It’s been a more typical spring on the Suffolk coast with warm spells and showers. These conditions are proving very kind to the waders on the reserves. Lapwing settled well with at least 32 pairs sitting on eggs. Unlike last year it looks like we have a good chick survival with broods being seen feeding on the muddy margins around the waters edge. That being said with the warm/wet weather the grass has really rocketed away making it very hard to observe the chicks at times.
Avocet are also fairing very well with 71 nests observed. Encouragingly the Boyton “flash” is performing well after some island tweaking over the winter. With 0 avocets using the scrape last year to 19 pairs this year. It’s great to walk along the public footpath across Boyton and see chicks on the islands.
Photo: John Richardson
Finally it’s encouraging that the turtle doves back at Boyton with 2 adults being seen. Sadly turtle doves are in steep decline and one of the factors appear to be the condition of the adults after migrating back to our shores. To help we have planted over 1 hectare of seed mix for the returning birds to feed on. We hope to get the Boyton birds into breeding condition asap and see some fledged turtle doves ready to brave the migration back to west Africa.