It may only be mid March, but there have been some early spring migrants to raise anticipation for the coming season.
As is usually the case, the first spring migrants were chiffchaffs, which have been singing from the North Bushes, Sluice Bushes and South Belt woods already. It's always hard to know how many of these are actually arriving spring migrants or lingering winter visitors - we know we had at least wintering birds this year - but the numbers and locations certainly suggest that at least some of them are new arrivals.
Singing chiffchaff
The chiffchaffs were closely followed by three other typical early spring migrants with the first sightings of both swallow and sand martin at Island Mere on Wednesday, white wagtails at East Scrape and Island Mere, and a wheatear along the North Wall this morning. These are all just the advance guard, taking advantage of southerly airflow and skipping quickly through Spain and France. It will be a few more weeks yet before the bulk of these migrants arrive, quickly followed by a wide variety of warblers, chats and other summer visitors.
Many of our breeding birds are increasing in numbers, too. Some, like avocets, will have been with us in small numbers all winter, and may now only be moving from local estuaries, but strictly speaking they should should still be considered as summer visitors. This certainly applies to avocets, which have increased from three to 70+ birds, as well as black-headed gulls. Mediterranean gulls, too, are beginning to return, and it won't be too much of a surprise to hear reports of Sandwich tern in the next few days.
As well as the avocets, our other breeding waders are already starting to display around the Scrape: ringed plovers, lapwings, redshanks and typically noisy oystercatchers. Non breeding waders that are passing through include dunlins, black-tailed godwits, curlew and turnstones on the Scrape, and the regular snipe at Island Mere.
Duck numbers are showing a marked decline as they head back towards the Arctic to breed, but there is still a good selection on the Scrape: shelduck, wigeon, gadwall, teal, mallard, pintail and shelduck. A few pairs of tufted ducks are mobile between the Scrape and Island Mere, where a count of four pochards was particularly notable yesterday. Coots, little grebes and great crested grebes are generally viewable at Island Mere, including at least three pairs of the latter that can sometimes be seen doing their weed-dance.
Elsewhere in the reedbed, marsh harriers are displaying and nest-building already, bitterns have started booming, especially early in the day, and bearded tits were showing very well on Wednesday - though they've been less visible on some days.
Male bearded tit by David Naylor
Other highlights this week have included brief visits from spoonbill, red kite and water pipit, hunting peregrine and barn owl, stonechats pairing up in the dunes, drumming great spotted woodpeckers, and the regular two adders beneath the sand martin bank (though not in today's rain!)
Many visitors over the past few months asked what the rig was doing offshore, concerned that it might have doing some drilling. Instead, it was actually good news, as they were installing the substructure for an exciting new installation (photo below). Onto this base will be constructed a special kittiwake nesting tower, which it is hoped will allow the thriving colonies at Lowestoft and Sizewell to expand. The kittiwake tower is part of the planning conditions for a large new offshore windfarm that is being constructed off the Suffolk coast.
Finally, yesterday we received some even more exciting news. We are delighted to have won the gold Accessible and Inclusive Tourism award at the East of England Tourism Awards ceremony in Ipswich! We're so proud of the team and everyone who helped make this possible. Congratulations to all the finalists. What an inspiring evening for East of England tourism!