All quiet on the eastern front

On Friday 27th September walking over to the Education & Training centre at the James Paget Hospital, Gorleston, I saw a wonderfully large Devil's Coach Horse (2 inches) crossing the path. In the evening of 27th September, 5 House Martins were flying over the house. Very little at Ness Point on Sunday 29th September, 5 Turnstone and 1 Pied Wagtail were the only birds seen. On Monday 30th September, 3 House Martins flying south over the house at 5.30pm.

Four Frogs on the patio

On Sunday 22nd September, in the early evening around 7pm during a rain shower, 4 adult Frogs were seen on the patio in the back garden. They all looked quite brown in colouration.

Minsmere again

On Sunday 22 September, a drive down to Minsmere in the morning and a very fine male Migrant Hawker flew around at the back of the West Hide (no Wildlife lookout for me!) and settled in good light and posed beautifully for the camera. Back again for the Pec in the morning, great light but surprise, surprise the fine juvenile Pectoral Sandpiper was feeding at the back of the Konik field and still really distant, 2 Little Egret flew in closer and showed well. Seeing Matt S we went and checked the Sluice bushes, little seen bird wise but by the side of the southern most path into the bushes just by the right of the path I discovered a fine Garden Tiger Moth caterpillar, very brown and furry I moved it and put it into a safer spot. Whilst looking for the Bush Crickets a female Dartford warbler flew out and settled to the left side of a bramble bush and was feeding on blackberries! It flew very close into a bare bush right in front of us. A male Dartford Warbler was also seen on the top a tall bush between the East hide and the Public hide. 8 Wigeon flew in of the sea and onto the Scrape. From the East hide, a single Dunlin, Black- tailed Godwit and around 100 Wigeon seen. back at the Pec field, the Pectoral sandpiper was at the back and then it walked forward being much closer this side of the pool but unfortunately the light was all wrong.

No Lap

A hectic scorch after work down to Easton Barents fields had me parking at Reydon Industrial Park and walking the mile and a half down to the fields. No sign of the lapland Bunting and little else seen, as I reached the field I had a final 45 kins of daylight.

Second visit to see the Pec

On Wednesday 18th September, I was keen to try and get pics of the Pec, several people had got some reasonable pics including a couple of non digiscopers. It had been little distant on Saturday. Walking around in the afternoon, from 4pm it was very sunny and as expected the light was totally against me. The fine Pectoral Sandpiper was in the Konik field, in the southernmost pool nearest the path running west, it was slightly closer but still distant and of course the light was all wrong. It spent the whole time feeding. 2 Snipe and Teal also seen here. From the South hide, 2 2 Black- tailed Godwits, 8 Dunlin, and an Avocet and a grey Knot seen over to the right hand side. Walking down a Painted Lady seen resting in some foliage and a smart Comma outside the West hide. Not much seen from the West hide, save for an Lesser Black- backed Gull with what looked like a broken wing.

An amazing number of Red- veined Darters

On Sunday 15th September, following a late evening tweet from Andrew E, at 9am we assembled at Carlton Marshes car park and we walked out with John W, Robert Will, Rob and a few others. Walking around we saw up to 100 Red- veined Darters an incredible number, mainly teneral ones but at least one old male with tatty wings seen perched on some dried mud. Walking around the edge we saw around 15 exuvia (the chrysalis larvae case skins, shed when they break out to become adult form dragonflies), with one RV Darter sadly seen bursting out from one case but had very sadly died in mid metamorphosis. Plus, a Greenshank flying around and 2 Snipe seen too. Finally a very fine adult male Migrant Hawker seen flying around the GR Spider dyke by the bridge, it was seen perched a few times too.

The Pec, Bush Crickets and Fish Hawk

On Saturday 14th September, I drove to Minsmere and taking the path behind the Scrape passing both the West and South hides, I then looked over the Konik field and saw the fine Pectoral Sandpiper feeding at the back showed a fine chestnut brown colouration on the primary, it showed a clear demarcated breast band which gives the bird its name and it also showed distinctive straw coloured legs. It was in the area behind the water often concealed by vegetation. I saw Dave J and Pauline M here and good to see Carl B too. Later Lenny T arrived & we both walked around to the beach area, just south of the public hide, where in an area where some gorse met brambles, we saw Eddie M and someone else intently watching something. Amazingly, there were 2 Great Green Bush Crickets, one leapt/ flew off but the other stayed and I was able to get a few pictures of this fine Bush Cricket, my first in the UK and obviously a first for Suffolk. From the East hide, Lenny and I saw a Little Stint by the left hand end of a far island. Finally by the first lot of Tank traps, 2 Dartford Warblers, male and female briefly perched on one of the concrete blocks before flying into a nearby bush. Next stop was the Hen reedbeds, walking out to the John Minihane hide (I am privileged to state that I knew John when he was Summer Warden at Benacre Broad for several years in the 1980's and spent several hours chatting to him over those years) I saw around 4 Bearded Tits fly in plus the excellent Osprey finally seen on a post by the edge of the estuary. Elsewhere, a late Comma butterfly seen and 3 Grass Snakes seen.