Minsmere -28/8/2019

When I stand on top of Whin Hill and look down on Island Mere and the surrounding extensive reedbeds, the wet grassland beyond, my eyes gradually reaching a horizon of woodland at Sizewell Belts, I can't but help feeling optimistic.  All this before me is for nature, this is right, this is what our countryside should be about, about wild things, not just the industrialised production of food.
Whin Hill is an area of high ground that overlooks the marshes of Minsmere, where BBC Springwatch was based for a couple of years. Its an area of grassland full of GREEN WOODPECKERS and rabbits. Its also on the route back to the car park from Island Mere hide.
I was over at Minsmere on this late August day, primarily to look for southbound Autumn migrants. There were a few birds about, but on the whole things were fairly quiet, by this I mean quiet for Minsmere, which is still better than most reserves.

The remains of the abbey sits atop a small hill, an island above the marshes

 



But first, before I start the bird report, I must talk about the scones. The café at Minsmere serves great scones, big door stop scones, homemade scones, they make the perfect meal to start a trip out on the reserve.
And I didn't have to go far. In the pond area - the old carp park - there was a PIED FLYCATCHER, first in some bushes, then it flew to the top of a tall tree, where it would fly out and catch insects on the wing -  the typical behaviour of a flycatcher. There had been an influx all along the coast this week, but with only a few at each site it still took some effort to find them. There was a small twitch of five or so people stopping to admire this bird of northern oak woods.

RINGED PLOVER

 



The end of August is usually the best time for WADER migration, when it usually reaches its peak. However this year the peak has been a bit earlier, and what I witnessed was a waning of the Autumn period. There was still a decent selection about, I don't usually list things but I will do so here. The Scrape, where the WADERS foraged is split into East, West and South sections, each slightly different to the other.
On East Scrape:
23 AVOCETS     2 COMMON SANDS   3 LITTLE RINGED PLOVERS  1 DUNLIN  1 RUFF
I GREEN SAND

On South Scrape:
10 RINGED PLOVER   8 DUNLIN  2 SPOTTED REDSHANK    2 CURLEW SANDPIPER

On West Scrape:
3 SPOTTED REDSHANK  6 SNIPE  I GREEN SAND

Aside from the waders the Scrape was very quiet with only a few DUCKS about. On the pool behind South Hide there was a late brood of TUFTED DUCK.

 

 

CORMARANT through the reeds

 

Although wader migration was passing its peak, small bird migration was still only really just beginning and normally peaks in late September. There were lots of locally born birds about starting to get together into flocks and the various areas of scrub were worth looking for them, with the chances of something unusual. Things were fairly quiet, along the beach I encountered only one WHEATEAR, a beautiful male in smart summer plumage.
Family parties of BEARDED TITS were found in the reed fringes of East Scrape and in the Konik Fields, and from what I can see they have had a good breeding season.
A very late CUCKOO was on East Scrape, and because it looks like a bird of prey caused consternation amongst the birds on the scrape, putting some into the air. This is my latest ever record of this bird species. As the adults don't take part in raising their chicks they leave quite early. This was a brown juvenile, maybe locally born.
This is only a snapshot of what was about, as there were lots and lots of common birds about I really couldn't note every single one of them. For example there were lots of PIED WAGTAILS about, but you can find loads of them around any supermarket car park as well. But they are still nice, happy birds, wagging their tails with what I assume is joy.

 

 

 The jetty, the only time you can tell if its high tide at Minsmere is when the jetty is covered in water

 

So passes another summer's day down at Minsmere, with the usual suspects about, nothing out of the ordinary. With so much about, not just here but all along the coast one visit just seems to barely scratch the surface. Oh to give up work and live my life in the countryside. But I have to get back to civilisation, to TV, laptops, the internet and blogs about bird watching. Its a hard life.

 

 

Summer on the Local Patch - 2019

Well, for the first time in my blog's history I shall start with some good news. I can actually report something positive happening in the world of nature, because despite rainforests burning, and permafrosts thawing out, on my local patch things are looking a bit more rosy.

 

 

Lets start with the BUZZARDS. They are common on the local patch with birds resident in the area, particularly in the wooded part of the Suffolk Punch Field, but I have had no proof of the birds successfully nesting. However this year they seemed to have raised two young.

In July I was lucky to spot the birds fledging, the young birds were perched on top of a tree whilst the adults were trying to entice them into flying away. They were present for several days before finally leaving the area.

BUZZARDS are what are called an APEX PREDATOR, that is an animal that's at the top of the food chain and so if they are able to produce young there must be enough prey to feed them. BUZZARDS are oppurtunists, they often fly over motorways looking for roadkill, or a ploughed field looking for worms, they will eat anything, and therefore the landscape has to be diverse enough for them to breed in. Their spread throughout the UK is one of conservation success stories.

