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In the last two days we have visited some of the smaller reserves in Suffolk as well as making another trip back to RSPB Minsmere.

Hen Reedbeds (on the River Hen just outside Southwold) is a delightful small reserve with a superb platform looking across the roadbeds where you can generally see marsh harriers, grey herons, little egrets as well as many other birds. There is also a pleasant walk along the Blyth Estuary with three hides.

There were good views of reed buntings,warblers, linnets and a family of kestrels and distant views of marsh harriers and grey herons but I had a lens more suitable for insects and so was quite pleased to get a photo of a six-spot burnet moth.

On Wednesday we first went to Darsham Marshes near Westleton. Again a charming small reserve with a very pleasant walk through the marshes. I imagine for most of the year you would need wellies though.

There were loads of butterflies but not so many dragonflies. The best of the birds were swallows and a tree creeper.

We then went up on to Dunwich Heath to search for Dartford Warblers.

Whilst the rest of the country was sweltering in a heatwave we had to wrap up to fend off the cold wind coming off the North Sea.

But it was well worth it as we were rewarded with good views of Dartford Warblers.

We then dropped down to RSPB Minsmere. Just looking at the notice board of birds spotted that day will give an idea of why we like Minsmere so much.

A few of my favourites:

Avocets

Common tern

Black-tailed godwits

Kiitiwake

Whimbrel

Mediterranean gulls

Along the coast I managed to spot one ringed plover but kept our distance so as not to disturb it..

Click below for gallery of photos:

We love going to RSPB Minsmere (surely the Mecca for birders in the UK) as early as we can and at 7 a.m. on a lovely sunny day it was as magical as ever.

We were pleased to see the sand martins back and watched them for a while but I was quite frustrated  trying to photograph them.

Sand martins

We headed out on the north bank and were greeted by the call of a cuckoo. I was very pleased to track it down and, although it was quite a long way off, I was even more pleased to get a photo (a first for me).

Cuckoo

We spent a little while on the beach as it was just so beautiful and then went to the East Scrape.

What a cacophony at the East Scrape and what spectacular action. My favourite birds were the black-tailed godwits, the terns, the mediterranean gulls and the kittiwakes.

Common tern

Kittiwake

Black-tailed godwits

Black-tailed godwits

Black-tailed godwits

Sandwich tern

Mediterranean gull

Redshank

We didn’t stay long but continued round past the south hides to get back to the reception and café for some breakfast which was well deserved. En route we had a very good view of a whitethroat having his breakfast.

Whitethroat

Fully replenished we went to the Bittern Hide and eventually on to Island Mere.

We had good views of bittern, marsh harriers and a few grey herons and plenty of other birds, insects and fish.

Bittern

Marsh harrier

Whitethroat

Little grebe

Four-spotted chaser

Damselfly

We finished at 1 pm as we were quite exhausted and knowing that we would return later in the week.

On our return to our holiday property we were delighted (and amused) to be greeted by a partridge and 8 tiny chicks in the garden.

Red-legged partridge and chicks

Click below for a gallery of photos from today:

A very early morning walk at 5.30 am (well if I wanted to watch England play in the World Cup at 1 pm I had to make an effort) was well rewarded especially with my first Common Ringed Plover of the year. (The football was pretty amazing too)

Only minutes in to my walk and I spotted a muntjac deer in amongst the cereal crops.

On the marshes there were lots of reed buntings and sedge warblers (not so easy to photograph) and a single skylark and a solitary pied wagtail. A couple of swifts soared the reed beds too.

Reed bunting

Sedge warbler

Skylark

Swift

Pied wagtail (or is it a white wagtail?)

I saw only two Common Ringed Plover – but what a joy.

In the pools there were little egrets, avocets, black-headed gulls and oystercatchers but really a bit too far off for photos.

Little egret

A meadow pipit (?) believing it was a ringed plover.

There were not too many people around but evidence that someone had been clearing up plastic waste.

There were some amazing vegetation on the beach too.

The crops also looked great (even though the farmers must be complaining about the weather).

The insects were happy too.

Four spotted chaser

Click below for a gallery of photos from this morning’s walk (apologies for so many ringed plover photographs.:

As we moved from Norfolk to Suffolk on our East Anglia holiday we decided to visit RSPB Strumpshaw Fen which is on the River Yare in Norfolk, around six miles east of Norwich. The new road system around Norwich totally flummoxed our GPS system in the car and our journey took a little longer than expected.

