Suffolk Massive

Went to Suffolk with Dad this weekend (6th and 7th November) to get our fill of East-Coast goodness.

06/11/10
On the journey to Snape Maltings, we saw kestrel, rook, crow, jackdaw, woodpigeon, jay, blue tit, chaffinch, black-headed gull, starling and pheasant. Arrived at Snape at about 11:30 and set off round the reserve. Here, had mallard, shelduck, cormorant, ~160 avocets (we were amazed at the sheer number!), lapwing, bullfinch, blackbird, robin, wren, barn owl, mute swan, pied wagtail. Not a bad little reserve, but no absolute stunners (although the avocets were quite brilliant and the barn owl is always a treat, especially at such close range - it also called once).

Then it was off to Dunwich a bit later than planned to have a quick walk along the beach to see if we could find what we had heard rumours of... Soon after hitting the beach, we caught sight of a stoat/weasel (more likely weasel as it was brown and I know stoats sometimes turn white in winter, otherwise no idea) which was a refreshing creature! Through some nasty rain across the hard-to-walk-on-shingle, we were getting a bit fed up by this point... but glimpsed some small flitting birds along the shingle ahead of us. A bit of patience led us to identify it as a very confiding (within 25 feet) snow bunting, probably a female. There were some teal, a little egret, and a grey heron across the marshes as we pressed on. Suddenly I saw my first short-eared owl flying back and forth across the marsh hunting - haunting and beautiful, very exciting for me! Shortly after beautiful views of a male kestrel, and a small flock of brent geese, we were about to leave... suddenly we found what we were looking for: a small group of 9+ shore larks! Another life-tick right there, and at least 9 of them about 40 feet away, easily viewable through the scope even in the dying light. Star bird of the trip! During this, there was a flock of what must have been up to 10,000 starlings flocking together to roost against an absolutely beautiful red sunset, definite icing on the cake.

07/11/10
Awoke nice and early, saw woodpigeons, magpie, blackbird, jays, dad counted a flock of 60+ cormorants which was an amazing count, and some starlings, with a pheasant, robin, and a moorhen on the journey to Minsmere! Upon arriving (in the pouring rain, which promptly cleared up for pretty much the rest of the day) we had blue tits, great tits, chaffinches, coal tits, greenfinches, robin and dunnock on the bird feeders where we were hoping for the previously-seen brambling, but no luck. Headed down to the large bodies of water and from the first hide, had teal, mallard, wigeon, shoveler, shelduck, avocet, bewick's swans, black-headed gulls, lesser black-backed gull, great black-backed gulls, lapwing, gadwall, a female hen harrier, a female marsh harrier, and then we left the hide. As we left, a small bird landed just on a post next to it, close to us - before it flew off, we saw it was a black redstart, completely unexpected and a new tick for me! We ran back into the hide to see if it had gone round in front, but couldn't find it again. Lucky we went inside as someone had spotted a grey phalarope which we watched in disbelief for a while - two ticks in 5 minutes! On from there, we headed round, with a wren, and through the reedbed walk for a brief bearded tit sighting. Onwards, we had little egret, pied wagtail, herring gull, snipe, and then came across goldcrests quite regularly, from about 10 feet away in gorse bushes - beautiful sights and almost bizarre to see a stone's throw from the sea. The next hide revealed a canada goose and a flock of (and a lone) dunlin. The north bushes further round the track revealed the first redwing of my winter, and a green woodpecker. Soon, we came across a flock of ~50 siskin, mixed with a few goldfinches. Back up to the visitor's centre and the canopy hide up in the... well... canopy of the trees. After a short vertigo attack, we saw a beautiful treecreeper (had seen one by the feeders at the visitors' centre just previously too), rook, crow, and a small flock of long-tailed tits! Then as we left, it began raining again - perfect!

Then home. So we saw 60 species overall this trip, which is great for just two days. A whole 6 of these were entirely new life ticks for me, and such quality ones too! Till next time...