Officially open

There were 4 Ringed Plovers on the patch tonight - 3 on Mons and 1 on Ferry Lane Lake; not much else though. Back to yesterday, and I was privileged to attend the official opening of Langford Lowfields RSPB, in my work capacity. It was a nice event, attended by a good range of parnters, funders, volunteers, and locals; during the speeches, a Peregrine dashed through, scattering the hirundines. An omen of good things to come I reckon. 

A kite on the way home

On the way home after work today, a Red Kite flapped its way over the A46 between Bingham and East Stoke, heading East. It was in the same state of moult as the bird I had at Collingham recently, having dropped its inner primaries, indicating it was a 2CY bird, possibly even the same bird I guess. 

The end of May and the start of June

Back to Saturday, and I had a quick spin round Collingham Pits and Meering in the morning; not much of huge note, although a displaying Turtle Dove accompanied by a female was at Meering Marsh, which was great.

2 Turtle Doves flanking a Stockie

The it was over to Liverpool, ready for my best mate Dave's wedding. We spent his last night as a free man not down the pub, but visiting his local patch, of course! Carr Lane Pools in Hale is a great looking site, a shallow flooded pool in cattle grazed field; the pool held around 900 islandica Black-wits, seemingly almost all sub-adults, and a super ginger male Ruff in full breeding regalia. The grass held a few young Lapwing and Redshank, and a couple of Yellow Wags. Nearby, 7 Sanderling were on the Mersey off Hale Marsh. 

Lots of Black-wits

Ruff, with a ruff

Carr Lane Pools, Hale

Back home on Monday afternoon, it was back up to Collingham for a Wood Sandpiper seen earlier in the day on Ferry Lane Lake; unfortunately there was no sign by the time I got there...

Washout on the patch

Its been about a week since last visited the patch. Things started well there today with a Greenshank on Ferry Lane Lake, which was new for the year. However, at Mons Pool, the water levels were right up, covering all but the very highest parts of the largest islands - everything else was swamped. So not only was there zero wader habitat, but the various nests I'd been keeping an eye on (at least 3 Coot and a Great Crested Grebe) were nowhere to be seen, drowned out. Goodness knows how many other nests in the marginal vegetation have been lost too. Not good. 

Lots of water, drowned nests, no waders

Added to this was some pretty pointless partial mowing of the verges on Carlton Ferry Lane; thankfully, the vast majority has been left untouched - although who knows for how long. And I also noticed that quite a few of the ashes on site were looking pretty sickly, with very thin crowns. Whether there just very late coming into leaf, or it's something more sinister (i.e. Chalara) remains to be seen. 

A verge, cut wider that the width of the actual road. Pointless.

Sick looking ashes

So all in all, it was a slightly depressing visit - although a purring Turtle Dove brightened things up towards the end. I must go and check Meering to see if there are any there this year. 

A Turtle Dove (honest)

Suffolk Days 4-6

More Corn Bunting action around Chelmondiston; a brief reccy on Tuesday confirmed that there were several singing in fields south of the east end of the village, so on Wednesday I got up early and surveyed most of the area, coming away with at least 9 singing birds. Add to this a couple seen elsewhere this week, I reckon that's at least 11 immediately around Chelmo. I'm sure more surveys over a wider area would reveal more, but perhaps that's someone else's responsibility now.

Corn Bunt

The remainder of Wednesday was spent up the coast, and included a nice walk round Minsmere (where I banned the whistling of the Springwatch theme tune in our group). The scrape was full of breeding birds, but a single Bar-wit seemed to be about the only passage wader. There were at least 25 Kittiwakes present as well, not a phenomenon I remember, but I guess they'd not had to come far from Sizewell Rigs. The only notable bird was the female Red-backed Shrike in the dunes south of the Sluice; seen too briefly and too distantly for a photo. 

Kittiwakes

Thursday was our last full day, and again didn't involve any proper birding, but canoeing on Thorpeness Mere produced a cuckoo and two singing Nightingales in the south-east corner.  

Swan family

Suffolk Days 1-3

I love Suffolk; I'm biased, but it is great. On Sunday night we took a trip out to Dunwich Heath, after fish and chips in Aldeburgh, to look for Nightjars. We had our first one strike up at 5 to 9 - it was barely getting dark. We then had some great fly-bys, and one bird churred incredibly close to us. Add to that two singing Dartford Warblers, a Cuckoo, and both Bittern and Stone-curlew audible in the distance, and it was a super evening. 

Looking south over Minsmere

Yesterday was biking and barbecuing on the beach, and I counted 5 singing Corn Buntings along Ling's Lane, just south of Chelmondiston. With another bird at Needle Corner in Harkstead, and a bird singing near Hill Farm on Sunday, that's at least 7 locations without really trying. Maybe I'll get up early sometime this week and do a proper count...

Today, zero birding, despite Greenish Warbler and Rosefinch not too far away at Landguard.

Terrific Terek

My flexi-hours took a bit of a hit today, as I left work early and bombed over to Covenham Res in Lincs for the Terek Sandpiper. This is a bird that's been high up on my most wanted list for a while now, but somehow there's never been one in striking distance. But obviously that changed today! It was a little stunner, showing off its mustard yellow legs, black braces and upturned bill, although it didn't really come very close whilst I was present - as a result my photos aren't a patch on many of the others out there... 

It was being kept company by an alpina Dunlin, with Sanderling, Redshank and Common Sand also present as singletons; the latter clearly didn't like the Terek, which it chased on several occasions (despite being smaller), and also stood sideways on and raised its wing a couple of times in what I assume was a territorial display. 

An Osprey off to the north when I arrived was a bonus; I also had a Red Kite on the journey over. On the journey back I swung by Collingham (obviously); the Ruff seen earlier was nowhere to be seen, but I did have one new for year species (more on that later), and the first family of Shelducks of the year with 5 ducklings on Mons Pool. Even since yesterday evening, the water levels here were up slightly, concealing the best wader habitat once again.