much for so little.
Away from this gripe the bird watching was ok. The best sighting of the day was a PINK FOOTED GOOSE, a single bird amongst a large GREYLAG GOOSE flock. It had a pink and black bill, pink legs (obviously), was smaller and darker than the GREYLAGS. I had my camera with me, but after I took the photo a message came up saying there was no card in the camera - I had left it at home in the computer - a rookie mistake. That is why there are no photos for today.
DUCK numbers were rather small, with most pits having small numbers of TUFTED DUCK, COOT and SWANS. Best numbers were of 27 GADWALL on Pippin's Lake and 13 TUFTED DUCK on Shamford Mere. Even Pipps Ford, usually the best place for birds around here was empty, with just a GREEN SANDPIPER on the working quarry area.
Small birds weren't really that active today, most were still in winter mode and hadn't started thinking about breeding yet. Several GREY WAGTAILS were seen along the river, a common resident that breeds along here. Several TIT flocks held a CHIFFCHAFF, a bird that winters in this country in small numbers next to watery areas. A LESSER REDPOLL was found near Barham Pit B, but the only really decent bird flock was a group of fifty SISKIN, making a lot of noise in alders along the river by the Pink foot.
It took me four hours to walk this stretch of the river, about the same amount of time I took at Welney. Some sites reward you for the effort, while those that take more effort sometimes don't. This is a local patch, the nearest to me, so its a place I have to go to really even if there isn't much there. I enjoy doing it anyway so its no hassle.
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