Happy New Year everyone.
I hope you all had a relaxing, wildlife filled break. I was lucky enough to spend a day in the Norfolk Broads watching grey seals on the beach at Horsey then common cranes, marsh harriers and barn owls coming in to roost near Hickling Broad, and another day walking around the beautiful Suffolk coast at Covehithe. Then yesterday my family and I visited Minsmere in absolutely glorious weather (in stark contrast to New Year's Day) to start 2017's list with a bang.
And what a great way to start the year. The sky was blue, there wasn't too much wind, and there was some superb wildlife on show. As usual, we didn't have to go far to spot some good species, with marsh and coal tits dashing onto the feeders to snatch a seed between visited by the hordes of blue and great tits and chaffinches. The lapwings from the stone-curlew watchpoint on the North Wall looked superb in the sun.
On reaching the sea, there was a fair swell, with waves crashing into the beach amid a swirl of surf. I spotted a couple of gannets soaring effortlessly north along the horizon, but the swell made it difficult to spot much on the sea itself. A quick walk this morning, though, yielded about 300 common scoters off the North Wall.
There was a good swell coming in yesterday
East Scrape was heaving with birds yesterday - though the ice had reduced numbers a little today - with black-tailed godwits, teals, redshanks, mallards and one of the two avocets on the Scrape all feeding very close to the hide. A little further out we watched wigeons, shovelers, gadwalls, shelducks, pied wagtails and a few dunlins too.
We were treated to a lovely grey heron at the Public Viewpoint, stonechats in the dunes nearby, and stunning views of shovelers at South Hide, though this part of the Scrape may be a little quieter this week as our contractors have started to reprofile some of the islands before adding shingle in an attempt to attract little terns to nest within the security of the Scrape fence.
Shoveler by Andy Hay (rspb-images.com)
As well as the usual ducks on West Scrape, our visit to the Wildlife Lookout produced a small flock of linnets feeding one of the islands. There have bearded tits reported from the reedbed nearby today, though these were proving elusive during our walk yesterday. We did, however, find about 20 siskins feeding in the alder trees near South Belt Crossroads. They looked superb in the sun.
After lunch in the cafe, we headed to Island Mere, but not before finding a couple of lesser redpolls among more siskins beside the Rhododendron Tunnel. These small finches are always a treat to watch as they dexterously pick tiny seeds from the cones of alder trees.
Our visit to Island Mere was short and didn't yield either bittern or otter - though both were seen during the day - or bearded tit (a bogey bird for my wife!) It did, however, produce some really good Minsmere birds - a couple of female goosanders. This fish-eating duck is a scarce visitor to Minsmere, but a small flock of seven seems to have taken up residence at Island Mere - as you can see from Limpy's excellent photo-sequence here. Whilst scanning the reedbed for harriers and bitterns I spotted a kingfisher zipping low over the reeds, then minutes later a gorgeous red kite soared over the reedbed towards Sizewell. What a great start to the year!
Island Mere looks beautiful in the late afternoon sun
Of course, there were other species that we missed apart from the bitterns and bearded tits. A male hen harrier was reported again yesterday; 20 Bewick's swans roost on the Scrape but leave after dark and depart at first light; 29 white-fronted geese were on the South Levels yesterday, bullfinches, goldcrests and treecreepers are all in the woods. A great white egret visited briefly over the holiday period too - probably one of the two birds that are wintering at nearby Walberswick.
What did you spot over the holidays? What would you like to find in 2017?
Surely one of our best looking birds - bullfinches were showing well in the North Bushes this morning - photo by John Bridges (rspb-images.com)