Wow. What a day. It all started with an early rise and whizzing round the North Circular to collect Ben Rumsby, before heading up an empty A12 to RSPB Minsmere. We actually ended up arriving 40 minutes ahead of schedule having originally intended to meet David Walsh at 10am. Because of this we decided to take the entrance road to Minsmere with the windows down listening for any new species for the day. Infact the best species from the entrance road was infact a Silver Wash Fritillary that glided across the road in an almost Monarch like fashion. We pulled into the meeting point and were greeted by the sound of a Yaffling Green Woodpecker. There were also plenty of Gatekeepers and Migrant Hawkers about, with a Grayling being an added bonus. Once David and Henry had arrived we headed a short way into the field to have a look for a Minsmere specialty. As soon as we got there we found not one, but three Stone-curlew in an amongst the Rabbits and Rooks. Above: Distant Stone-curlew! Below: Ben's photo of the Greyling Stone-curlew are such amazing creatures, but this year due to Covid with less protection they have had less success than normal. Hopefully most birds were able to re-lay like this pair, so all is not lost. After this we headed up to the main car park and then into the reserve where a mixed Tit flock held a calling Marsh Tit alongside Blue, Great, Long-tailed, Chiffchaff, Chaffinch, and Blackcaps. We then headed into the woods where we were surprised to stumble upon a White Admiral making the most of the same patch of Sunlight as a Speckled Wood. This was infact a first for Ben and Henry and only my 4th ever so we spent quite some time with it as it moved around the lower branches of the trees. Above: A rather tatty White Admiral We then headed further into the woodland and then off towards the South Hide. Along the way we added Treecreeper to the day list as one called from high in the trees above us. A peacock Butterfly perched perfectly for us in the vegetation next to the bath, but the Gatekeepers, Meadow Browns, Red Admirals and Common Blues already had to much energy from the Sun to sit still. Above: Peacock Butterfly All the hides at Minsmere are currently closed for various reasons but near the South Hide it is actually possible to see onto the South Scrape. So we decided to have a scan of the pools. This actually proved quite successful with a Winter plumage Spotted Redshank, a Juv Little Ringed Plover, 4 Ringed Plover, a Dunlin, 34 Avocet, and 3 young Shelduck all on view. Just before we were heading off a family group of Barnacle Geese plodded out of the Reed Bed flushing a Green Sandpiper and two Common Sandpipers up from the bank. Above: Juv Little Ringed Plover Below: Green Sandpiper (yes I know these are both tiny specs, but they were distant to say the least....!) Above: Barnacle Geese with a Dunlin and several Avocet We then headed off towards Konik pools where a Wood Sandpiper had been reported and sure enough upon arrival at the pools we were treated to distant but good views of it as it fed with a Green Sandpiper. A Moorhen was also at the back of the pool feeding a chick as was an adult and juv Water Rail although the later were at times extremely difficult to see. Above: My rather distant picture of the Wood Sandpiper Below: Ben's camera scoped photo! Above: Juv Water Rail. We then headed up onto the in order to get a view onto the East Scrape. On thing that shocked me when we were scoping the scrapes was the sheer lack of Terns and gull. We had only one Common Tern and the odd few Black-headed, Lesser Black-backed and Herring Gulls. It was really bizarre. There was also a notable absence of waders with the exception of Avocet which numbered just over 100 in total. A few Lapwing could be seen on the scrapes along with 2 Ruff, a few more Dunlin, 10 more Spotted Redshank, a Common Redshank (yes that's right Spotted Redshank outnumbered common by 10:1), a few Black-tailed godwits and that was about it. However that was until David picked up a Knot which I was pretty sure I had seen come in before. This Knot was actually potentially the first one I have ever seen in summer plumage with some of the Red plumage still showing. Other species present included Shoveler, Teal, Gadwall and Mallard, but unfortunately nothing better than that. Above: Avocet in flight Below: The small spec of a Red Knot... We continued along the sea wall before noticing a small trickle of Whimbrel heading South over the sea with 12 heading through in a short 5 minute spell. Reed Buntings were present in the dunes and there were plenty of Common Blue Butterflies as well. We then headed up to the North Wall where we had a brief but good view of a Painted Lady and Brown Argus before the wind took them miles. I have to admit at this stage the wind was blowing a staggering amount and so I wasn't surprised that we didn't see a single Bearded Tit. What we did however see came as more of a surprise especially since I hadn't seen one since January 2018. A Bittern! It flew low across the reedbed in front of us before crossing the path and heading off towards the Bittern Hide, however no sooner had this one appeared so to did a second one and this time it was even lower and closer to use. It was just incredible. Two Grey Herons then followed the same flight path, but with much less attention than the Bitterns got. And this all happened in the space of minutes. Crazy! Above: Bittern Flight shots Moving on we headed up towards the Sand Martin colony. Along the way we stopped to have a look at the Bee Wolfs making their nests in the sand. These were joined by several Ruby-tailed Wasps and also a wasp who's name I cannot remember! Above: Bee Wolf Below: Wasp I can't remember the name of... Its annoyingly at the tip of my tounge.... We then headed back towards the visitor centre but we got distracted by the mass of Ruddy and Common Darters that were resting in the vegetation near the Sand Martin Bank. I then