 

The second success stories involves the First Field, which has been left fallow for a couple of years. This year there was a fantastic blooming of PYRAMID ORCHIDS with over a hundred spikes appearing in this area. The spikes are the flowers, which like a lot of orchid species appears as a long tube, which can be quite beautiful, and they are seen as the crown jewels of the plant world.

OYRAMID ORCHID

 

This is a great record for an area that's not particularly good for flowers, there are a lot of sprayed agricultural land, and not much permanent grassland. Where I used to live in Buckinghamshire PYRAMID ORCHDS only grew on downland areas, habitats that were too steep to be ploughed so I thought the plant only grew on unimproved chalky soil. However I was wrong. I now know they are a pioneer species that will grow anywhere, from sandy soil around Barham Pits, to more neutral places like the Local Patch. When given a chance, wildlife is not as restricted to habitats as we think, nature can easily move through a landscape that has a varied amount of habitat.

This Summer has been a bit of a washout, with some heavy rain and a lot of cloud cover, producing very little sunny days. As always late summer can be pretty birdless. A couple of YELLOWHAMMERS sang late into July as they usually do, for no reason really except for the joy of singing. However there was little else around

 

Several pairs of SWALLOWS nest in the barns around Rise Hall. They feed on insects round the reservoir and passage birds can be seen here and the Suffolk Punch Field, which not having be ploughed is full of insects. This year for some reason there has been no REDPOLL CATTLE on the Suffolk Punch Field, they are usually put out on this field for the summer. This field is permanent pasture with scattered bushes and a wooded area.

There is a small flock of GREYLAG GEESE resident around the pond

 

On the 11 July I got a first for the patch in the form of a GRASS SNAKE, which slithered across the road in front of me. This just shows that nature moves through a landscape and species are not just restricted to self enclosed habitats, but are part of a more dynamic whole.

The odd POPPY flower appears on the Patch, but there hasn't been a good display for four years

 

Its hard to stay positive with what is happening with the environment at the moment. It seems we are helpless whilst people burn the Amazon down purely for monetary reasons. I really don't know what to do, sitting at my laptop in Ipswich, whilst mad men destroy the world, because you would have to be mad to destroy something that is so important for life on this world, like oxygen.

 

But look, look for something positive, even if it is something small, and just realise if we do something together we could potentially save the world. We can only do it if we all act together, because nature is a part of us, not something that is separate, something to destroy. Do something, do it now, because this is really looking like our last chance.
As always, happy birding.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trimley Marshes - 15/8/2019

 

I'm not going to ramble on about the joys of birdwatching or give a rundown of this day spent down at Trimley. Actions by other people have left this day feeling worthless. Three of the hides had been vandalised and the areas of water they looked over were birdless, I guess caused by the vandalism. The reservoir hide was ok and all the birds were concentrated on this body of water, but only the common birds, nothing unusual, by the time I got there I wasn't feeling in the mood for any birding anyway.

I walked from Levington Marina, passed Loompit Lake which held the usual flocks of moulting waterfowl, the most obvious being the forty SWANS present. The river was at high tide so not much was present, but three COMMON SANDPIPERS were present on the river wall by Loompit.

Today was a disappointment and just one to forget. Sometimes selfish acts by humans can cause serious problems for everyone else, be they other humans or the birds that inhabit these marshes.

Cley Marshes - 8/8/2019

 



Cley Marshes, situated on the North Norfolk coast, is an internationally acclaimed nature reserve for its birdlife, and maybe the greatest of the nation's local wildlife trust reserves.

It consists of a large area of grazing marsh and reedbed, which attract a lot of birds, but the show piece of the reserve has to be its freshwater scrapes. These areas of shallow water, like the Scrape at Minsmere, are a mecca for migrating WADERS, as they are attracted to areas of mud as they migrate along the North Norfolk coast. On a good day there are large numbers of  birds of different species with maybe something unusual present, something American or Siberian perhaps.

 

GREEN SANDPIPER - they are a common migrant at this time of year. Despite their name I have never found them to be green, more a dark brown.

 



However today wasn't going to be a particularly good day as I took the long journey up to these hallowed grounds. That's not to say there was nothing around, an average day at Cley is as good as anywhere else. It was just I was expecting there to be, well, more.

 

LAPWING

 

There are two scrapes which are the centre of activity, Pat's Pool and Simmond's Scrape. They are overlooked by a couple of hides. On the approach path the locally born HOUSE SPARROWS were feeding on the pathside reeds, something that was so strange to see.

Out on the scrapes there were a lot of waders present. On Pat's Pool there were a large collection of birds made up of GODWITS and RUFF. The RUFF were very distinctive, as the sexes are different sizes, and the males were moulting out of summer plumage, creating . There were as many as fifty of these birds on this scrape.

