Category: Blog

Not really a birding day today: we had a trip to Southwold and then a walk down to the pub for lunch and back along the River Blythe. Sorry about all the boats but I’m sure the river comes under the category of “nature”.

We haven’t seen many redshank this week

My close up photos always make little egrets look quite large

The gull gives it some perspective

As it does with the gull and the turnstone

The ferry is very busy with the closure of the foot bridge further along

A visiting ship through the sand dunes on Walberswick beach

Male house sparrow

Female house sparrow

Male house sparrow

Starlings scarpering

Bath time

Meadow pipit

Maybe the same redshank

Honeysuckle and blackberries

These flowers are very popular in local gardens

Click below for gallery of today’s photos:

It was another beautiful autumn day in Suffolk today but slightly fresher in the morning than previous days and certainly a much cooler wind in the afternoon.

We made another trip to RSPB Minsmere and the day started well with a beautiful pheasant in full sunlight in the fields and a muntjac deer in the dark shade of the woods.

A common sight in the countryside of East Anglia at this time of the year

Muntjac deer

We walked out to the Island Mere in the hope of seeing larger birds and were rewarded with good displays of marsh harriers, great white egrets, grey herons and just one bittern; but all a bit too far away to satisfy me as a photographer.

Marsh harriers

Great white egrets

Cormorant

Grey heron

We then visited the North bushes and woodlands in the hope of seeing some smaller birds but saw absolutely nothing. Perhaps the earlier ringing activity had frightened them all away.

Not much bird life but plenty to please the eye

The woods at RSPB Minsmere

Before coming home we went back to Westleton Heath and saw a stone curlew, a stonechat and some distant red deer.

Westleton Heath

The very secretive stone curlew

Red deer which attract lots of visitors to Westleton Heath to see the stags rutting at this time of the year.

 

Another beautiful morning and we just had time (before entertaining friends) to have a brief walk around the village of Walberswick and the nearby marshes on the Suffolk coast. There wasn’t much in the way of bird life to report but I would like to record how this favourite destination of ours has got even better with the construction of a new bird hide just a few hundred yards from where we stay.

The hide has been mainly conceived and provided by local resident Pat Lancaster in memory of her husband Tony who passed away recently. The hide is a superb facility which looks north over the marshes from the village of Walberswick towards the river Blyth and beyond towards Southwold. This week we have visited the hide on a couple of occasions and the main attraction has been large flocks of Canada and Brent geese but Pat Lancaster has already recorded over 90 species from the hide.

The new bird hide taken (from the ferry to Southwold) earlier in the week

View westwards from the hide

View from the hide towards the River Blythe with Southwold in the background

The hide is comfortable, bright and well equipped.

Definitely a bucolic scene from the hide today

Large flocks of geese (seen earlier this week) are regular visitors.

Our walk this morning took us along the sand dunes behind Walberswick beach and then through the marshes.

Looking back towards Southwold

The only bird life we saw were three mute swans which took off from the river which runs through the marshes towards Dunwich, although we did hear bearded tits.

 

 

 

 

It’s been an amazing day in Suffolk today; not so much for the birds but for the wonderful weather which has been hot (well into the 20s) and sunny all day. In fact it has been quite hard work traipsing around with heavy camera equipment. Not that I am complaining as we were treated to the sight of some very secretive birds –  stone curlews.

We had looked for them on Westleton Heath on Sunday in dismal conditions but had had no success. We returned again this morning and found that we had been looking in totally the wrong place. This time we could see at least seven. However, it was very difficult to get decent photos as we were looking directly in to the sun.

Stone curlews in to the sun

We then went on to RSPB Minsmere where we had probably the least productive time in all of our numerous visits to this great reserve. The only real success was seeing 2 bearded tits (no photos), the first winter ferruginous duck and a quick glimpse of a stonechat.

The ferruginous duck when it wasn’t diving

A rear view of a stonechat

The stonechat makes its exit

Brent geese chased by cormorants

Brent geese

Shelduck

Wigeon

Grey heron

On our way home we decided to return to Westleton Heath for the stone curlews as the sun would have moved around. Full of anticipation we arrived in perfect conditions only to find that the stone curlews now wished to camouflage themselves as well they can. Who said birding was easy anyway?

Our view of the stone curlews in the afternoon sun!

On closer inspection

Click below for gallery of today’s photos:

 

It was good to be back at RSPB Minsmere. The forecast for today was not at all promising but we managed dry weather until mid afternoon and it was surprisingly warm with very little wind (very different from the stormy weather as we left the West Country the day before) and although generally dull there were a few patchy bright spells.

We only managed to do the tour out along the North Wall to the East Scrape and then on to the Sluice and back via the South Hide. The bitterns and marsh harriers will have to wait for another day!

There was less bird life than we are used to here but certainly enough to keep us entertained.

