With Benacre, its not that obvious you're actually in a nature reserve. Parking is at Covehithe, a little hamlet which is gradually falling into the sea. Its a short walk down the coast to the first lake, Covehithe Broad. The thing with these coastal lakes is seeing how much still remains between each visit, as this is one of the fastest eroding coastlines in England. The footpath leading down to the broad had been partially eroded away, ending in a cliff top falling down to the beach. A small number of wildfowl were present on the remaining area of water. Eight TUFTED DUCK, eight LITTLE GREBE, four pairs of COOT and a pair of GREAT CRESTED GREBE were on the broad. A pair of OYSTERCATCHERS were on the beach around the broad, but with the amount of disturbance by dog walkers, their chances of raising a family don't seem positive.
To get to the main and largest broad, Benacre, it is quite a slog north up the beach. Along the walk, towering over the beach were cliffs of sand, constantly being eroded into the sea, and were often jutting out at odd angles. The beach is interesting as it is littered with the remains of debris fallen off the eroded cliffs. This can include trees, bits of fence and even the odd second world war pillbox.
Being on the coast I did some sea watching but not much turned up. Having grown up in the centre of the UK, I'm pretty lousy at sea watching and find it difficult. A lot of sea watching can be seeing distant specks on the horizon and determining them to be a species based on how they fly. I was hoping to see some terns flying about, but maybe it was a bit early in the month, and so nothing much of note was present. Three GANNET flying north in a tight squadron just below the horizon was about it.
Benacre Broad had much changed since my last visit at the beginning of 2020. No longer is it a freshwater lake, but now a tidal estuary, connected to the sea. Its here now I have to have a rant. A very stupid woman north of the broad walks up to the broad and allows her dogs to run over the entire area, disturbing rare birds like AVOCETS, which could potentially breed here. Avocets are very rare nesters, restricted in where they can nest, mainly on brackish lagoons and scrapes, and if there is any disturbance a whole colony may desert the area. I was some distance from the woman and I kept shouting for her to control her dogs, but she had lost control. It gets me angry that people like this do so much damage when they don't need to. They come to these special places, yet couldn't care less about looking after it. The thing is there are no signs, no fences to let people know its a nature reserve, and maybe then you won't get idiots like this one causing unnecessary disturbance.
On Benacre Broad a nice colony of AVOCETS was forming. Around 35 birds were present when not disturbed. Several RINGED PLOVERS were present, with a pair on territory on the beach by the broad. Two SANDERLING were also on the beach, while the usual estuarine WADERS were present, although they were far away, and a heat shimmer was on the broad causing poor visibility. Because of seeing it at distance and in poor visibility, I thought but couldn't determine if I saw a curlew sand, it would have been bit early in the year for one, they are most common around mid May. Around seventy TEAL were also present. Two female MARSH HARRIERS were fighting over territorial rights in the reeds behind the broad, its that time of year, the best, most exciting time of year for birds.
The walk north from Benacre involved jumping over the tidal inlet which connects the broad to the sea, fairly narrow, but try jumping with a heavy telescope on your shoulders! The broad is surrounded by dead trees, before changing to arable land on the cliff tops where I was hoping to see a wheatear, but nothing showed up, its a bird that has become scarcer in Suffolk in recent years. In fact summer migrants were totally lacking around the reserve. Its still a bit early but I was hoping for something to have turned up today.
The first sign of civilisation was Beach Farm, a nice thatched house and barn, a hodgepodge of different architectural styles formed over the years. It was in an arable field next to the buildings that checking an odd crow I discovered something a lot rarer. My gods, a HOODED CROW was present. This is a northern version of our black carrion crows, the divide between the species runs along the Great Glenn of Scotland. Its the size and shape of our crows, except for a grey back and chest. Its a very rare bird in Suffolk, less than annual, so was a great find. It stayed for ten minutes before flying north east towards the gravel pits. Ok so some people who look at the bird in the photo may think it looks like a hybrid with a carrion crow. So I put it about on social media, and roughly two thirds of people were sure the bird was a pure bred. Unless I get a blood sample there is no way to be one hundred per cent sure, but I'm counting it as a hoodie. One of the joys of bird watching, no one can deny me this one.
So the walk back to Covehithe, was a long trek, inland through arable land. This area was a mixture of crops with tightly cut hedgerows, a not very hospitable landscape for wildlife. However there were a lot of tree belts, old woodland divided by agricultural land. In the UK habitats stop abruptly woodland stops and arable begins, with nothing between, creating a totally artificial look to the landscape. In a natural environment habitats grade gradually almost unnoticeably so. Not much was seen in this part of the walk, the usual farmland birds, but I was serenated by the constant sound of SKYLARKS ascending.
So a fairly quiet, if enjoyable day at Benacre. Although its a good reserve, there's often not a lot present here. Suffolk has such a remarkable coast, with such good bird reserves, places can get overlooked. There's a lot of walking between things at Benacre, and although its nice countryside it can be a bit tedious at times. The most enjoyable part of the walk is finding what has fallen off the eroded cliffs onto the beach, things waiting to be washed into the sea. But with the HOODED CROW it just shows any bird can turn up anywhere, so search those crows, those larks, those finches, because there may be a rare bird hiding in plain sight.
No comments:
Post a Comment