October was a great month at Hollesley with the number of waders and duck showing on the scrape growing. The numbers are still growing now so its well worth a visit!
The waterfowl have most certainly arrived with top counts of approx 1000 wigeon, 400 teal, 4 pintail, 6 Gadwell and 20 shoveler. Larger flocks of waders can be seen with top counts of 40 golden plover, 200 lapwing, 30 curlew, 7 turnstone, 4 ruff, dunlin, green sandpiper and snipe. Over the last couple of week Hollesley has been covered in gulls with over 1000 black headed gulls sitting on the scrape! But if you want to brush up on your gull id you should scan through and you might be lucky and spot a caspian gull, yellow legged or even a med gull. All of which showed up in October.
Don’t just look on the scrape, over the next few months the surrounding fields will start to get wetter with rain and big numbers of wigeon and waders can be seen in them. You can have a great walk straight from the car park, passing the scrape and onto the seawall and be surrounded by wildlife.
The sheep have done a fantastic job munching down the grass in the fields and in the scrape (they were not afraid to paddle out to the islands) but are now being taken off site slowly for the winter. The habitat looks great for the wigeon and geese that will be grazing in the fields over winter.
Please be aware the track will start to get muddy now so sensible shoes are essential and wrap up warm.