Some of the birds we saw (in the order we saw them):

Female pheasant

Lapwing

Green sandpiper

Teal

Avocet

Shelduck

Wigeon

Black-tailed godwit

Mallards in flight

First winter Mediterranean Gull (which have been breeding at Minsmere)

Robin establishing its territory

Robin

Brent geese

Stonechat

Blue tit in flight and a Dartford warbler in the bush

Blue tit

I nearly missed this stonechat in flight

Ferruginous duck (a first for me)

Ferruginous duck

Konic ponies

Click below for gallery of my photos from today:

Not really worth a blog but I had a quick stroll across to Stoke Park at about 6 pm and saw 8 beautiful long-tailed tits – one kindly posed high up in a tree in the last rays of sunshine on an amazing day for October when the temperature reached 22 degrees centigrade.

PS I found a few more birds when I reviewed the photos I had taken.

 Blue tit

Mallard

Moorhen

I was sitting quietly beside the small pond at Duchess Pond watching a stonechat and a meadow pipit when two women with 16 dogs arrived. The dogs surrounded me (and ruined my tranquility) and then the women started throwing balls in to the pond for the dogs to retrieve which ruined the tranquility for all the wildlife around.

I moved on and managed to follow the stonechat in to the reeds.

Over the park I saw two ravens.

There were just a few moorhens on the big pond and one very smug cormorant who had the whole lake to himself.

That is until another dog walker arrived with a small pack and started throwing balls in to the pond. The cormorant flew off and I went home; both of us were a little disgruntled.

 

 

 

 

We returned to the Hayle Estuary by taking the train from St Ives just along the most beautiful piece of coast to Lelant Saltings. It was then just a short walk along the road to the Old Quay Inn where good views of the estuary are to be had. By walking just a few more yards along the road we came even closer to the birds, especially teal, curlew, oystercatcher and common redshank.

The Hayle Estuary from beside the Old Quay Inn

We then had lunch in the Old Quay Inn (it would have been rude not too especially as the landlord had been flagged on the web as birder friendly). We then caught the train back to St Ives where it seems we always see turnstone.

Teal

Oystercatcher

Curlew

Common redshank 

Wigeon

Little egret

Black-headed gull

Canada geese in flight

Immature gull

Turnstone

Click below for photo gallery from today:

 

Normal service resumed: still a lovely sunny day but a sweater needed as we walked around St Ives.

Not too many birds around but enough to provide some entertainment photographing them.

Turnstone

Turnstone

Turnstone

Great black-backed gull

Great black-backed gull

Immature gull

Starlings

And then I was distracted by these chaps:

In yesterday’s blog I said the weather here in Cornwall was “as good as it gets”. Well, I was wrong as today it got even better: with not a cloud in the sky nor a breath of breeze the sun glared down on us all day long.

We made our way to Kenidjack Valley which is just outside St Just and a few hundred metres north of Cape Cornwall. This had been suggested to us as a good birding site and indeed only a few days before a wryneck had been spotted in the valley. However, other than a few robins and a couple of wrens, there weren’t many birds to be seen. But in the glorious sunshine we saw quite a few butterflies and we were not at all disappointed as we had some wonderful views of the Cornish coast and in particular we saw lots of Cornwall’s tin mining heritage.

Cape Cornwall – the chimney stack dates back to 1894, when Cape Cornwall Mine was in operation, extracting tin and copper from out under the sea. Now, the site is part of the Tin Coast and Cornish Mining World Heritage Site. 

Relics of Cornwall’s tin mining industry

Robin

Robin

Wall

Small Copper

Small White

Small tortoiseshell

Small Tortoiseshell

 

Better still we had a wonderful view of a wheatear which posed and flitted about showing why “wheatear” derives from the Old English for “white arse”.

Wheatear

Wheatear

Wheatear showing its white rump

After our walk through the valley and along the coast we then drove on through St Just to Sennen where we had spectacular views of the cove and a couple of  oystercatchers, pied wagtails and again lots of gulls.

Oystercatcher

Pied wagtail

Pied wagtail

Sennen Cove

 

 

 

On a beautifully sunny and warm September day (as good as it gets) we visited the Hayle Estuary in Cornwall.

We walked from the station at Lelant along to the Old Quay Inn where we could see a plethora of gulls, waders (including oystercatchers, curlews, teal , wigeon and spotted redshank), Canada geese, a greylag goose, grey herons and little egrets. We were too far away to capture much in detail but it was wonderful to do some birding sitting on the decking of The Old Quay Inn having a refreshing drink.

Hayle Estuary

Greylag goose

Oystercatcher

Curlew

We then drove on a little to visit RSPB Ryan’s Field and then RSPB Camsew Pool where the highlight was a Sandwich tern and a rock pipit.

Sandwich tern

Rock pipit

Little egret

I am sure there were lots more but we needed the help of more experienced birders. However, the only other birders we saw were standing on the busy B3301 and that didn’t really appeal to us.

Click below for gallery of photos from today:

A pleasant trip to Chew Valley Lake today chatting to other birders and seeing a few birds from a distance at Herriotts Bridge and Herons Green.

Great white egret on the lake from Herriotts Bridge

Great white egret on the other side of the road

Hobby at Herriotts Bridge

Hobby at Herriotts Bridge

Peregrine at Herons Green

Peregrine at Herons Green

Buzzard at Heron’s Green

Buzzard at Heron’s Green

Immature black-headed gulls having a drink at Herons Green

Click below for gallery of today’s photos: