After a week of murky and, at times, bitterly cold weather in Suffolk, today we were blessed with a gloriously sunny day which warmed our spirits (which certainly weren’t  at all low anyway) and allowed a chance of some decent photographs.

We spent the morning at RSPB Minsmere and then in the afternoon we moved on to the Blyth Estuary at Blythburgh and saw a great variety of birds.

Off the coast at Minsmere (more like a mill pond today) we had good views of red-throated divers and on the reserve the best was a male stonechat and some dunlin which were being given a hard time by the lapwing.

On the Blyth Estuary there were thousands of birds and in particular we had good views of avocet, redshank, shelduck, oystercatcher, curlew, whimbrel, pintail, lapwing and huge flocks of gulls. It felt really warm standing in the sun watching them and was particularly interesting seeing their plumages in the beautiful sunshine as they regularly took to the air.

Red-throated divers

Common snipe taken in to the sun

Gadwall

Pied wagtail

Male stonechat

Redshank and greylag goose ignoring each other

Dunlin

A (charmless) goldfinch amongst the gadwall

A lapwing photo bombing a dunlin and teal

Lapwing chasing off dunlin

Dunlin in flight

Tufted ducks comimg to the party

Teal

Dunlin between two (out of focus) shovelers

Pheasant wondering who is following him

Greylag geese

Long-tailed tit in the woods

A colony of avocets

Avocet feeding with its swiping action

Shelduck

Oystercatcher

Redshank

Avocet in flight

A mixed flock with a whimbrel centre stage

A deceit of lapwings

Avocet

Cormorant, avocet, shelduck, curlew, lapwing, oystercatcher, pintail, wigeon, redshank, black-tailed godwit, dunlin, gulls and probably even more

Click below for gallery of photos from today: