Its been a quiet Autumn so far in Suffolk, with few rarities reported and very low numbers of the more common species. With nothing particularly around I chose to have a visit to Hen Reedbeds, just for the simple fact I haven't been there for a while. In the end it was a quiet day down there, the reed fronds gently swaying in the breeze. The reserve was created around the millennium when a river valley was allowed to grow into a reedbed, and borders the Blythe Estuary, providing some nice scenery and skies that go on forever.
For some reason it was an exceptional high tide, and it was in, meaning there were few birds out on the Blythe Estuary. For some reason few birds were roosting on the marshes or surrounding fields, so I have no idea where they all were. There were a few TEAL and WIGEON on the pools but that was about it. A GREAT WHITE EGRET flew over, heading west, a bird that has pretty much conquered all the Suffolk Coast. Just the one MARSH HARRIER was about, and plenty of WATER RAIL were squealing from the reeds.
A feature of this time of year is the large amount of BEARDED TITS usually heard but occasionally seen on the reserve. In a big reedbed like the one here, they nest in large numbers, and when October comes, these bird "erupt" from their home territory, the tits literally rising from the reedbeds, to go find wintering grounds elsewhere. The Beardies were everywhere twittering out there metallic "pinging" call, with the odd bird arising from the reeds, to be briefly seen. There were two STONECHAT about, as you would expect, and the mild weather brought some CETTI'S WARBLERS out to thunder out their song. Some REDWINGS were by the furthest hide, a bird I haven't seen much of so far this Autumn, but in general things were quiet.
I don't usually check the rare bird alerts on the internet, but some birdwatchers I met at Hen Reedbeds told me there was a DUSKY WARBLER over at Southwold, just up the road. This bird is your typical Little Brown Job, but I hadn't seen one so I went to have a look. The bird was last seen on the north of the town, in a hedge next to the Boating Lake. When I arrived, there was just one birdwatcher about, and he hadn't seen the bird despite having waited around for two hours. It had last been seen in a hedge in a garden, and there were two DUNNOCKS around to add confusion. I hung around for a while, but the bird could have been anywhere, and I got bored of just staring into a hedge, so left.
Still with a hang over from the Isles of Scilly, this was a nice, gentle excursion into the wilds of Suffolk, to clear my head of all that pollution that civilisation pours out. It didn't help that it was an immensely high tide which didn't seem to drop no matter how long I was there, which resulted in few birds being around. It was just one of those days where nothing much was to be seen, one just to sleep through, and dream of rare birds to see some other day.
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