Occasionally even the most lonesome of birdwatchers needs company and so today I joined a group activity, a collective birdwatch at Martlesham Creek. Group birdwatching is a different activity to the lonely one. Groups work at a much slower pace, you end up standing in places for a long while, and where the individual would crave quiet, with more people there is a quiet chatter. Under the guise of the Suffolk Bird Group, this morning was a saunter around a nice section of the Deben estuary. Martlesham Creek branches off the main river estuary and provides good views of waders, and the occasional osprey, and although there were none of the latter, there were plenty of wading birds to see.
Being an estuary WADERS were the order of the day, and although numbers weren't high there was plenty of variety. The tide was very low on the estuary, providing lots of mud to attract the wading birds, and with the Creek being narrow in places, birds were quite close. On the first stretch, the very end of the Creek, coming out by the small marina, two SPOTTED REDSHANK, were around, now moulted out of their jet black summer plumage, more grey and white now, more elegant than the COMMON REDSHANK, the most numerous wader on the creek. A RUFF was present as well, and there were several GREENSHANK, a bird that was found in decent numbers along the Creek. Further along the Creek, there were small numbers of GREY PLOVER, BLACKTAILED GODWIT and CURLEW in singles along the tidal edge. Where the Creek ended and joined the main body of the Deben, two RINGED PLOVER were on the mud, but we were strangely missing common birds like dunlin today.
Apart from waders, there were small numbers of other water birds about. A KINGFISHER was a brief bullet of sapphire, flying across the river wall to land in a dyke the other side, where small numbers of REED BUNTING flitted about among the reeds. LITTLE GREBES were plentiful, little round shapes in the main channel, while small numbers of TEAL were pretty much the only DUCKS around. By the marina there was a small herd of MUTE SWAN, resting on the edge of the channel, and there were a few LITTLE EGRETS stalking the shallow water.
So not a great deal seen in total, but plenty enough to keep a party of birdwatchers interested. I don't know how many more group days out I'll attend, most of them are on a Sunday when I have to work, so there wont be any for a while. But maybe, when there is a suitable Saturday, and when I'm feeling sociable again, I'll attend another outing.
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