Our first visit to Suffolk & RSPB Minsmere

We have a policy at the moment that time is short and we shouldn't visit places over and over again, even though we love them! So Mull and Northumberland have missed out this year, sorry! So we have now made our first venture into Suffolk. We chose Aldeburgh on the coast to stay and what a great place only 20 minutes or so from a many splendid places to see wildlife. However we ended up going to RSPB Minsmere every day that we were there, it is such a fantastic site.

I will leave the chaps and wench (showing my Black Country roots there!) from Springwatch on the Beeb to give you the detail, but I have to say it is possibly the best reserve for diversity (not the dance group) that we have ever been to. Although when we booked our week we didn't realise it was the week before Springwatch, just glad it wasn't the actual week. The production team were there though laying cable and filming snippets for the programme I'm glad to say that they didn't detract from the experience, apart from one occasion, when we in the woods (Canopy Hide) and the noise from the production crew and an over excited Martin Hughes-Games made us realise we weren't going to see much from there!

As we headed back, we were walking alongside one of the production crew and mentioned the noise, he admitted that he keeps telling them to keep the noise down to no avail and anyway he said I'm the one who knows about wildlife, they are just paid to talk about it! That made us laugh.

Anyway on to the Wildlife, much more important...............................

I won't go over this day by day, but cover the highlights:

So I have to start off with the main reason for going to Minsmere, Bearded Tits, we have tried on many occasions at other reserves to connect with this little *******! So we thought Minsmere was our best bet and we did on every visit, of course when they are hopping about the reeds they are not easy to get a photo of but I tried my best, here are some attempts:

So add 1 to our list of species.
Another target was to get some good Bittern sightings in the UK, we realised that nothing would compare to the close up views we had in Lesvos, but we didn't do to badly:

Before Minsmere on one of the mornings we decided to call in to Dunwich Heath (National Trust) which is just north of Minsmere, in fact you can if so inclined and have time walk from one to the other but we chose to drive, we were doing enough walking over the week. The Heath is a beautiful place covered in heather and gorse and is of course home to the Dartford Warbler hence the real reason for the visit and again we weren't disappointed, however photographing the said bird was another matter, we did get close on a couple of occasions, the birds came to us, I hasten to add, but always to quick to photograph, or I'm just getting old and aren't quick enough! I did get some distant shots spoiled by the heat haze, but for the record:

So that was new species number 2. As well as these we did catch up with some other birds not seen (by us) very often. A Red-necked Phalarope that caused a few twitchers to emerge from their hibernation, although the view we had was a barely distinguishable bird through our scope. A magnificent summer plumage Grey Plover was also very welcome, along with a 1st year Little Gull. No photos to offer on any of those I'm afraid unless you want to see a few fuzzy blobs!

Another great sighting for us were the Hobbys. We had seen them before but usually a quick view as they fly past and are gone, here there were loads and we saw them regularly and were even lucky to get one posing in a tree not too far from the hide we were in:

Of course another great bird to see at a reed bed reserve is the Marsh Harrier and at Minsmere they show very well, but again not as close as you would like for the camera:

As you may have seen this week on Springwatch, Kittiwake nest on a platform just offshore near the Sizewell Nuclear Power Station and they come to Minsmere to gather nesting material and have the odd argument:

Another great sight were the large groups of Black-tailed Godwit early in the week:

there were the odd Bar-tailed as well which was nice.
Another first was watching a Great-crested Grebe weed dance from the Island Mere Hide a real treat, shame they were a distance away:

Moving off the avian wildlife there were a few other things worth mentioning, Red Deer, Muntjac:

Rabbit:

and saving the best to last, Adder:

Right back to our feathered friends....
Of course there was plenty of other birds about;
Redshank:

 Swallow:

 Grey Heron:

 Green Woodpecker:

 Reed Warbler:

 Chaffinch:

 Shelduck:

 Common Tern:

 Mute Swan:

 Gadwall:

 Whitethroat:

 Magpie:

 Little Egret:

 Lapwing:

 Reed Bunting:

 Cormorant:

So sadly time to leave, but not without a small detour to Lakenheath on the way home. When we arrived the volunteers asked us if we had come to see the Little Bittern, the answer was no! But these people obviously had:

We spoke to one or two of the people and they had been there a couple of hours without a sighting although we did hear it whilst talking to them, as we had seen plenty in Lesvos, we decided not to linger and left them to it. Our reward for that was a decent Cuckoo sighting, we had seen one at Minsmere but only a flypast, whereas this one rested a while albeit in the woods so it was pretty dull:

But the real reason for stopping at Lakenheath was this:

our first ever sightings of Crane, again after many attempts in Norfolk, Suffolk has delivered the goods! So that's it for this post. 3 New species added not too shabby!

