I was up at Snape for the weekend, and decided to spend Sunday morning walking the Sailor's Path. This is a well used route that links Snape with Aldeburgh, its around four miles long and travels through some tip top habitat, the heaths of Snape Warren, the forests of Blackheath Wood, and the Suffolk Wildlife Trust reserve of Hazlewood Marshes.
As with yesterday at Titchwell, the weather was again beautiful, rising to fifteen degrees, which for a February is quite sweltering. The walk was fairly uneventful, some rare breed sheep were grazing the acid grassland of the Warren, some of the trees in Blackheath Wood had been harvested and some cows were now grazing the area.
So it wasn't with great expectations when I got to Hazlewood Marshes. The tide was out, as I had expected, in fact it was at the lowest tide, and there was little evidence that there was a river in this estuary. I knew this but still wanted to visit, because its such a fine walk and on such a fine day.
Out on the mud were the usual suspects, the DUCKS, SHELDUCK, WIGEON, TEAL and PINTAIL, and the usual WADERS, with some AVOCET still about.
On the way back we came upon a COMMA butterfly, standing out by its tatty wing edges, an early rising butterfly, but this one is earlier than most.
As I walked back through Snape Warren, I heard a familiar song, and looking for its host spotted a bird perched upon a bush - it was a WOOD LARK. Its song is not as complex as that of its relative, the SKYLARK, but it is a rarer bird, mostly confined to heathy areas, of which Suffolk is a stronghold of the species. This was an early singing bird, so hopefully more of his species will join him soon.
So a fairly quiet walk birdwise but through such a beautiful landscape, it was never dull. When the countryside is like this do I feel truly blessed, and this is why the Suffolk coast is so truly special.
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