With the holiday to Hawaii now well and truly over, and after some needed recuperation, it was time to go back to bird watching in good old blighty. November can be a quiet month, autumn migration is over and winter is only beginning. There wasn't much at the usual reserves - only one place stood out: EASTERN YELLOW WAGTAIL at Dingle Marshes.
Now I'm not one for a twitch, hanging around in the cold for hours waiting to get a brief view of some nondescript bird. But I haven't been to Dingle Marshes for ages, this was a good excuse to go, and anyway its a good place for watching birds other than this rarity.
The twitch seen from the other side of Corporation Marshes
Dingle Marshes is only a small part of a huge complex of reserves, spanning large areas of reedbed, heathland and forest, which attracts lots of birds. However it is also in danger of being inundated by the sea, a natural process and not one that anyone can do anything about.
The rare bird was found in Corporation Marshes, an area of saltmarsh where Dingle Marshes meets the vast reedbed at Walberswick. There were around fifteen people present, not bad considering that the bird had been there for a couple of days and it was a Wednesday. The news was that the bird had not been seen for several hours. As we waited for the bird to reappear, astonishingly a WESTERN YELLOW WAGTAIL showed itself. This is our British form of the species, this one was extremely late, they are summer visitors that usually leaves by mid-Septemeber, so it was a great find.
On a patch of grass on the beach behind the twitch, someone had put out bird seed and this attracted a flock of SNOW BUNTINGS, eight in total. It gave us a break from hanging around looking for the rarity, and gave some good photo opportunities.
Eventually the EASTERN YELLOW WAGTAIL showed itself, it looked like our yellow wagtails, but was a bit browner, there was nothing about its plumage to really emphasise its exoticness.
The low landscape of Dingle Marshes used to be grazing marsh, but with the constant inundations by the sea had been allowed to grow wild into reedbed. There are a few pools, on which was a GREAT WHITE EGRET, towering over its little cousin, the aptly named LITTLE EGRET, its huge yellow bill unmistakable.
Ducks are not particularly found in large numbers at Dingle, with around a hundred present on the pools, mainly TEAL, with some WIGEON, SHOVELLER and GADWALL.
Feeding on the beach, amongst all the flotsam was a large flock of 30 GREENFINCH and 10 LINNET. SKYLARKS were everywhere in large numbers and seem to be preparing for the spring. In the large reedbeds at Walberswick BEARDED TITS and REED BUNTINGS were found, as you would expect.
So a good return to Britain at a good reserve I haven't been to in ages. A trip out here in any month can reveal a lot, especially if you combine it with the vast Walberswich reserve. Its a more low key place to the similar Minsmere, no hides, no visitors centre and only public footpaths, but if you find the right places the reserve can reveal a lot. A walk from Dunwich beach to Southwold and back although very long, is a real must for any visiting bird watcher, the best examples of the many habitats in the Suffolk Coast and Heaths area.
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