TTFN!

A Week on the Isle of Mull

As promised here is our Mull trip report for last week. I have just finished going through my 1200 photos and am trying to decide what to include in this post, it's a tough one.

We had some amazing wildlife sightings during the week, Otters galore (at least one every day!), White Tailed Eagles, Golden Eagles, Corncrake, Adder, Short Eared Owl, Hen Harriers, Divers, Waders, Seals, Deer, Hare...........  Sadly despite all those photos no Corncrake pic, he dived back under cover before I could get a shot and the Eagle photo's are mainly record shots as none of them got that close. Anyway more of that later, so where do I start, chronologically I suppose, so here goes............

We had a fabulous drive over from Edinburgh in glorious weather, over Glencoe and then taking the longer route using the Corran and Lochaline ferries rather than the more expensive Oban Ferry, it adds about an hour to the journey but saves a bucket load of money! We arrived at the cottage on Lochdon about 4:30 on the Saturday and unpacked, then settled down with a cuppa to watch the wildlife go by and wait for our partners in crime (Jo & Jimmy) to arrive, they were travelling up from Cheshire and where about 90 minutes behind us.

It's great to sit in a comfy chair, relax with drinks on tap and let the wildlife come to you for a change. The river at the end of the Loch is in front of the lounge window, with great views over the Loch and surrounding hills.

The usual small garden birds were in abundance, but it was great to watch Goosander and Merganser sailing by the window, with Common Sandpiper flitting about, Oystercatchers calling and Curlew wading.

Does it get better than that? (Yes it does..!!)

Sunday 28/04
Tina and myself decide to visit Loch Ba as there had been reports of Slavonian Grebe on there, however the weather decided to take a turn for the worse and in our 2 hour walk (getting drenched in the process) down to the Loch and along the edge, we saw very little. (Sandpiper, Pied Wagtail, Meadow Pipit, RB Merganser was about it)

We stopped for a coffee (of course!) by the Mussel Farm in a brief spell of sunshine and were pleased to hear a Cuckoo behind us, quite close, but despite scanning the trees we couldn't find him. Then just before we packed up he flew out of  a tree some way above us and headed away back to the woods at the end of the Loch, so a brief sighting, but a sighting and our first Cuckoo of the year. As we returned to the car a Song Thrush paid us a visit:

We drove back down to Salen, Carignure and on to Pennyghael to find the Stores just to get the lie of the land as we were going out on a Guided Wildlife tour with Wild About Mull on Tuesday and just wanted to see how long it would take to drive down. The real reason though was to try and find the Short Eared Owls on Glen More.
After finding the Stores we turned around and headed back to the Glen, stopping to admire a posing Buzzard:

then had a look at the river to see if anything was about, when 2 male Hen Harriers popped out of nowhere and flew off in opposite directions, we tracked the one in the distance but lost him in the murk as the weather turned yet again! We carried on up the Glen and entered a Blizzard! This didn't last though and the sun came out again and so did a Shortie!

We watched him for a while until he disappeared over the ridge, so back for tea and a Rainbow!

Monday 29/04
Whilst we were doing our own thing yesterday Jo & Jimmy had driven up to Tobermory where they told us about a great Otter sighting, so we decided to go up and take a look, then drive around the coast and do a circuit back to Lochdon.

We were delayed at Salen for a while due to roadworks, but luckily were stopped by a cottage that had a number of avian visitors:

On arriving at Tobermory, we wandered around the Harbour for a while with no luck, until we arrived at the far end near the Ferry, then the first of our many Otter sightings:

You looking at me!

Checking out the RNLI boat!