 

The scrape hides overlooking Pat's Pool

 



Most of the other WADERS were spread out and were present on both scrapes. Best of all were around ten WOOD SANDPIPERS, a small wader, brown but elegant. There were also ten GREEN SANDPIPERS (see photo), fifteen RINGED PLOVERS, five DUNLIN and one SNIPE.

Present on Simmond's Scrape were around fifteen AVOCETS, in various states of age, most of the adults had departed and there were a few fledged birds about. The only adults about were a pair with two chicks, leaving things a bit late. The parents went crazy and attacked anything that came near, be they godwits or a tiny green sand.

 

The AVOCET parents would attack any bird that would come near their chicks, such as this MALLARD

 

Two HOBBIES flew over briefly, causing much consternation amongst the birds on the pools. This is my first record for this reserve. This species likes to congregate in certain areas, like the reedbeds at Lakenheath or North Warren. One oversummering BRENT GOOSE was also present, looking pretty lonely on its own. I heard a party of BEARDED TITS in the surrounding reeds and finally got a brief view of the birds, always nice to see.

There weren't many DUCKS about. All the adult SHELDUCK have left the UK to moult over in Germany, with only this year's juveniles present here, which shows just how nature doesn't respect national boundaries. There were still plenty of juveniles about, which means they have had a good breeding season.

 

Two juvenile SHELDUCKS - the adults have gone over to Germany to moult

 



So that was the centre of the reserve. The nature trail walks the edges of what was the original area of reserve (it had been since expanded) and takes the shape of a square. The east side, imaginatively called East Wall, as it rises above the surrounding marshes, was fairly quiet. The grazing marshes were all dried out this summer, but contained a pair of SPOONBILL, as usual asleep. A newish path that takes a detour into the newer areas of the reserve, leads to a hide with a pool, that attracted the SPOONBILLS out to feed for a while. It was obvious one of the birds was a young one, it was smaller and kept begging its parent for food, maybe its locally bred as they do nest in the area.

 

Pair of SPOONBILLS the one on the right was clearly a younger bird.

 

Arnold's Marsh, where the East Wall meets the sea, is a pool set just in from the beach. Its pretty much a salt water lake and attracts estuarine WADERS, which today included REDSHANK and CURLEW. There were some COMMON and SANDWICH TERNS roosting on the mud.

The north part of the square is the beach and then the sea. As I came to the beach a little flock of four LITTLE TERN flew past, but apart from a lot of SANDWICH TERNS, the odd OYSTERCATCHER and SANDERLING flying past I didn't see much as I had my lunch on remnant concrete blocks amongst the shingle.

 

The AVOCETS on Simmond's Scrape were very dedicated parents hounding anything that came near their chicks, which made for some good photography.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And this was what they were protecting, an AVOCET chick

 

For an August day bathing in hot weather, the beach was fairly quiet, the odd fisherman, dog walkers, birdwatchers of course, but that was it.

Just in from the shingle bank is North Pool, which sits, well, north of the freshwater scrapes. I was expecting a lot from this body of water. Alas when I came up to the viewing screen it was completely empty of any water. This was a strange site as there wasn't a drought on at the time, its been a rainy old summer, so I have no real explanation for this. Just one of those things.

The rest of the walk was fairly uneventful, a COMMON SANDPIPER in a small pool of water was about it.

 

 

 

As you would expect from a reserve like Cley there were plenty of birds about, lots to be seen. However away from the central attraction, the freshwater scrapes, the reserve was fairly quiet. With a lot of these reserves water is the primary force in making habitats work. Without water there are few birds. This can be an issue at this time of year, but also means places that do have water become a mecca for birds. With Autumn migration heating up hopefully more unusual birds will start to turn up and things may become more interesting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HOODED MERGANSER in Ipswich

A HOODED MERGANSER has been present in Ipswich for a while but this is the first time I have been able to catch up with it. This species is resident to North America, so the chances are that this bird is an escapee from a wildfowl collection, either that or its an extreme rarity. Anyway it was worth catching up with as this is the first one I have ever seen in the wild, escapee or not. The bird is in eclipsed plumage, that is when a male moults out of its breeding season finery to be replaced with a dowdy brown plumage.

 

However as I was in town I didn't have my long lens, instead I had just the standard one, so shots are cropped but still very distant. The bird was found on the river where the Bobby Robson footbridge spans across it. This part of the river is still tidal but is also where the salt and fresh water mix and as a result this is where the river Gipping becomes the Orwell. It was canalised in the 1960s, so has concrete sides, but at low tide mud is exposed, as are traffic cones and lots of bikes.
Also present was a COMMON SANDPIPER disturbed from the river bank, and there were lots of juvenile GULLS so it looks like they've had a good breeding season, they nest on the surrounding warehouse roofs.

