Suffolks Specialities
- justinparker15
- May 22
- 8 min read
It had been decided a couple of months ago that myself and Neil Massey would be going to Suffolk for a couple of nights as its a place i havent visited and especially the RSPB reserve Minsmere. We set off just after 9am on Thursday the 15th May the journey would take us just over 4 hours with stops on the way. The first place we was going to was a reserve called Carlton Marshes in Suffolk as a few days previous there had been some birds of prey called Red Footed Falcons there upto 7 birds which is a very rare occourence.
We arrived at around 13:30 and made our way to the visitors centre to get directions for where theses birds had been seen. After a walk of around 20 minutes we made our way to where some other birders were stood and we asked if the birds were still here to which they replied yes we started scanning over the vast reed bed and we picked up some hobbies which are lovely birds of prey there was about 7 hobbies zipping around when Neil picked up a male Red Footed Falcon i asked him where it was and after a short time i got the male in my bins wow what a stunning bird with there sooty grey plumage and orange was a sight to see then shortly after another guy picked up the female so i got onto that pretty much straight away and could see the bright orange underneath and on the head too. There was plenty of Hirundines flying around Swifts,Sand Martins, Swallows then after a short wait i picked up the female Red Foot in my scope flying from left to right you could see the back pattern is clearly different on the female bird and i was telling other people where the bird was and pointed out landmarks so others could see it wow what a stunner and what a fab place to visit 7 Hobbies and 3 Red Footed Falcons was an awesome start to our Suffolk trip.
We decided to head off now and go and book in to our digs which we had for the next couple of night so we had a drive of about 30 mins before we pulled into the car park and went to get our room keys.
The rooms were very nice spacious with an ensuite and a tv on the wall too with tea making facilities so i was very happy. We decided to go for a walk before tea and we headed on a path that took us around the back of Minsmere it looked a great place and we saw a cracking male Marsh Harrier whilst walking towards the sea then we picked up a couple of female Marsh Harriers and some more Hobbies what a great place this is.
We headed to walk right a little way when we got to the sluice at Minsmere and walk through the Gorse and bushes we saw a nice Pair of Stonechat and a Lesser Whitethroat some Whitethroats a Wren and some other Common Warblers too. We decided to walk back to our accomodation as time was getting on and we were getting hungry so we walked back and said we would do Minsmere and a couple of other places tomorrow.
This was the menu and myself an Neil we hungry by now so we decided to go for 3 course meal i had Crispy Whitebait Lasagne and Baileys Bread and Butter pudding Neil had Panko Prawns Ham Egg and Chips and Ice Cream for pudding the food was nice and after food we walked down the path to the river to look for the resident Barn Owl.
Only a short walk and there was a few people there already watching for it a bit early but we heard the Cuckoo calling a Cettis warbler singing away and we heard some Deer Barking which ive never heard before.
The light was going now which is good for Barn Owls there was a couple of Bats flying around us now 1 large and 1 small no idea what they were and then all of a sudden a women shouted Badger and sure enough running over the road was a Badger wow this was my first ever live Badger i had seen and low and behold it came back over 5 minutes later wow. Not long after the Badger a lady picked up the Barn Owl behind us we watched this superb bird hunting for 5 minutes before it disappeared. We decided to call it a night and go for a shower and a cuppa.
The next morning we went into the pub for 8 oclock to order breakfast a full english was ordered by both a gallen of orange juice and a pot of tea to start the day.
After breakfast we headed towards Minsmere but on the way we were going to stop at a place where Neil had seen Stone Curlew in previous years a bird i havent seen for a couple of years.
We pulled up just before 9 full and ready to tackle the world and it didnt take Neil long before he spotted 2 Stone Curlew 1 was sat down and the other was sat down but further to the right please excuse the photo as the birds were distant and the heat haze was shite.
After a short time watching these we decided to head towards Minsmere.
We pulled up into the very busy car park already we got out our stuff and set off to the first hide which was only a short walk but on the way we got great views of Garden Warbler singing in the bush nest to the hide when we opened the door we were the only one in the hide. We started scanning and picked up birds like Dunlin, Avocet, BlackTailed Godwit , Little Ringed plover Barnacle Geese and lots of other things too. We didnt stay too long in this hide as we wanted to walk round so off we set to the next hide a bit of a walk but we walked past a big reedbed so was hoping for Bearded Tit. It was quite windy so when we arrived at the reedbed we didnt hold out much hope and that was to be correct we didnt see or hear theses small birds so after 15 minutes we walked up to the next hide.
