Hollesley and Boyton Marshes - 20/10/2021

Male STONECHAT, Boyton

Its hard to find new horizons in an area I know so well. The Suffolk Coast, although one of the best birding areas in the country, is overly familiar to me, so its often difficult to choose somewhere to visit that doesn't feel old. So the world turns and my attention turns to two of the smaller RSPB reserves at Hollesley and Boyton Marshes, and in keeping with this poor October there wasn't much to see.

The scrape at Hollesley is just about flooding with water again, the Hollesley Bay prison is in the background

Hollesley Marshes

One of the peculiarities of Hollesley Marshes is that they drain the scrape over the summer so that it just becomes a grassy field grazed by sheep. The scrape is the centrepiece to the reserve taking up a large chunk of the marshes and attracts most of the birds. By October it starts to re-wet itself and begins to attract birds back to its watery embrace. Despite the wet year we've had the scrape still held minimal water and as a result held few birds. just some ducks and waders.

Just the one SHELDUCK was present, at this time of year all shelducks migrate to the Baltic to moult

There were small numbers of TEAL and WIGEON, with five PINTAIL gracing the scrape, as well as some roosting CURLEW. Walking up to the river a female STONECHAT was perched on a fence post, but few other migrants. Hollesely is close to where the River Alde meets the sea and here the water was rushing in at a extreme speed, aided by the heavy winds. Against these winds a RED THROATED DIVER was trying to fly down river, but gave up as it was going nowhere and so flew sideways over Orford Ness and onto the sea. So a good few birds but nothing unusual, migration time just calls out for that rare bird that this year doesn't seem to deliver.

TEAL on the flooded pool, Boyton

Boyton Marshes  

As with every trip to Hollesley there's another one over to Boyton, its sister reserve. Managed as a farm Boyton is a sea of cattle pasture, flat marshland with reed fringed ditches and small pools of water. Again despite the wet year we've had, only one pool was flooded. On here were around seventy TEAL, with a small number of WIGEON, a SHELDUCK and some GODWIT. By this pool a male STONECHAT was perched, again, on a fence post. 

Cows graze the pasture in front of an anti-tank building dating from WW2

Walking up to the river wall the tide was very high, flooding the saltmarshes. The river here is tidal and a few CURLEW and REDSHANK were about, flying up and down but rarely alighting. A HARBOUR SEAL was on the river, as usual the visible head of this curious animal exposed, and as you look at it, it looks straight back at you. On the fields a pair of EGYPTIAN GEESE were displaying, the first time I've recorded a pair here, the onward march of this introduced bird.

A small flock of CHAFFINCHES were passing through Boyton farm

As you can see it was a quiet day over at the RSPB marshes, with few birds about. This was partly due to the lack of any flooding which attracts the ducks in, marshes are marshes after all. But I think it might be down to something else. These RSPB reserves are mere pin pricks in the countryside, and that even these places managed for wildlife aren't holding any birds. The outside world is just so hostile for wildlife that even those places that are kind to them just aren't enough. We needs lots and lots of land to be turned over to nature to halt this loss of wildlife, and we need to protect our wildlife, because otherwise our world will collapse. Scary times indeed, but just the start of the bad things that are to come.