We spent the morning visiting a few of the hides on the north of the reserve, walking as far as the Estuary hide. We didn’t, in fact, see many birds from any of the hides other than the first one. Here we had a very fruitful time with good views of avocets and chicks, tufted ducks and ducklings, green sandpipers, black-tailed godwit and (one of my all time favourites) little ringed plovers.
Avocet landingAvocet seeing-off a black-headed gullAvocet chickBlack-headed gull landingLittle egretCommon craneComma butterflyAvocet chickGreen sandpiperGreen sandpiperAvocetsTufted duckBlack-tailed godwitLittle ringed ploverView from the Estuary Tower hide of the estuary – with not many birds in sight
We then drove up to Rodborough Common but I put my camera away and we succumbed to lunch al fresco at The Bear Hotel. No complaints about that.
Despite the disappointing weather we had a fabulous trip to this wild and remote shingle spit, the largest in Europe – Orford Ness is an internationally important coastal nature reserve, with a fascinating 20th century military history.
You take a short boat trip from Orford Quay and, as the National Trust website says ,”follow trails through a stunning landscape and a history that will both delight and intrigue. Discover an internationally important nature reserve littered with debris and unusual, often forbidding, buildings from a sometimes disturbing past.’
Unusual structures scattered across the salt marshes and shingle beaches of Orford Ness are remnants of the island’s unique history as a test site for communications and weapons systems.
The National Trust ferry Octavia approaching Orford Quay.
With Covid restrictions you are currently allocated approximately four hours for your visit and we spent most of our time exploring the wildlife. We did, however, visit some of the military buildings where there were exhibitions of the secret military past.
The National Trust’s website gives a very good account
Currently there is also a physical and online art exhibition – Artangel’s Afterness (see the website https://www.artangel.org.uk/project/afterness/) and headsets are freely available but we preferred to listen to the sound of the birds, particularly skylark and oystercatcher.
Due to the bird breeding season we were only allowed to visit a small section of the marshes (red route on map below) but there was more than enough for us to see.
A telescope would have been useful to see the distant views of waders but many were close enough to see and photograph. There was one spectacular moment when, near the end of our visit as I was photographing a distant marsh harrier, a spoonbill flew directly overhead. I am embarrassed to say how many shots I took of this delightful bird.
Marsh harrier above one of the mysterious buildings (with another raptor on the roof)SpoonbillSkylarkMeadow pipitLittle egretRedshankGreenshank I presume – however its legs were very yellow so I even considered a YellowlegsOystercatcherLapwingRedshankStarlingsLinnetsMarsh harrierShelduckWe had better views than this blurred photo of an avocet
Gallery of some of the buildings and landscapes on Orford Ness
As well as migrating birds the marshland and shingle beaches are also home to hares and rare plants and lichens.
Gallery of some of the photos I took:
Can’t wait to go back (even though I don’t expect to get such good views of a spoonbill again).
Gallery of just a few of the photos I took of the spoonbill!:
Photographs taken of dragonflies and damselflies (and a meadow brown butterfly) at a pool near Court Barn at Shelley Priory in Suffolk. I looked at this pool earlier in the week on a dull day and saw very little. The sun came out and voilà …
I look forward to identifying these on my return from holiday. It shouldn’t take long as many are repeats.
No wolves but a close encounter with a badger in this ancient woodland. A few rays of sunshine brought out the butterflies with Speckled Woods, Ringlets, Red and (a first for me) White admirals.
The song of nightingales, a rare sighting of a turtle dove, sand martins, yellowhammers, whitethroats, chiffchaffs , kestrels and a red kite were some of the joys of this reserve on the Stour estuary in Essex.
Martin Tayler's bird blog & nature photos 