We got into the hide which had a few people in it so we started to have a look through our scopes and we saw some nice birds Marsh Harriers in the distance i spotted a Red Knot which was nice as it was coming into breeding plumage so had the red belly which was great to see.
This Avocet was very obliging allowing me to phonescope it and there was more Barnacle Geese with chicks there were a few Common Terns flying around too.
We decided to move on to the next viewing area and again there was only us 2 on it we saw some different birds here we saw Little Terns Sandwich Terns Kittiwakes and Med Gulls the first ones of the trip and plenty of them. We could also see Hobbies hunting in the distance which is always a pleasure to see.
We decided to walk round to another hide which overlooked the pool we were seeing just from a different angle as we walked round to it we could hear the Cettis Warbler singing away and we heard a bittern booming our first of the trip . We didnt stay too long in this hide as the birds were pretty much what we saw from the previous viewing platform so we moved to the Bittern hide which was the place to see Bitterns on this reserve.
We made the short walk to the Bittern Hide and climbed up the steps and entered the hide which overlooked the reedbeds. We had only been in the hide for 2 minutes when a lady next to me pointed out a bittern which had come out of the reeds i had amazing scope views of the bird and watched it for 5 minutes before it headed off into the reedbed.
This was the best views ever i have had of Bittern and this was the picture i got of this by phonescoping it. We saw Hobbies and Marsh Harriers whilst in this hide we heard the Bittern Booming but we didnt see another Bittern so after 30 minutes we decided to move on to the last hide the Island Mere Hide. It took us about 25 minutes to get to this hide . Birds we saw from this hide were Little Grebe Great Crested Grebe Marsh Harriers and Hobbies we stayed for about 25 minutes in this hide before we decided to head back to the car as there was other places we wanted to visit.
We decided to head off to a place to look for Nightingale a short drive and we was there we had a walk through a small woodland but alas we didnt see or hear the Nightingales or Turtle Doves so we decided to go onto Dunwich Heath.
We pulled up in the Car park and set off over the heath after a decent walk we flushed 2 Woodlarks which flew off calling and the shorter tail was visable and the call was different to the Skylark but no Dartford Warblers. We carried on walking and Neil was saying usually he had seen 4 or 5 by now but no still none was it too windy maybe or not so we decided to walk back to the car through the heath a different way to the car and we was walking near the road when i heard a Chack and both me and Neil said that was Dartford Warbler calling so we stood and scanned over the road into the small gorse bush and after a short while Dartford Warbler came out and perched on the bush top showing increadibly well we watched the bird and another bird for about 10 minutes flitting around in the bushes.
We then decided to go back to the digs and have some food as we were going out looking for nightjars that night.
After food we decided to call in at the Nightingale site again as we were passing it on the way to the Nightjars. We pulled up and got out and almost straight away we could hear 2 birds singing so we walked along the road for a bit and stood there looking into the bushes and we managed to see a bird in the bush and we got our bins on it it was a nightingale and was soon joined by another we watched these birds for about 10 minutes before we decided to go to Westleton Heath for the Nightjars.
We walked along to path and heard a couple more Nightingales singing as we walked along it was a cool evening and we wasnt quite sure if we would see any Nightjars we stood in place and after 30 minutes we heard a couple of birds Churring so this was positive the light was dropping when i heard a flight call of the Nightjar and raised my bins to see 2 birds flying in the skyline a great result we decided to call it a night now and head back to the digs for a shower and pack the bags as we were going home in the morning.
After another hearty breakfast and handed our keys in we decided to go home via Norfolk so we headed off in the direction of Cley Marshes . We arrived after an hour and a halfs drive and the first birds we saw here were the Temmincks Stint there was 4 on show amazing little waders and i picked up a Curlew Sandpiper whist scanning we decided to head towards Titchwell before going home. Another 40 minutes drive and we pulled into the Car Park and headed out towards the benches near the first hide. We sat down and started scanning we saw Pochard Tufted Ducks new for the trip and the a Reed Warbler flew into view. Neil picked up a Bearded Tit which disappeared behind a bush but it wasnt long before it reappeared another new bird for the trip which put us on 92 Species for 2 and a half day birding it was time to head home now after a really good trip we saw some awesome birds and the views of the Bittern were very special to me.
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