Hazelwood Marshes - 25/12/2021

An AVOCET, which looks to be catching some kind of lugworm

Every six hours of the day the muddy expanse of Hazelwood Marshes is flooded by the salty water of the River Alde, a refreshment of life that provides food for its many birds. Once  upon a time this area was flooded grassland, protected by a sea wall from the briny river, before that sea wall was breached and Hazelwood Marshes was inundated, eventually becoming mudflats. Surprisingly, since that natural realignment of the estuary, the birding has become better here, because as always nature always finds a way to heal itself. And so on a Christmas morning I visited Hazelwood to work up a hunger for the large dinner that was going to follow that day. Oh how I love Christmas dinner.

The expanse of mud which makes up Hazelwood Marshes

As I visited today, the tide was well and truly out, the low tide leaving a sea of mud in its place. When the tide is low the vast expanse of mud means the birds are all spread out over a much larger area, so you don't see any of the flocks you expect from the incoming tide. Also a lot of the birds will be feeding on the edge of the water, which today at Hazlewood meant a small channel of the river a long way away, and with all the mud there's no way to get closer to them. So although there were lots of birds about today, estuaries usually do pull them in, the birds were distant and in smaller numbers, often right on the edge of view, even through a telescope.

A REDSHANK, the SENTINAL OF THE MARSHES

The most evocative sound of the estuary has to be that of the REDSHANK. Known as the Sentinel of the Marshes, this bird with its red beak and legs, lets off a piercing melancholy call usually associated with it in flight. As this is a common bird and it calls a lot, it becomes a constant sound of the area and it really adds to the wilderness of the marshes its found in. This being estuary country there were plenty of other WADERS about, waders love to feed in mud. These birds have adapted different shaped bills to each other, to feed on different prey in the mud. For example the CURLEW, our biggest wader, has a long down curved bill, whilst the DUNLIN is a much smaller bird with a relatively stubby bill, although still curved bill. Also about were a few GREY PLOVER, GODWIT, and AVOCET with singles of RINGED PLOVER and OYSTERCATCHER also about. All these birds have different shaped bills which is a good tool for telling all the brown birds apart, as well as by their size. They are a good test of birding skills

Hidden among the mud were thousands of birds

DUCKS are another feature of estuaries and there were plenty about, with hundreds of TEAL and WIGEON present, mostly in one of the channels or on the water's edge. Also about were a few PINTAIL, a very elegant duck with its princely neck, and titular pointed tail, a bird that is quite scarce away from its favoured sites, which are usually estuaries.

This PHEASANT was chilling right in front of the hide

All the large number of birds would be put to the air by a passing MARSH HARRIER which frequently flew over looking for some prey. Still a rare bird in some parts of the country, the reedbeds of the Suffolk coast provide a good home for this bird of prey, although they are usually too big and slow to take a wader or duck.

The area of dead birch trees, killed by the inundation of salty water when the river walls were breached

As the path to the hide starts, an area of intertidal reedbeds is developing and today I heard the "pinging" of some BEARDED TITS there, which was a first sighting for me here, a good sign the reedbeds are turning into some place important. Another small bird making its presence known were the three ROCK PIPITS along the path to the hide, a common sighting here in winter.

An area of reedbed is developing on the edge of the estuary

Sticking to the path to the hide, aside from the birds, a nice sight was a brief WEASEL that dashed out onto the path ahead, before darting back the way it had come, into the rough grass, maybe sensing my presence.

AVOCET are quite common birds on the Alde Estuary in winter, with several hundred present.

Estuaries are really one of the UK's most important bird habitats. Its because we have so many, such great expanses of glorious mud, and the fact that these rich factories of food attracts waders and ducks to our shores in such large numbers. As a result the UK attracts internationally important numbers of such a wide variety of birds, something we should be so proud of, and despite there being so much declines elsewhere in the country, the birds of estuaries seem to be doing alright, again something to be proud of. And witnessing these bird flocks really gives something back, something primordial to the human spirit, seeing something as old as time, a natural spectacle which we have destroyed almost everywhere else.