Wednesday 3 May 2017

Day Trip to Minsmere..... Plus Quick visit to Oare

2nd May 2017  Minsmere Rspb Reserve


Male Mandarin.

I had a really great days birding at Minsmere Rspb reserve yesterday with Richard , arriving on site at approx 7am , we walked around to the Island Mere hide in the hope of seeing or at least hearing the Savi's Warbler , straight away a Bittern starting 'Booming' near the hide but remained unseen , then i heard the distant 'Reeling' of the Savi's Warbler , fantastic sounds of two iconic birds Bittern & Savi's .

The Savi's Warbler was constantly 'Reeling' and i eventually managed to see it on top of a bush to the right of  'L' sign post about 200m south of the hide , i got everybody onto it and you could see it quite well although to distant for a photo , it stayed on view for about 10 mins before dropping down into the bush again.

Other birds seen & heard from here were Cetti's , Sedge, Common Whitethroat & Reed Warblers plus i heard a Nightingale on the way around to the hides overlooking the scrape.

Mandarin & a female Mallard.

We were informed by one of the reserves volunteers of a male Mandarin which has paired up with a female Mallard , be interesting to see what the offspring look like...lol

On the walk towards the sluice and just before the South hide a Water Vole scurried across the path in front of us .

There were 2 Wheatears near the sluice , the male bird showing very well.



Male  Wheatear.

We checked out the bushes towards  Sizwell and there were plenty of Common Whitethroats and a pair of Stonechats , the scrape also held plenty of waders including 1 summer plumage Bar Tailed Godwit.

Bar Tailed Godwit.

Other waders seen were Grey Plover, Ringed Plover , Dunlin, Redshank and a summer plumage Knot.

Walking back past the main scrape we saw 50+ Kittiwakes , Common & Sandwich Terns and i also added 2 Little Terns to my year list.

Kittiwakes.


30th April 2017  Oare Marshes

Spoonbill.

On Sunday morning i paid a very quick visit to Oare Marshes after hearing news of a Spoonbill being present on the East flood , i quickly pulled up into the pull-in and straight away saw the Spoonbill asleep in the middle of the flood , eventually it had a fly around and landed closer and started feeding.

Here are a few photo's i took.




Imm. Spoonbill.

Whilst watching the Spoonbill a small flock of waders flew into the scrape and were indeed 28 Knot including 6 birds in summer plumage.

28 Knot.

Coming into land.