Ramsholt Lodge Marshes - 13/8/2020

Under a blistering August heatwave, I made my way to somewhere new for me, broadening my horizons at Ramsholt Lodge Marshes. The place has appeared recently on all the local birding websites, mainly as a place to see SPOONBILLS, among other birds, so I decided it was time for me to have a look at this mysterious place.

The place can be called out of the way, it involved driving down a lot of country roads, single tracked and striking through lovely little villages. Yet somehow Ramsholt still managed to be near Woodbridge a kind of topsy turvy nature that's typical of the Suffolk countryside.

I pitched up at Ramsholt, walked down to the river and took the place in. The place mainly exists as a jetty for boats along the Deben, with the craft moored in number along the river. The only other attraction and the only building there was a pub which has top notch views out along the river to enjoy a pint with. Ramsholt is a nice picturesque place, without the hordes of tourists that fill up the more accessible places of Suffolk.

As I have said I don't know the area at all but I had a reasonable idea where the birds were, using the OS map to chart the route. On the map it looked to be in a lowland area full of blue ditches. Getting to this place involved walking along the river wall, and out on its stretches it was mid tide, revealing a nice sliver of mud. There were lots of BLACK TAILED GODWITS and REDSHANK feeding on the mud and one careful observation caught a WHIMBREL, a bird that's like a small curlew, with a black eye stripe and a bent rather than curved bill, a lovely sight to behold. 

The path led its way next to reedbeds and through trees and finally broke onto to the marshes. First impressions were of how full of birds it was. The marshes seem to be a deceptively simple habitat, shallow water bordered by reedbeds, yet it was full of birds. It was only August yet the site was heaving.

The birds I came specifically for, the SPOONBILLS were present but they numbered only two birds. Spoonies are white heron-shaped birds with their aptly named spoon shaped bill. They are an exotic bird but becoming more common, they have started to nest in this country, though not yet in Suffolk. They are an iconic species, one every nature lover wants to see. 

One of the SPOONBILLS was an adult with a black bill with a yellow tip, and the other was an old juv with a grey bill. They mainly slept or sieved through the water and they always stayed together. There were lots of LITTLE EGRETS about, around the same height as the spoonies. Once upon a time little egrets were considered as exotic as a spoonie, but now they are seen as run of the mill birds you see everywhere. It is difficult to guess if spoonies will become like that, whether I will see them along the river in Ipswich. Imagine what a sight that would be!

There were plenty more birds to see. The most common were the REDSHANK and GODWITS from the estuary, but there were lots of other WADERS, and large numbers of DUCKS of all sorts and species meaning birding was challenging and exciting, something I haven't experienced for some time. Its been a while since I have seen an assortment of birds like this, I mean this was busier than Minsmere, which says a lot. 

There were plenty of WADERS present. There were around 15 GREENSHANK, several GREEN SANDPIPER, some AVOCETS, a small flock of RINGED PLOVER, and singles of a chestnut RUFF, and, best of all, a tiny LITTLE STINT, which can be hard to see in mid August. 

BLACK TAILED GODWITS, nicely coloured bronze in their summer plumage

There were plenty of small birds about, darting in and out of the bordering reedbeds. They were mainly WARBLERS and BUNTINGS the usual skulkers of this habitat. Best of the lot was a female WHINCHAT perched on bushes along the river wall, a bird of the size and shape of the commoner stonechat, but has a distinctive white eye stripe.

There was no circular footpath so I had to retread the trail back along the same route beside the Deben to Ramsholt.

REED BUNTING

As with everything it always helps to visit somewhere new, to strikeout on fresh paths, to deviate from the usual. Thats how you find new birds. But it also helps to know a place to know where to see certain birds so in the end there's a need to strike a balance. I must say I was very impressed by what I saw today at Rsmsholt. This is a private reserve, created by someone who obviously cares for wildlife. They have created a top notch place, which could possibly be the best place to bird in Suffolk at the moment. The sheer number of birds for this time of year was fantastic and it won't be long before I go back again. Suffolk, as always, holds many surprises for the birder.