Here was our original plan:
19/04 - Rainham Marshes, South Essex Marshes
20/04 - Stour Wood & Estuary, Wolves Wood, Dunwich
21/04 - Strumpshaw Fen, Surlingham Church Marsh, Rockland Marshes, Buckenham Marshes
22/04 - Minsmere, Fowlmere
It proceeded thus:
19/04 - Rainham Marshes
20/04 - Stour Wood & Estuary, Wolves Wood
21/04 - Strumpshaw Fen, Buckenham Marshes, Surlingham Church Marsh
22/04 - Minsmere
Suffice it to say that we didn't get left with nothing to do!
19/04 - Rainham Marshes
This trip boasted the perfect opportunity to introduce Dad to my (by now) old friend, Rainham Marshes. Many a tale had I recounted for him, many a treasure I had shared; now it was time for him to enjoy the benefits of being such a short distance from a flagship RSPB reserve.
We arrived at around 12:30 to a fullish car park (Easter holidays and all that). We were greeted immediately upon exiting the visitors' centre with at least 2 Whitethroats in full song, one of them a wonderfully showy male. What a fantastic year I reckon we're going to have for Whitethroats.
Ignore Dad saying "Is that a Blackcap?"; he's not being a moron, he could hear one singing.
After enjoying the sights and sounds of these freshly-migrated warblers, we continued round to the 'bus stop' where we heard (and saw) a Reed Warbler singing away, giving fairly good views. We also chose this point to eat lunch, and spotted a very buff-fronted Wheatear out with all the cattle whilst looking for Yellow Wagtails. Buff front suggests the 'Greenland' race. I really don't care either way. It was a lovely Wheatear, let's just leave it at that.
There was further warbler-watching when we arrived at the wooded part of the track. Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps (male and female) were in abundance, along with your usual suspects. Once we hit the boardwalk, we were watching another Reed Warbler for a long time, listening to singing Cetti's Warblers (oh how good this trip was for Cetti's Warblers...) and none other than a Kingfisher shot across and into the woodland! We saw it so fleetingly and in silhouette that we didn't even see the dead giveaway that is the flash of blue, but nothing else has the flight or shape quite like that of a Kingfisher, and you know when you've seen one. Further along the boardwalk produced a small flock of Linnets (including a tremendous rosy-red male), a Kestrel, a laughing Green Woodpecker in the distance and good views of a hunting Sparrowhawk.
The Ken Barrett hide and its region yielded nothing out of the ordinary, and it was only when we reached the Butts hide (newly named by me due to that being its real name) that we found birds of note! There were a few calling Redshank, and a couple of Black-tailed Godwits in lovely summer plumage! We also found a Ruddy Duck on a distant pool, but we won't talk about that. What duck? No idea. Anyway, Dad and I, whilst looking at some Little Ringed Plover on one scrape, stumbled across a small and relatively plain-looking wader. After much deliberation, we decided upon it being none else than a Green Sandpiper! What a find! And with a pair of Greenshank further over, it was a fantastic spot for waders!
The day was pressing on, however, and was still relentlessly hot out in the sun, so we headed back to the visitors' centre (after stopping briefly by the river wall turnstile to listen to a reeling Grasshopper Warbler that we didn't have time to try and find, unfortunately) and headed to Chafford Hundred to look for the still-remaining Waxwings. We found no such Waxwings. Sad face. A long drive brought us to Ipswich Travelodge, whence we ate fish and chips in a nearby village and returned for a good night's sleep.
20/04 - Stour Wood & Estuary
Up at 8am, we had a lovely breakfast courtesy of Mr Tesco Cafe, and headed to Stour Estuary. On the way, we stopped off a little further up the river to look at what must have been hundreds of Mute Swans. Very odd to see so many all in this one stretch of river (back into which the tide was now flowing), and there was even a Black Swan in the mix. We also 'bagged' (I know, I know) Oystercatchers, Brent Geese and some Redshank, along with further Black-tailed Godwits.
Upon our arrival, we were greeted by this:
I DON'T WANT TO GO FOR A WALK
But it got better.
We had Whitethroats, we had just about the best views either of us had had of a Mistle Thrush, we saw a Green Woodpecker shortly followed by seeing a Jay, and then we heard something we didn't recognise just by the train track. There was a single bird singing a song with which neither Dad nor I were familiar, and flitting from a large conifer down to the hedge on the other side of the tracks (haha!) and back. An eventual look at it (thank you for finding it, Dad!) through the binoculars and indeed the scope showed it to be a really dull-looking Whitethroat without the lovely rich brown and grey contrast on its back. This, paired with the habitat and the song - which we found on the MP3 player - proved it to be a lovely Lesser Whitethroat! I was so chuffed at this bird and our identification of it that I didn't at all mind the half an hour we spent watching and listening to it.
Down to the estuary, then. Unfortunately it was about as high tide as it could get, and we only found a couple of Gulls (Herring and Lesser Black-backed), some Shelduck, a single Curlew and a Swallow. However, the woods up ahead gave us astounding examples of the beauty of the song of the siren of the woods, the Nightingale. We were lucky enough to have THREE different birds singing simultaneously whilst we listened, peering intently into one clearing of bush where we really should have been able to see them. Despite our best efforts, they eluded us, but what an amazing experience, having never even heard one before.
We had lunch by a viewing screen overlooking the (still full) estuary, listening to the distant Nightingales. Then a group of 9 or 10 Red-breasted Mergansers swam across the desolate river, surprising us!
I believe it was 2 males and 7-8 females.
Wolves Wood
As the day drew on, we decided to press on to Wolves Wood; we had skipped over this location on our November trip in favour of spending time closer to the coast, and wanted to make sure we didn't neglect it once again! And well we did not, for there was a bounty of birds to be found in the small patch of woodland, including a 'wow' moment.
Shortly after entering the woods, we found a nice clearing where we stood and waited for quite a while (as is often best when woodland birding). After a short time, I heard what I now knew as a Nightingale singing over where Dad was standing. I shuffled across and we began bush-watching again to try and locate the thing. Then, after quite a long period of time, Dad suddenly exclaimed: "NIGHTINGALE!" and I looked in the same direction just in time to see something vaguely brown and roughly the right size disappear further into the thicket. Dad had seen a very rufous tail as it landed, and from what we had seen and from what we could hear, we had definitely just seen a Nightingale, despite it being relatively unsatisfactory.
Don't feel too sorry for us yet though. Whilst the Nightingale continued singing, Dad and I had a wow moment. A Treecreeper excited us first of all, after I heard a trilling call coming from a nearby tree, and it climbed up and up, with the Nightingale still singing in the background. Suddenly, whilst Dad looked for the Treecreeper we'd just lost that was still calling, a Nuthatch appeared on another nearby tree, also calling, with the Nightingale still in full song, and something else just overhead making a slightly strange Tit noise - it was a Coal Tit! It was one of those moments when you just didn't know where to look or what to do! Grinning, looking from one bird to another, and just enjoying the cacophony of different calls and songs going on, that was probably the best moment of the trip for the both of us!
We stopped by Dunwich beach on our way up to Great Yarmouth Travelodge, just for a bit of nostalgia for me and just in case anything super-exciting was immediately visible. It wasn't, but we did see a few Swallows swooping over the car park in the late afternoon sun, and I reminisced about our Shore Lark moment in November whilst gazing out over the hazy sea. We also briefly saw a couple of Red-legged Partridges from the car on our way back across Dunwich Heath to the main road, which was a nice bonus to finish the day.
I shall write about the final two days in another post in order to preserve the little sanity I have left.
