It has been a long time since I last posted anything on this blog and for that I apologise. Starting a new job has left be with much less time to go out birding but half term in Sandwell this week left me with an opportunity to indulge and have a bit of a catch up with incoming migrants.
To do this I headed back to Suffolk on Monday via the Suffolk Wildlife Trust reserve at Lackford Lakes. It was disappointing quiet to be honest, but there were a couple of highlights. A
marsh tit frequenting the feeding table where the tree sparrows normally reside was nice to see. I also scored my first flock of
fieldfare for the year and realised how not seeing thee sort of migratory species for a few months dulls the senses to their call. I heard what I instantly recognised as a thrushes call but couldn't for the life of me pin it down to which species. I then spotted the bird flying out of the tree cover, followed it with my binoculars and as it broke into the skyline I realised it was not just one bird, it was at least 200! A great result - one of my biggest flocks of fieldfare.
It was only when I reached my parents house in the evening that I began to look at Twitter and other sources of information only to realise that there had been an enormous fall of migrants during the day. To quote something I read "birds were literally falling out of the fog onto the coast". Made me wish I had gone straight through to the coast rather than stopping at an inland reserve - but you can't change the past. At least in the future when I hear someone say "there is a bit of east in the wind" in mid October I know to head to the east coast. Well missing out on his spectacle strengthened my resolve to get up early and head up the coast to Minsmere RSPB reserve.
So the following morning (23rd October) I was up and out the house before the family left for work and I arrived at Minsmere (a little later than planned due to lethargy) at about 8:30. As soon as I got out of the car a flock of c.30
fieldfare circled overhead and landed in nearby bushes - a promising start to the day perhaps? I headed straight towards the North Bushes because from what I had read in previous Autumns, this was the place to look. I was instantly welcomed by
robins by the dozen,
blackbirds and
redwings in similar numbers, a flock of
fieldfare (possibly the flock from earlier) and a couple of very confiding
jays. A flyover
brambling was a year tick for me though I was hoping to get better views later in the day and a reasonable size flock of
siskin were a bonus. There were plenty of tits foraging in the North Bushes, including l
ong-tailed tit and
marsh tit, and a few
goldcrest joining in the feeding fun.
As I got to the end of the North Wall I looked across the reedbed towards Dunwich and saw a well-fed looking
sparrowhawk sat in a low bush. Clearly he had been feasting on the exhausted migrants coming off the sea. Birds were still flying straight past him and he just didn't care - I think an exhausted finch could have landed on his head and he wouldn't have bothered with it!
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| Sparrowhawk - RSPB Minsmere - Mike Ixer - Oct. 2012 |
As I got to the coastal path a
gannet flew north quite close offshore (had to be close or I wouldn't have seen it through the fog) which was a massive bonus because it's one bird I just never expect to see. I headed up the coastal path towards Dunwich and about 50 metres up the path I saw a dark bird hop up onto the fence post, then another onto the next fencepost. Binoculars up! They were
black redstarts which I was delighted about because having not seen this species this year I felt the moment had probably past me by.
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| Black Redstart - RSPB Minsmere - Mike Ixer - Oct. 2012 |
These two females (or young males) kept hoping down onto the beach and back to the post and I watched them doing this for about 10 minutes when, from nowhere, a pristine adult male hopped up onto the fence as well - he was a stunner! Unfortunately in the misty light this was the best I could do.
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| Black Redstarts - RSPB Minsmere - Mike Ixer - Oct. 2012 |
From here I headed back down the beach hoping to see some more migrants in the bushes. I wasn't disappointed.
Song thurshes were all over the place, as were
goldcrests and various awkward to identify finch silhouettes. A
mistle thrush flew out of one bush and a
stonechat was hoping around the old tank defences with the resident
dunnocks. I briefly stopped in East Hide where I found all the usual suspects for this time of year -
teal,
wigeon,
gadwall,
mallards,
shoveler,
lesser and great black-backed gulls, a
common gull and
black-headed gulls. It was quiet on the wader front with a flock of c.40
black-tailed godwits and a single
avocet being the only ones in evidence.
I made my way up to the Sluice bushes hoping for some more migrants feeding up, but migrants came in the unlikely summer form of a
chiffchaff and a
blackcap. Whilst there another visitor told me that at least one (probably 2) firecrests had been showing back down the beach (about 20 metres further on from where I had earlier seen the black redstarts) so I decided that instead of completing the circuit around the scrape, I would head back and see if I could find one of these little beauties.
I arrived to find a number of slightly frustrated looking birders who, upon questioning, revealed that the firecrests had not been seen for at least 20 minutes. I joined their vigil and whilst looking for the tiny birds we got very brief views of a
ring ouzel flying between bushes. We returned to our tamarisk watching and suddenly I spotted the
firecrest fly from the bush into the nearby sycamore. It gave excellent views but for just a short time. Alas all I managed in the bush were some slightly shakey pictures of
goldcrests which were again present in large numbers.
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| Goldcrest - RSPB Minsmere - Mike Ixer - Oct. 2012 |
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| Goldcrest - RSPB Minsmere - Mike Ixer - Oct. 2012 |
I headed back to the visitors centre for some well earned lunch - I highly recommend the ham and cheese toasties - and choose a perch overlooking the feeders outside. Some commotion outside caused a number of finches to take flight into the low branches of the trees behind the feeders. A cursory glance through the finches resulted in
chaffinch, chaffinch, chaffinch ... wait a second (insert movie style double-take) ... chaffinch, chaffinch,
brambling! A fantastic bit of lunchtime birding.
The walk to Bittern Hide was very quiet - clearly everything was in the bushes nearer to the coast. The hide itself was also particularly quiet with the only highlights coming in the form of a couple of
marsh harriers hunting and hundreds of ladybirds seeking refuge from the fog. I didn't stay for long and headed towards Island Mere hide. On route a couple who were walking towards me suddenly lifted their bins and stared intently a something over my head behind me. I felt compelled to turn around and was greeted by excellent views of a
hobby hunting overhead.I thought this was a pretty late record but the dragonflies were still on the wing so I guess with food readily accessible there was no desire to head south yet.
Island Mere had its standard fare with
cormorants drying themselves,
little grebes diving and a few diving ducks (
tufted ducks and
pochards). This pod of
coots was very wary of the local
marsh harriers (see top right of photo) and were keeping a very tight formation as they moved around the mere.
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| Coots - RSPB Minsmere - Mike Ixer - Oct. 2012 |
A quick scan through the
coots was rewarded with a female
red-crested pochard which was a massive bonus as it is one of those species that I wasn't sure when I would next be seeing. She spent the whole time I was in the hide associating with the large group of coots and was happy feeding with them. Walking back to the visitors centre I saw a falcon sitting on an old wooden telephone pole. Looking through the binoculars it turned out not to be a kestrel as I originally expected - it was a
hobby. I presume it was the same bird as I saw earlier as it had flown in the direction of where I was know standing. It then flew and grabbed a dragonfly and came back to sit right above me in a tree where I just managed to find an angle to get this photo.
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| Hobby - RSPB Minsmere - Mike Ixer - Oct. 2012 |
The rest of the walk was very quiet with the only highlight being another black redstart on the work centre roof - takes the mick really when most sites would be glad of just one of these birds most of the time!
On the way home I stopped at Melton where a quick look over the river added some extra waders to the days list (
grey plover,
dunlin,
redshank,
ringed plover,
curlew) as well as a brief
kingfisher and some
shelducks.
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| Black-Tailed Godwit - Melton - Mike Ixer - Oct. 2012 |
This brought to a conclusion a fantastic day's birdwatching during which I saw 85 different species including some little gems!