 

The bird would linger on in Ipswich, where it would moult into its beautiful breeding plumage. I took these photos at Christchurch Park on the Wilderness Pond.



 

 

The bird was very tame and would come right up close to me. I have written another blog about that day.

Hollesley & Boyton Marshes and North Warren - 31/7/2019

  

Now I'm not going to be a cry baby, but whilst slugging around these reserves and seeing very little, places like Minsmere were having bumper wader days. This is the life of a birdwatcher and I shall shut up about it from now on.

This is the time of year for WADERS, with lots of birds turning up at the moment as they partake in the Autumn migration, a time when millions of birds are on the move. So I thought where better for seeing them than the scrape on Hollesley Marshes, what would seem the perfect habitat for those birds - lots of mud next to an estuary. Boy was I wrong. When I turned up the place was absolutely dried out, and had been for months - there were no birds what so ever!

There was very little to photograph, what birds that were around were distant in the hazy light, so plenty of pictures of cows - the only living things seen today!

 



Hollesley left me flummoxed, so with nothing to do I decided to walk along the river to Boyton Marshes. This is  another small RSPB reserve just up the Alde estuary, and by taking the footpath along the river wall could arrive there in around thirty minutes. Along this route I  passed a small Suffolk Wildlife Trust reserve called Simpson's Saltings, an area of saltmarsh and shingle bank, protected for its rare flowers, which was a nice bonus to find.
An area of intensive farmland separates the two reserves of Hollesley and Boyton, land I hope would eventually be bought up by the RSPB and used to create one giant reserve there. The grassy areas of the river wall were full of SKYLARKS and MEADOW PIPITS, as they raised young on these remote areas. The sun beamed down and I didn't see a soul...

The concrete block at the back of the picture is an anti-tank structure built when there was the very likely scenario that the Nazis would invade the UK in World War Two.

 



It was high tide on the estuary and there were few birds, the odd OYSTERCATCHER, CURLEW and some WHIMBREL. As the path went passed Havergate Island there were plenty of COMMON SANDPIPERS disturbed from the river wall, flying out with that strange jerky wing beats of theirs.
There were plenty of TERNS flying along the river, both SANDWICH and COMMON, with juveniles, so maybe they have had a good breeding season, possibly at Havergate.

Boyton Marshes is a small RSPB reserve that's rented out as a farm, but with nature in mind, obviously. At this time of the year most of the wetlands had dried up and it was just cow grazed fields, so the number of birds was quite low. A male WHEATEAR was present at the start of the reserve, which is a very early date for  this species, my earliest for Suffolk in Autumn. Unfortunately it wasn't the first in Suffolk this year, as one was recorded at Landguard the same day, at an earlier time.
There was one pool left at Boyton, where a couple of GODWIT, AVOCET and SHOVELLER dwelled. A WOOD SANDPIPER was seen briefly in flight, which was a bonus, something desperately needed on a day like this.


North Warren

With the long days of late Summer there was still plenty of time to do some more birdwatching, as I desperately sought to find some birds. Unfortunately I chose North Warren to search for birds and, well, I chose wrong.
Now North Warren is a great reserve, as in winter it holds thousands of birds, but on the last day of July there really wasn't a lot happening, a lazy hot day.
Everything was centred around the only remaining pool on the reserve, where I found two sleeping SPOONBILLS. When at the end of my visit I came back again one was out feeding, sieving through the water although the other one had disappeared. There were also several GODWITS, AVOCETS (as there is on every pool in coastal Suffolk), two GREEN SAND, and one GREENSHANK.

This habitat at North Warren is called wet grassland or grazing marsh, but at this time of year there is little flooding so it was just an area of dry rough grassland. The grassland is split in two by a footpath, and each of these areas have a herd of cattle that had free reign to graze where they want. This creates an uneven sward which is attractive to so many different species in winter and breeding birds in summer.

Running north of the grassland area is the disused railway line which is an area of young scrubby woodland. There was plenty of small bird flocks, but they were all local birds, so nothing unusual. I walked a lot of the reserve but after a fruitless search called it quits and ended the day's birdwatching.

As you can see today was hard work for very little. I haven't ever visited these reserves at this time of year and now I know why I never bothered. These reserves can be good, mainly in winter, they are very much wetlands and need water, which isn't around in any great quantity at this time of year.
I've been trying to broaden my horizons and not just rely on going to Minsmere, but Minsmere is the best reserve in the country and it holds the most birds at any time. Still August is upon us and this is the time for waders, so I shall search for that area of mud still remaining which will maybe entice down a nice flock. Here's to more birding adventures.