The reserve has a full range of broadland habitats and wildlife and is a  pleasant walk round reedbeds, woodlands and orchid-rich meadows. One of the main reasons for visiting was to see the swallowtail butterfly. I achieved that within seconds of getting out of the car and was full of anticipation but once I got my camera out of the bag no other opportunity presented itself.

Nonetheless I did have lots of other photographic opportunities including (appropriately) the Norfolk Hawker, lots of fenland plants and, the highlight for me, a juvenile muntjac deer.

Norfolk hawker

Four spot chaser

Beautiful demoiselle

Marsh harrier

Lapwing

Black-headed gulls, chicks and eggs

Lots of wonderful fenland plants

Lots of butterflies too

Grey heron

Great crested grebe

Cormorant

The encounter of the muntjac deer.

Click below for gallery of photos from today:

Although there was sunshine forecast for the whole day there was a cold wind blowing from the north and so we decided to go in land for a countryside walk. We walked from Blakeney to Glandford to the excellent telescope and binocular centre of Cley Spy to pick up on the circular Bayfield Bird Walk.

Our walk started promisingly with a grey partridge and a distant hare.

Grey partridge

There were great views all around from the Wiveton Downs Local Nature Reserve.

 The windmill at Cley Next The Sea

The first bird we saw was a yellow hammer (a first for me).

 Yellowhammer

The woods were truly magnificent but with only a few birds to be seen (black cap and tree creeper).

A tree creeper doing its best to hide

Beech leaves

We stopped at a quirky wild flower centre near Bayfield Hall and had a lovely lunch sitting in the sun in a sheltered spot with an opportunity to photograph some bees and beautiful demoiselles damselflies.

Throughout our walk the countryside looked magnificent and, even though there weren’t many birds, there were some butterflies to compensate.

Before the end of our walk we saw a kestrel, a chiffchaff, a grey wagtail and a buzzard.

Kestrel

Chiffchaff

Grey wagtail

Buzzard

At the end of our walk we came across a shell museum – but that was for another day.

Shell museum at Glandford

Click below for gallery of photos from today:

It was a sightseeing sort of day with a trip to the Blickling Estate. On the way back we stopped off at Cley beach and I had a few feeble attempts at a little tern at sea.

Blickling Hall

The only wildlife photo at the Blickling Estate

The Blickling Estate

Little tern at Cley beach

Before sunset (on the longest day) I did see a barn owl at Blakeney and, although the quality of the image was poor, I was pretty chuffed.

Dramatic skies at Blakeney

Wood pigeon in the setting sun

And then a magical moment.

Barn owl

We were having a day off “birding” today and were going to visit Holkham Hall. However, the Hall was closed but we did enjoy a pleasant walk around the grounds and to the (enormous) walled garden.

It was rather too windy to go for a walk on the beautiful beach at Holkham and so instead made a brief return to RSPB Titchwell Marshes which was not much further along the North Norfolk coast.

At Holkham there were amazing numbers of geese (mainly Barnacle but some Greylag and even Egyptian) with loads of goslings. Also we saw lots of swallows, a mistle thrush and even an oystercatcher feeding on worms on the lawn.

Barnacle geese and goslings

Egyptian geese

Swallow

Mistle thrush

Oystercatcher on the lawn

The highlight at Titchwell was a little ringed plover which posed at all sorts of angles.

Little ringed plover

Shelduck

Black-headed gulls

Avocet

Reed bunting

Click below for gallery of photos from today:

Another wonderful day round and about Blakeney in North Norfolk. Not so many birds photos today but lots of walking until the sun set.

Blakeney

We walked on a circuitous route through the Blakeney Marshes to Wiverton Hall where we met the legendary colourful character Desmond McCarthy from the television series “Normal in Norfolk” which I include here, in my nature blog, as we had an engaging conversation about hunting and country life.

We also had a visit to the NWT Cley Reserve late in the afternoon – was it for the tea and cake or the hides? I would have to say that the cake was certainly better than the reserve today although we did see a ruff and a hobby.

