Unfortunately due to the distance of the birds and the poor light I was unable to take any decent photos today.
The plan was to park up at RSPB Hollesley and walk to Boyton and back, in a long loop. I thought, correctly, that this would provide the best opportunity to view birds. Its not too long a walk, half on the marshes, half through farmland, and took a couple of hours.
Unusually for Hollesley, there were people present, with several cars in the car park, usually you would expect to be the only person there. From just outside the car park, looking over the grazing marsh there was the GOOSE flock, with an incredible 7 species within, however I was only able to see a small part of it and would get better views later.
The scrape is the centre of the reserve, and there I met a small group of birders, although they hadn't seen much about. DUCK numbers on the scrape were fairly low, with all the usual common species with around 15+ PINTAIL also present. CURLEW, BLACKWIT and REDSHANK, fed on the muddy margins, but for some reason wader numbers were low today.
Having had a thorough look I moved onto the river wall. A bird that has been present in the area for a couple of months was a SIBERIAN STONECHAT, just south down the river wall. When I got there it wasn't showing, but this was the reason why there were birders present. I didn't stay too long, I don't like twitching. Several normal STONECHATS were present here, and I would see four in total along the walk.
The walk to Boyton from Hollesley is through rather featureless farmland, low lying arable fields with ditches but no hedges. This was a country of low horizons and massive skies, real East Anglian scenery. This was definitely telescope country, the birds, although numerous, were very distant and hard to see with only bins.
The path took its route along the wall that hugs the river Alde. The river was at mid tide, but held few WADERS, strangely. Small flocks of LINNETS were present feeding on the saltmarsh that had formed there.
On the farmland of this area I would see the flock of 9 BEAN GEESE. This area was proper wilderness, there wasn't a single person in sight once I left Hollesley. If you really want to get away from it all, then I would recommend a visit.
On one arable field near to Boyton, there was a flock, at least a hundred strong, of GOLDEN PLOVER, so well camouflaged in the ploughed mud, the only time I could see them was when they would shake their wings, every so often.
Boyton Marshes RSPB were great. This is a small nature reserve run as a farm, and today the grassland had flooded attracting lots of birds. In excess of a thousand birds were present, mainly WIGEON and GREYLAG, the geese I wrote about in my previous blog.
After walking the river wall the path cut back inland and went through mostly arable land. This part of the walk was fairly quiet, as you would expect. A large flock of FIELDFARES, at least a hundred strong was feeding in some stubble, I could only really see them when the occasional bird flew into the air, landing close by. This is probably the biggest flock I've seen this winter, numbers have been low of winter thrushes. One unusual bird flock was made up of CHAFFINCHES and REED BUNTINGS, strange bed fellows indeed. Soon the buildings of HMP Hollesley Bay came into sight and the walk headed back to the marshes.
This path behind Hollesley Marshes gave the best view of the GOOSE flock, which was situated behind the scrape and so wasn't really viewable from the reserve paths. Again see the previous blog for a further description.
So a good, strong day's birding at some underwatched sites. These places are not so well known outside of local biders, yet today provided some great birds, and should be better known. At this time of year it can feel like a true wilderness with few people or signs of civilisation, which is hard to come by in lowland England. Never take places like Hollesley and Boyton for granted, they have been protected not just for the birds but also for a piece of our soul.
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