On Wednesday, I joined many of the wardens from the Suffolk Area Team, as well as other members of the Minsmere visitor experience, catering and admin teams, exploring our reserves farther south along the Suffolk coast. This was a chance to learn about the exciting work being done on these reserves, as well as sharing ideas with other members of the team.
During the day we visited three of our lesser known nature reserves on the Suffolk Coast. Under bright blue skies, with the warm sunshine on our backs, all three looked superb - and they were teeming with great wildlife.
Our first stop was RSPB Snape Wetlands, a reserve that I last visited about 18 months ago. What a transformation! The original reserve, at Abbey Farm, has developed into a lovely reedbed, while the newer part of the reserve, known as Botany Marshes, is nicely flooded with reed already beginning to establish. In a few years time, this too will be a reedbed, which we hope will be home to breeding bitterns, marsh harriers, bearded tits, otters and much more. Indeed, marsh harriers and bearded tits already nest at the Abbey Farm site, and we watched bearded tits busy collecting nesting material at Botany Marshes.
A panoramic view of Botany Marshes, RSPB Snape Wetlands
As we walked across the reserve, a Chinese water deer dashed away across an adjacent field, two buzzards and a marsh harrier circled overhead, then not one but two peregrines zoomed overhead. One of these returned later to stoop, unsuccessfully, after a pigeon, before soaring up high with another buzzard. With sparrowhawk and kestrel also seen, this was a great site for watching birds of prey.
It was a great site for wetland birds. About 40 pairs of coots are nesting, with several already having chicks. There are also nesting little and great crested grebes, greylag and Canada geese, mallards and gadwalls, and we also saw several other species of ducks remaining from the winter. Large flocks of gulls were loafing at the far end of the reserve, and lapwings displayed along the edges of the wetland.
A view across Botany Marshes, RSPB Snape Wetlands
Of course, our visit wasn't simply for birdwatching. David Fairhurst, Warden, and Aaron Howe, Senior Sites Manager, explained how Snape Wetlands had been bought by the Environment Agency as future compensatory habitat for expected losses of coastal reedbeds to sea level rise, with the RSPB given responsibility for creating a large new freshwater reedbed. We learnt about some of the difficulties encountered, changes to proposed plans to avoid damaging paleo-archaeological sites, and future plans for this site.
Aaron Howe explaining how the automated depth guage works
There is currently no public access to Snape Wetlands themselves, though the west end of Botany Marshes can be viewed from the minor road near Langham Bridge. However, we do plan to arrange some access at some point in the future.
After lunch we headed south to RSPB Boyton and Hollesley Marshes; two coastal wetland reserves close to the mouth of the Alde-Ore estuary. Hollesley Marshes is a relatively new site, purchased form the prison service in 2003, which has undergone a massive facelift in the last two years. Boyton is more establised, but there are exciting plans - more of these later. There is ca parking at both reserves, the former provided by HMP Hollesley.
Two years ago, Aaron and his team turned Hollesley Marshes from a damp coastal field into a large new wader scrape, enclosed by a predator-proof fence, with immediate success. Avocets, lapwings and redshanks all bred very successfully in 2014 (the year that badgers decimated the Scrape at Minsmere), although there were few chicks that fledged last year.
Looking across the scrape from the new viewing platform, we enjoyed good views of various ducks, gulls and wading birds, including a drake garganey, pair of pintails, two ruff and a group of four whimbrels that dropped in, as well as avocets, redshanks, lapwings, teals and shovelers.
The viewing platform at Hollesley Marshes
From the nearby seawall, offering views across the southern tip of Orford Ness, we saw both yellow and white wagtails. The former are scarce migrants here at Minsmere, but breed in small numbers in the Hollesley area.
The Hollesley Scrape from the seawall
Our final stop was Boyton Marshes, a reserve that I know well from previous visits. It's another coastal grazing marsh, with a small scrape close to the (very small) car park, and views across the estuary towards RSPB Havergate Island. Here we learnt of exciting plans for expanding the reserve and turning into a huge new wetland - though this will take a few years to create.
Boyton is popular little reserve for those who know it, but it's not the easiest place to find. And with good reason. As we approached the scrape, David Fairhurst pointed out two gorgeous adult Mediterranean gulls among the avocets and black-headed gulls, while I spotted two lovely male ring ouzels feeding in the field beyond. This were stopping off on route from Africa to breeding grounds in Scandinavia or the British uplands.
The two Mediterranean gulls at Boyton Marshes (with a black-headed gull, right, for company)
We all came away excited about the current and future projects on this part of the Suffolk coast. I highly recommend a visit to Boyton and Hollesley Marshes, especially if you are looking for somewhere a little quieter than Minsmere this spring - and watch this space regarding future access at Snape.
Meanwhile, while we were on our travels, news broke of a Savi's warbler singing at Minsmere, heard distantly from Island Mere hide in the early hours and around dusk. There's also a grasshopper warbler in the area, and as both have similar buzzing songs, separating the two can be difficult. Other new arrivals this week include reed warblers int he reedbed and the first nightingales on Westleton Heath.
Exciting times.
Don't forget you can also keep up to date with news from Minsmere on Twitter @rspbminsmere, and read about news and sightings from all our Suffolk nature reserves on the RSPBSuffolk Facebook page, where more photos from the South Suffolk reserves will be posted later today.
Finally, a cute pedigree Hereford calf from the herd that grazes Boyton Marshes