Trip to Benacre

On Sunday 12th January, I drove to Covehithe navigating the icy, frosty road with due care and I carefully parked up walking down path by the cliffs, I saw first a female and then a male Stonechat in the weeds by the precipitous cliff edge (with new cracks in the ground by the existing path) and a wonderful Dartford Warbler, typically a small slender bird with distinctive long tail. It flitted around flying short distances. Into further groups of weeds. As I viewed it I saw a fine Whooper Swan flying overheadband flying north- west. Walking down to the hide, the Broad looked completely frozen over but there were small pockets of unfrozen areas, especially the back where in the south- west corner a group of around 20 Swans included at least 3 Whooper Swans were seen, mostly asleep they revealed their true identity when they raised their head from their slumbers. A strip of water unfrozen was crowded full of ducks including Gadwall, Teal, Wigeon, one male Pochard and in another unfrozen area a female Goldeneye surfaced. The iced areas sported large flocks of Gulls, BH, Common, Herring and the odd LBB Gull but no Arctic white-wingers sadly. Finally a young female Marsh Harrier flew over the Broad. Walking back lots of Gulls on the sea, with a Grey Seal slowly and steadily swimming north, whilst further back, a group of 5 Red- throated Divers flew together north, this quintet of Gavia was a sight to see, closely followed by another singleton of that species.

Return to Corton woods

On Sunday 12th January, I walked into the north part of Corton woods, again no sight nor sound of the Nuthatch for me but together with Rob H and the Fergusons we did see the female Ring- necked Parakeet again shrieking frequently and perched high up in the trees around the northern section. A male Chaffinch seen too and a Jay.

Kessingland and Lowestoft

On Saturday 11th January, at first light in the back garden I heard a chackling Fieldfare no doubt in flight but I couldn't visually locate this occasional Sacndinavian visitor to the local environs. An early start had me parking at the euphemistically entitled beach car park which is a good third of a mile from the beach and I walked down the road, past the amusements and eventually onto the beach, where I walked up to the area by the southern most caravan, I saw David W and John B. from. Essex and they motioned me over to some dunes where we viewed the excellent Shore Lark feeding it initially gave some nice views and was constantly feeding and moving the sun came out and I managed a couple of decent pics. I walked to the Sluice, the water was pouring out at a rate of knots and I thought I'd check the Pit which was more like a puddle now, nothing further seen save for a Rabbit near the area by the River hundred. I then decided to check Covehithe Broad for the Scaup but the Broad was mostly frozen over consequently all the Ducks had gone including the Scaup. At the back was a small pool of open water crowded with Gulls Mallard and Gadwall but nothing else. Lots of Gulls were on the sea but nothing noteworthy so I walked back to the car. Deciding against checking Benacre Broad (big mistake as there was a GND on there which I would have found) as that too would be frozen I drove back to Ness Point and parking up I immediately saw a Rock Pipit fly up from the ground and disappear over the seawall. Going after it I saw it fly north of the Point and despite the low tide I was delighted to see 1 and then 2 Purple Sandpipers on the old seawall rising up like rock monoliths from the sea. I then checked the wind turbine area and the Orbis Energy building nothing there so I checked Hamilton road and as I parked up I noticed just left of the Seatrium building a superb male Black Redstart flew up onto a post closeby. I didn't have my camera gear quite ready, fatal mistake (but I had only just drawn up in the car) and missed what would have been cracking pictures of this bird that stayed for 2 minutes on its post until it flew as I was just about getting ready to take its picture. A later try in Corton Woods at 3pm revealed the female Ring- necked Parakeet in trees at the very north end or in the gardens beyond, her location frequently heralded by loud sqwarks shattering the air!

Rain, rain and yet more rain!

