Notch-up one at Newbourne...

With the weather in Suffolk being so beautiful (as I'm led to believe it is across the entire country) I decided to take a trip to the exquisitely picturesque Newbourne Springs with mother. I went with birdwatching in the back of my mind, hence taking the camera and binoculars, but it was mainly a nice walk in the sun drenched woods which was the aim of the day. The reserve is managed by the Suffolk Wildlife Trust and they do a wonderful job of managing it without it looking like it has been managed - if you know what I mean.

We arrived in the glorious sunshine and my eye was instantly drawn to the bright orange butterfly which was flitting around next to where we parked the car. Of course, by the time I had got to the boot and found the binoculars it had disappeared. So off we strolled surrounded by the combined tweetings of chaffinches, wrens, robins and the newly arrived, but very vocal, chiffchaffs.

As we strolled around bird highlights came in the form of a great spotted woodpecker, green woodpecker, treecreeper and a flock of at least 15 fieldfares. I'm guessing their proximity to the east coast means that they could be considering making the trip back to Scandinavia soon. The really pleasant surprise (which I had half-hoped for) my first singing blackcap of the year. He was generally quite elusive, but after a short time of following us whilst uttering short song excerpts from the depths of the scrub, he sat out on display for a short time.

Blackcap - Newbourne Springs - Mar. 2012 - Mike Ixer

Another first of the year for me can in the (very distinctive) shape of a couple of comma butterflies sparring with each other before landing in the sunshine.

Comma - Newbourne Springs - Mar. 2012 - Mike Ixer

There was also red admirals on the wing and a white which, from a distance, looked like my first green-veined white of the year - but I'm not 100% on that one.

A lovely way to spend a couple of hours and Mum loved it!