2nd May 2017 Minsmere Rspb Reserve
Male Mandarin.
I had a really great days birding at Minsmere Rspb reserve yesterday with Richard , arriving on site at approx 7am , we walked around to the Island Mere hide in the hope of seeing or at least hearing the Savi's Warbler , straight away a Bittern starting 'Booming' near the hide but remained unseen , then i heard the distant 'Reeling' of the Savi's Warbler , fantastic sounds of two iconic birds Bittern & Savi's .
The Savi's Warbler was constantly 'Reeling' and i eventually managed to see it on top of a bush to the right of 'L' sign post about 200m south of the hide , i got everybody onto it and you could see it quite well although to distant for a photo , it stayed on view for about 10 mins before dropping down into the bush again.
Other birds seen & heard from here were Cetti's , Sedge, Common Whitethroat & Reed Warblers plus i heard a Nightingale on the way around to the hides overlooking the scrape.
Mandarin & a female Mallard.
We were informed by one of the reserves volunteers of a male Mandarin which has paired up with a female Mallard , be interesting to see what the offspring look like...lol
On the walk towards the sluice and just before the South hide a Water Vole scurried across the path in front of us .
There were 2 Wheatears near the sluice , the male bird showing very well.
Male Wheatear.
We checked out the bushes towards Sizwell and there were plenty of Common Whitethroats and a pair of Stonechats , the scrape also held plenty of waders including 1 summer plumage Bar Tailed Godwit.
Bar Tailed Godwit.
Other waders seen were Grey Plover, Ringed Plover , Dunlin, Redshank and a summer plumage Knot.
Walking back past the main scrape we saw 50+ Kittiwakes , Common & Sandwich Terns and i also added 2 Little Terns to my year list.
Kittiwakes.
30th April 2017 Oare Marshes
Spoonbill.
On Sunday morning i paid a very quick visit to Oare Marshes after hearing news of a Spoonbill being present on the East flood , i quickly pulled up into the pull-in and straight away saw the Spoonbill asleep in the middle of the flood , eventually it had a fly around and landed closer and started feeding.
Here are a few photo's i took.
Imm. Spoonbill.
Whilst watching the Spoonbill a small flock of waders flew into the scrape and were indeed 28 Knot including 6 birds in summer plumage.
28 Knot.
Coming into land.