On Sunday 5th January, it rained all day! However, when news of the RND came up I drove straight to Thorpeness and parked right by the Meare, I was able to scope the Meare and immediately spotted 4 Goosanders, 3 male and 1 female. Initially I couldn't see the RND, I saw a fine male Pochard and then up popped the fine male Ring- necked Duck which was constantly fishing and diving. Timely news of the Bean Geese just south of Ness Point, after excellent direction from the Fregusons I walked from where I had parked around a 1/3 of a mile north, underneath the ornate Tudor arch following the road right, past allotments and a heath and then to the cliff top field where the rain has eased off and the 2 fine Bean 'rossicus' Geese were in the extreme north- east corner of the field feeding just beyond a ridge. I watched them for 10 minutes and then left them as I walked back to the car. I then drove to North Warren, where I saw around 15 Lapwing, and various Geese but no White- fronts. It started to rain heavily. So prompted again by the Fergusons I drove to where I thought was Botany Bay near Snape. I couldn't reack the Bridge from opposite directions as the road was completely flooded but a very kind local lady, told me where the bridge was and said it was a 1/4 mile walk at most. So I parked up just before the flood, waded through a foot of water and spotted the white posted bridge just after the bridge was a very muddy well trodden track which I walked for 200 metres to the mound that overlooked the flooded field, with 2 main lake areas, after scanning for 30 minutes I had seen around 30 Carrion Crows which had initially flown up into a tree further down the track. Looking at a 3 distant trees, the Crows were perching up in these trees, I spotted the fine Hooded Crow seen flying and obscured by the tree until it perched up on the top left of the tree.

Belated New Year's birding on the 4th!

With January 1st starting as the year had finished with strong winds and prolonged heavy rains, new year birding was indefinately postponed until the first reasonable day off from working. As it was I only had 2 days off at Christmas. So it wasn't until Saturday 4th January that I was able finally get out birding in 2025. I started by driving to Henham Quarry entrance, in the field opposite, I located a very distant Cattle Egret working along the edge of a field at the back, it then flew right and then perched on top a post. Meanwhile 3 'chackling' Fieldfare flew over joined belatedly by the football rattling Mistle Thrush that settled in the middle of the field. I then drove to Sotterley. As I parked up I heard a Nuthatch, chunterring but sadly I couldn't spot oit. I then walked over to the Church, as I did so, a small group of Wood Pigeons flew and they were joined by a single male Hawfinch that perched up in a tree along the east side of the pond. I walked around the Church where scaffolding had been erected and as I walked, I spotted the male Hawfinch spotted in tall trees just west of the Church perimeter just beyond the evergreen trees. It spent some time here and it looked at me and then to the left. As I walked back to the copse, I saw a Sparrowhawk by the side of a tree and it hopped around the back and out of sight but this put paid to any potential Nuthatch or Treecreeper sightings, sadly. As I walked to the car, a message bleeped stating there were 7 Grey P's at sandpit Lane, Ellough, I immediately drove there but couldn't see any! All I saw were 3 Red- legged Partridges. I remembered to check College Lane, so I checked from there too and immediately spotted the excellent group of 7 Grey Partridges. All hunkered down together and they were mostly asleep, save for 1 that was preening.

Review of 2024: Farewell old friend

2024 foremost for me will always be remembered very sadly for the sudden and shocking and totally unexpected loss of our much loved Tabby cat Cosmo who died suddenly on 1st February and he is greatly missed by us both, he was a wonderful boy, a fantastic companion and we still miss him dreadfully. He was a real character, an integral part of the family and we still mourn his loss very deeply. On a much better note, we welcomed Misty another rescue cat, a beautiful blue and cream Tortie who has settled in so well and with Whitby, our other black cat who we welcomed in 2023. Also a mixed year on the wildlife front. It was amazing how much bad weather we had during weekends and days off particularly towards the end of the year. Also on the debit front a very poor year for butterflies. In January, it was a great start to the year on the 1st with a duo of Divers in Lowestoft, Great Northern and Red- throated and a nip over to an incrediby crowded Southwold to see the Lesser Yellowlegs. on the 5th and 14th January a nip across the border into Essex revealed an American warbler species (a family I have had a recent 2024 run of dips) a fine Northern Water Thrush, which was an excellent trip on both occasions. Unfortunately we lost poor Cossie on the 1st February and the year went downhill from that point on. TBC

Thorpeness Meare goodies

On Monday 30th December, I drove down to Thorpeness Meare, parking was very tight but I maaged to reverse park in a tight space (glad I had the rear parking sensors fitted!) I walked down to the Meare and immediately saw a group of 9 Goosanders (6 males and 3 females)swimming at the back in front of of the island, whilst just right of them was the splendid male Ring- necked Duck, which was constantly diving it raised up on its haunches wobbled from side to side before diving. It repeated this feeding motion constantly and was on view all the time save when it was underwater of course! It was typically bobble crowned and in very smart plumage. The Goosanders swam right and out of sight round the side. A male Pochard seen too.