Boyton & Hollesley Marshes - 20/4/2019

With Easter finally upon us I had some time off work to do a bit of birding. This time of year is busy, human wise, with everyone off work and enjoying the season, so it was really a decision to find somewhere quiet. Minsmere, Walberswick and North Warren, although good reserves would be heaving with people, honey pot sites they are. Having worked the morning, in an extremely busy environment, I wanted somewhere out of the way, somewhere less known, off the radar to non birders. So I decided to travel to Boyton and Hollesley Marshes to get away from it all.

Boyton Marshes

Looking over the AVOCET scrape towards the farm

 



Boyton is a nice reserve, low key, and managed as a working farm for wildlife. It consists of a large area of wet grassland, with scrapes and shallow flooding. However due to the drought conditions large areas of water were drying or had dried out. The ditches were lined by reeds and several newly arrived SEDGE WARBLERS were having a song contest either side of the path, where the winner has control of this bit of territory and all its females.
The main scrape on the reserve is a good nesting site for AVOCET, with around thirty birds present. Also there were some GODWITS and a few DUCK. There were also some roosting CURLEWS elsewhere.

The path leads to the river wall and from there there are good walks along the edge of the estuary with great views up and down river. The tide was high so there weren't too many WADERS about, however a HARBOUR SEAL was a nice find, many miles from its nearest colony. A WHIMBREL was roosting on some saltmarsh, giving nice views, my first of the year. A YELLOW WAGTAIL, flew across the river, again the first of the year, and always a good sighting as they are so rare nowadays. A male MARSH HARRIER floated over the other side of the river.
There were lots of singing SKYLARK, a few MIPPITS, REED BUNTING and a flock of 25 LINNETS.
In the end I did a circular walk, coming off the sea wall and walking through the village of Boyton, a small hamlet, a quiet place far away from signs of civilisation, back to the reserve car park.

Hollesley MarshWith some time left I went to another RSPB reserve - Hollesley Marsh - just down the road from Boyton, but separated by some intensive agricultural land. It consisits of grazing marsh with a large scrape, an area of shallow water, with grassy islands.

As I walked to the scrape I was surprised to view a feamale PEREGRINE FALCON  flying over some surrounding fields. It was absolutely huge when compared to a kestrel, a dull grey colour, it was being mobbed by a pair of CROWS as it flew near to their nest. Talking to a local birder, the falcon has been wintering at Hollesley for the passed two years. Absolutley gorgeous, the best bird sighting of the day.

Looking over the scrape

 



What was most apparent about the scrape was the large numbers of DUCKS present, I haven't seen so many of these birds so far into April, usually they tend to disappear much earlier than now. Amongst the usual species, two pairs of PINTAIL were about.
Apart from lots of LAPWING, numbers of WADERS were low. Crucially there were few AVOCETS, a bird they are trying to encourage to nest on the scrape, here. It maybe that the large colony of large GULLS in the area have just decimated any chance of an AVOCET colony from forming. The RSPB has tried many things to stop this predation but nothing seems to work, and they have to face the fact that its just nature at work, that there are certain things out of their control.
A pair of MARSH HARRIER were nesting in the reeds that bordered the scrape.

So a nice quiet visit to some reserves I don't get to visit much. Small and underappreciated these reserves don't get the recognition of the larger reserves further up the coast, which in a way is good, as it keeps the public away. As with all RSPB reserves they are well managed and full of birds, and like all reserves, precious islands of wildlife in a sea of intensive farmland. I just wish there were more of them, or at least for farming to be more in line with the wildlife that lives in our countryside.