I think I took half of my 1200 photos here, he was so obliging. After about an hour he decided that he'd had enough and came out on the beach and disappeared into a water outlet, amazing!
After Tobermory we headed north and around the coast, via Dervaig and Calgary, the scenery along here is stunning and we even picked up some Black-Tailed Godwits at Dervaig.

We then headed 'home' over Glen More, with 3 Shorties obliging again.

Back at the ranch this Gull took a keen interest in Jo & Jimmy's car!

Tuesday 30/04
Today we went out with Bryan Rains from Wild About Mull, the link to his blog is on the right hand side of this blog. It was a great day and well worth it, Bryan took us to some great spots for both of the Eagles and much more. I'm not going to say where as that wouldn't be fair to Bryan, but if you visit the island, then book on one of his trips. So I'm just going to put up a small selection of pics from the day.

Great Northern Diver with Lunch

WT Eagle being chased by a Buzzard

Otter

Grey Heron

Whimbrel

Swallow

Golden Eagle

Stonechat

Common Seals

Adder

White Wagtail

Redshank

Black Tailed Godwit

WT Eagle

Lapwing

Skylarks 'a courting'

After leaving Bryan we headed back over Glen More to Lochdon and more Shortie encounters!

Followed by a quick visit to Grasspoint, just in case the WT Eagles where about down there, but not today!
Some Red Deer though and the cutest Highland Cattle Calf!

Wednesday 01/05
The plan for today is to hop on the ferry to Iona and hunt for the elusive Corncrake. But first a quick visit to Grasspoint in case the WTEs are about and yes we did find them both!

But on to Iona..
From the ferry we saw our first Razorbill of the year:

We went straight from the ferry to the Fire Station where we saw the Corncrake last year and were immeadiatley rewarded with the call of 2 Corncrake at opposite ends of the field both well and truly hidden. After a short while I managed to spot the closest one then spent 15 minutes trying to get the others to see it!
It never stayed out long enough for me to get a shot, never mind next year!

We decided to stroll up to the north end of the island and have lunch up there. On the way there and back we saw plenty of Wheatear, Meadow Pipit, a field full of Golden Plover, some Black Tailed Godwit, Pied Wagtail and fishing off the beach, some Kittiwake.
The Beach:

Gosh, we must be enjoying ourselves!

Some of the Birds:

We then had a lovely cream tea at the Columba Hotel before a quick look for Corncrake, again heard but not seen. Then onto the ferry and back to Mull.

After the Ferry we dropped in at Fidden to see what was about, the highlight being the Golden Plover:

Two Oystercatchers also performed well:

And a 'Beach' Hare:

Some more Golden Plover:

and an out of focus Ringed Plover with some Dunlin:

Common Seal:

and finally a Lapwing:

We left Fidden and headed back to Lochdon, via a few points along the way which provided:

Willow Warbler

Young Adder

and a Short Eared Owl!

Another drop in to Grasspoint was called for, the sun was blinding, but managed a record shot of this distant White Tailed Eagle:

Can you spot him?

Thursday 02/05
Well the nice weather has gone a very 'iffy' day today, so not many photo opportunitues, a drive to Loch Scridain then Loch Buie via Loch Spelve was undertaken in the rain, just a few shots:

Red Breasted Merganser (Loch Scridain)

GN Diver (Loch Scridain)

Otter (Loch Scridain)

Black Guillemot (Loch Spelve)

GN Diver (Loch Spelve)

Friday 03/05
The weather forecast was a washout and it was spot on! It rained hard all day, so we went up to Tobermory and had lunch at the Fish Cafe on the Harbour (Brilliant food!), but not before our mate obliged yet again:

After Tobermory we headed back to Grasspoint as the rain had more or less stopped, just in case the WT Eagles were about, one finally showed up in the murk and gave me a silhouette on the skyline:

Then just before tea with the light fading an otter appeared on the shoreline opposite our cottage:

So that's it! A wonderful week 72 species of birds seen, plus Red Deer, Hare, Otter, Common Seal and an Adder or two!  We had a final look at our Sea Eagles before heading home on the Saturday morning (again it was raining!)  I will add all the photo's to the gallery over this week, so keep an eye out for the update!

Tina & Tom