Being an Easter Saturday, the grumpy part of me needed to go somewhere quiet, somewhere off the beaten track, because I knew those big reserves, those honeypot sites would be too busy. Minsmere, Carlton Marshes, Lackford Lakes etc. would be heaving with people, little brats running about, hides so full so I have to wait outside until I can go inside, get rubbish views and rub shoulders with someone I didn't know. Not really what I go bird watching for. So I headed down to the relatively under watched sites of Hollesley and Boyton Marshes, two small and relatively obscure RSPB reserves.
And they were alright. Of course they don't attract the numbers of birds the previous stated reserves do, but I had a satisfactory day out. For some reason summer visitors are still lagging into our shores, April is the prime time to catch up with the first returning birds of the summer, so it has been a fairly disappointing bird tally at the moment.
Hollesley Marshes
Today the Marshes were looking good, full of birds gearing up for the breeding season, although there wasn't anything unexpected present. The centrepiece of the reserve is the scrape, a shallow pool lying within an area of rough grassland, which is attractive to wetland birds. Its not as productive as the Scrape at Minsmere, but is in the whole a decent place to find birds. Being an underwatched reserve the facilities are pretty basic with views of the scrape being from a little viewing screen on one side and on the other the river wall which forms a boundary at the back of the reserve.
There were lots of DUCKS present, mainly SHOVELLER and GADWALL, two species that will stay the summer and nest here in small numbers. There was still a remnant of wintering birds present, plenty of TEAL, small numbers of WIGEON, and around five PINTAIL, birds which will soon leave in the coming weeks.
Breeding WADERS were in good supply, with plenty of LAPWING tumbling through the air to ward off a passing crow, REDSHANK descending from the air in song, and of course AVOCET, with thirty five present, all in one small part of the scrape. However migrant waders were in short supply, with virtually no movement of this type of bird, something which you would expect from a scrape. A single SNIPE was a leftover from winter.
The marshes butt onto the River Alde, an estuary at this point, which soon meets the sea. The entire time I was at the Marshes the tide was high and the current was first racing into the sea over at Shingle Street. Further along the river is a small Suffolk Wildlife Trust reserve called Simpson's Saltings, which is an area of shingle and saltmarsh. Not many bids were present but a WHMBREL was a good find, a smaller version of the commoner curlew, it has a noticeable dark brown eye stripe, and a bent rather than curved bill. Because of this its a good bird for the intermediate birders to get a hang of. A summer visitor, it was my first of the year.
With all the rough grassland, scattered bramble bushes, and reed fringed ditches, small birds were in good supply today at Hollesley. My first SEDGE WARBLERS of the year were here in song, their energetic, insect like song sung with agitated energy, desperate to keep hold of the prime nesting sites they were in. CETTI'S WARBLERS were, as usual, exploding from any area of dense cover, whilst a few REED BUNTING were perched from the top of some reeds fronds here and there.
In the open grassland, SKY LARKS were present in huge numbers, constantly battling with each other, often with birds ascending into the sky to sing their complex and beautiful song. Slightly rarer were the MEADOW PIPITS which fly into the air and then descend with their wings puffed out as a parachute, calling out their single note song. LINNETS were everywhere, in pairs or small flocks, the males are in full breeding finery, with their pink chests. A male STONECHAT was going to be passing through, they winter here but don't nest, they prefer the areas of heath elsewhere in the county.
Boyton Marshes
As Hollesley isn't big enough to fill a day, it was an obvious choice to go to its sister reserve at Boyton, another small and overlooked reserve, just up river. Like Hollesley, Boyton was busy with birds getting frisky with the warmer temperatures, and was full of birds. New scrapes have bee created on the reserve, adding to the birdlife. When I first came to Boyton at the end of the nineties, the area was just a series of dry grassland, occasionally flooding in winter, and held few birds, so I seldom visited. Now its tip-top and worth a visit at any time of year. Although its not big enough to take up a whole day, its a good way to while away a couple of hours.
Boyton is a working farm with cows present grazing the higher, drier land. Later in the year they'll be released onto the marshes to graze. On the marshes, the best bird was a SPOONBILL, which flew onto one of the scrapes. Its a large white bird, although not as tall as a heron, it uses it spoon shaped bill to sieve through the water. They have started to nest across the river at Havergate. Large numbers of GEESE and GULLS were present, which after pheasants the most despised birds in the country. DUCKS were on the areas of water in large numbers, with a quantity and species similar to Hollesley. A large herd of 45 SWANS was present, with several pairs nesting in the larger dykes, huge structures obscured in the reeds. A pair of EGYPTIAN GEESE were present, a bird which is still fairly rare on the coast, but will probably colonise in the future.
On the Avocet pool fifteen AVOCETS were present, the iconic bird of the Suffolk Coast. GODWITS were present in their breeding season finery, having turned a nice copper colour out of their winter greys. However despite the tide receding their weren't many waders present, some CURLEW on the flooded scrapes was about it. A HARBOUR SEAL was in Butley Creek, watching me in a bored manner, he had seen too many people wandering this stretch of the river to care about me.
With the beautiful sunny weather, large numbers of birds of prey were on the wing, with good numbers of BUZZARD and MARSH HARRIERS on the move, using the thermals to rise in the air. There was even a clash between a harrier and a buzzard, similar sized birds there was no victor, both birds moved on relatively unscathed. Its a good time for these species of bird, because without persecution they have now colonised every corner of our countryside.
Being a similar sort of habitat, there was a similar range of small birds as at Hollesley. It shows that when areas areas suitable for birds they will colonise. Our countryside isn't completely dead yet. A YELLOW WAGTAIL was in the cow field by the car park, feeding on flies around the cow pats. This is a bird that has declined massively within my life time, and even places where there is large amounts of habitat for them, those places don't have any birds. Its a similar story across the country for many species. A SWALLOW was my (late) first of the year, a sure sign of summer, up there with the cuckoo, which I haven't seen or heard yet.
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