spotted a tiny Damselfly that my brain was telling me was Blue-tailed Damselfly, but looked more like a Large Red-eyed Damselfly. I was surprised to find out that they were in fact the much rarer Small Red-eyed Damselfly. There were in fact quite a few of these amazing things perched in and amongst the bracken, with Bright red eyes and bright blue tails. They are simply stunning. This was a first for almost all of us and was my first new species of the day! Above: Small Red-eyed Damselfly We then headed back to the visitor centre where we had lunch surrounded by Red Admirals, Migrant Hawkers, and both Ruddy and Common Darters. We then got extremely lucky when a female Purple Hairstreak landed close to us and started laying eggs on the underside of the leaves. Above: A well worn Purple Hairstreak After lunch we decided that, since neither Ben nor I had been to Sizewell before, we would head head down to see the Kittiwake colony. Upon arrival the pebbly beach was pretty busy with people out to enjoy the seaside, however we were more interested in the rigs that lay abandoned in the North Sea as these are the home to over 100 pairs of Kittiwake. It such a strange sight to see, but it was also an educational experience as I had never seen a Juvenile one before and there were plenty on the wing. There must have a good 30 to 40 fledged Juvs around and I am sure that in a weeks time there will be a few more to join them. One thing I did notice was that unfortunately on the closest rig there was a Kittiwake caught up in what looked like netting and dangling in the wind as it no doubt perished from starvation. Its a sad sight to see but a constant reminder of the effect that our discarded waste can have on seabirds. Above: Kittiwakes on the rig with the dangling bird on the corner. Below: Adult Kittiwakes with a few Lesser Black-backed and Herring Gulls Above: Adult and Juv Kittiwake Below: Juv Kittiwakes with an adult Above: Mixture of Juv and Adult Kittiwakes With news of the Gull-billed Tern at Alton Water still being present we decided to slowly make our way back to the cars but not before passing several rather tame Pied Wagtails. Above: Pied Wagtail So after this we headed off in search of the Gull-billed Tern and ended up completing about half the journey home in doing so. When we arrived at Alton Water the Tern hadn't been seen for around an hour or two and several disappointed birdwatchers were walking away from the scene. There were large moulting flocks of Greylag, Canada and Egyptian Geese bobbing around on the choppy water, along with plenty of Black-headed Gulls and at least 50 Common Tern. We set up our scopes and set about scanning the wide stretch of water in front of us only for David to re find it within seconds sitting on the railings of the pier opposite us. Wow! To say it was amazing would be an understatement. It literally swamped the Juv Common Tern is was sat next, it must have been double the size of it! It was just incredible. It soon took off and headed straight for us before flying past us at some height and just off shore, before disappearing down a channel to our left and out of sight. There was now a buzz around the flock of birdwatchers that there hadn't been before as most had been waiting for quite some time to see it. Within 5 minutes of us being there we had seen it and had it fly ridiculously close off shore. Above: Record shots of the Gull-billed Tern In the Terns absence we were constantly scanning over the water when I picked up the pure white wings of an Adult Med Gull in the Black-headed Gull flock just off shore. The whole flock then drifted a little too close to the Greylags and were sent scattering in all direction by one over protective parent and soon we had the Med Gull circling our heads. I could hear the beginning call of a young gull somewhere over us and given where the Med Gull was I wasn't at all surprised when a bulky Juv Med Gull flew into view. It still seemed quite dependent on the parent so it obviously hadn't fledged to far away. Above: Adult Med Gull Below: Juv Med Gull After a while I picked up the Gull-billed Tern again feeding out over the open water. It then proceeded to give us about half an hour of distant but great views. The reason we had stayed on is the fact that I had wanted to view the behaviour of the bird and sure enough this paid off... When comparing it to the Common Terns it was feeding with it was often the highest Tern in the distance and was often flying above the tree line. It was also doing something called dip feeding, which reminds me of an Osprey or Bald Eagle hunting, as the Gull-billed Tern dives but then skims the surface of the water in order to catch its prey. Incredible! In flight the Gull-billed Tern also reminded me a bit of a Black-headed Gull in stockiness but with the features of a Common Tern. Just before we left it gave us another couple of decently close flybys marking off an exceptional day. For some reason I have always wanted to see a Gull-billed Tern ever since I first set my eyes on it in the first field guide I picked up and today the dream became a reality. Just marvellous!!! Above: Gull-billed Tern And so just before we left and headed for home a Common Gull found its way onto the trip list, which was my first since pre lockdown days. he journey home was set reliving a memorable day which saw my 235th British Bird the Gull-billed Tern as well Bittern, Small Red-eyed Damselflies and waders galour. What a day....! Above: Common Gull Thank you to Ben for contributing some photo's towards the blog. A link to his twitter account is below:
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AuthorI have been a birder since I was 8 however only really started to be able to go out to places by myself in Summer 2016 (Blame the parents) My blogs will be from all over the place, but mainly from RSPB Rainham Marshes and Totteridge Valley! Photography done by Samuel Levy aged 20. ArchivesCategories |