This must be the same redshank I saw two days ago in the same spot

Linnet

Marsh harrier

Cley Next The Sea

Greenfinch

Wild flowers at Wiverton Hall

Avocet

Marsh harrier

Black-tailed godwit and avocets

Redshank

Shelduck

Click below for gallery of photos from today:

RSPB Titchwell Marshes is one of the RSPB’s flagship reserves and is probably the one place that most inspired my interest in birding. Today we had another great day although many people we met said they thought it was very quiet. Well I’m quite happy if its quiet and we see a tawny owl and chick, marsh harriers, a red kite and a buzzard not to mention curlew sandpipers (even though they were a long way off), several different species of tern and some of my other favourites such as avocets, black-tailed godwits and little ringed plover. Hey ho you can’t please all of the people all of the time.

A very warm welcome to the reserve by a robin

Tawny owl and (big) chick

Little grebe

Damselflies and chasers

Marsh harrier

Avocet

Oystercatcher

Goldfinch

Reed bunting

Buzzard

Greylag goose

Canada goose

Red kite

Mute swan seeing off a greylag goose

Mute swan trumpeting its success

Little ringed plover

A scruffy lapwing

Coot and chick

Tut tut, coots fighting in front of the kids

One of the two species of tern today

What caused this chaos?

Tawny owl (must be my favourite of the day)

And so much more – click below to see gallery of photos from today

A good start to our stay in Norfolk with a Sunday morning stroll from the beautiful coastal village of Blakeney towards Cley along the Norfolk Coast path with views of redshank (and chicks), oystercatcher, avocet (and chicks), little egret, reed bunting, buzzard, marsh harrier, lapwing, little ringed plover (and chicks), black-headed gulls, greylag geese (and goslings) and starlings.

Redshank

Oystercatcher

Avocet

Avocet

Avocet chicks

Little egret

Redshank and chicks

Little ringed plover

Little ringed plover chick

Marsh harrier

Buzzard

Greylag geese and a crèche of goslings

Redshank

Redshank chick

Black-headed gull

Reed bunting

A more mature avocet chick

Reed Bunting

Black-headed gull

Lesser black-backed gull

Herring  gull

The tide was high and it was the first time I had seen the regatta of small dinghies making their way out from Blakeney and Cley.

Click below for gallery of photos from this morning:

Another amazing day on the Somerset Levels: we briefly visited Westhay Moor National Nature Reserve and RSPB Greylake at the beginning and end of the day but the best was at RSPB Ham Wall and Shapwick Heath National Nature Reserve, two fantastic reserves only divided by a road but run by two different bodies.

There were regular views of bitterns, great white egrets, grey herons and marsh harriers.

Great white egret

Bittern

Grey heron

Marsh harrier

Great crested grebe

There were plenty of other ducklings, cygnets  and (greylag goose) goslings too.

Mute swan and cygnets

Greylag goose and gosling

The only small birds I managed to photograph were  a whitethroat and a young great spotted woodpecker calling for its parents.

Whitethroat

Great spotted woodpecker

The dragonflies and damselflies were everywhere.

But above all the countryside was lush and looked amazing in the sunshine.

Click below for gallery of photos from today’s trip:

I was surprised there were so few people on the Somerset Levels on a hot sunny Bank Holiday Monday. There’s always plenty to see and, although we only had a few hours there in the afternoon, we were not disappointed.

There were good views of  chaser dragonflies in the pond near the car park and even a grass snake swimming away from us.

Four-spotted chaser and a grass snake in the pond near the car park

At the first platform there was a great white egret skulking through the reeds.

From the Tor View hide we saw a distant bittern fly past; they could be heard booming all around.

Bittern

There were pochard and tufted ducks but the most interesting were the the great crested grebe with their black and white striped chicks and a grey heron which flew quite close.

En route to the Avalon hide we saw a Reed Bunting and on the way back (what I thought was) a sedge warbler.

Male reed bunting

Female reed bunting

We also heard a cuckoo and saw it fly by.

At the Avalon hide there was a pair of mute swans with their cygnets and a pair of great crested grebe preparing for family life.

We had a glimpse of a marsh harrier.

There were common blue damselflies everywhere.

We saw great white egrets everywhere but not very close up.

RSPB Ham Wall is a wonderful site (and much improved with its new car park, visitors’ centre and toilets) and just across the road there is Shapwick Heath with some very good hides. Round the corner is Westhay Moor and not so far away the bijou (but still one of my favourites) RSPB Greylake. But all of that was for another day.

Click below for a gallery of this afternoon’s photos: