Saturday 31 March 2018

A cold grey days birding in Suffolk

Having checked the weather forecast the previous evening, we decided Suffolk offered us the best chance to avoid the heaviest of the rain. At Minsmere we headed for North Hide and after a lengthy scan, we finally managed to locate two Jack Snipe having seen several Common Snipe previously. East and South Scrapes held high numbers of Med Gulls and two redhead Smew were found tucked away in the South corner. Apart from the usual species a single Knot and three Dunlin were the only other birds of note.
Chiffchaffs and Goldcrests were seen in the scrub around the sluice. I could hear a Firecrest singing close by but failed to locate it after a brief search.

A short stop off at Eastbridge produced sightings of the long staying Glossy Ibis. First reported on the 19th January it was still feeding on the flooded area near the bridge but remained distant today.

Being relatively close to Hazelwood we dropped in for another look at the Coues's Arctic Redpoll. It wasn't showing on arrival but appeared shortly afterwards feeding within the Lesser Redpoll flock on the recently sown onion field. This was our fourth visit and the bird was still following the same pattern of our first visit. Feeding in the field then flying back into the bushes near the path. 



The last stop was at Landguard hoping to locate a Purple Sandpiper for a year tick. Having walked the length of the beach from the cafe we found two birds feeding close to the boardwalk. With the high tide, the birds were forced to feed close in.







A decent days birding, but hardly any newly arrived migrants seen. 

No comments:

Post a Comment