Boyton, like most of our coastal wetland reserves has had more than its fair share of rain over the last two months. The breeding birds at Boyton have found it difficult it rear any young due to the cold and difficult weather. However, there has been some good news, the avocets returned to the flash once again with up to twelve pairs nesting and today there are at least six healthy chicks walking around the flash. Also, the lapwing around the flash have faired OK with a number of chicks also showing well. However, the story is not quite so rosy around the rest of the reserve with overall lapwing numbers down on the last few springs. Fortunately, waders are long lived birds and do need to successfully fledge young every spring.

The flash has had its fair share of passage waders this spring with little stint, wood sandpiper, sanderlings, dunlin, ringed plovers and greenshanks all recorded recently. The four spoonbills that are currently resident on Havergate often pop over the river to the reserve and they have also been regularly seen at the Hollesley reserve. This winter we have plans to reform the nesting island within the flash and increase the number in an attempt to boost the population of breeding waders on the site and hopefully improve the experience for the visitors even further.

In contrast to Boyton, Hollesley has preformed very well this spring with up to fourteen pairs of lapwing and nine pairs of redshank all nesting on the reserve which is the best spring recorded on the reserve since the site was purchased.

Winter is the time of the year that Boyton is truly left to its avian inhabitants. With the onset of winter the farmer starts to take off this Hereford cattle and we start increasing the water levels on the fields. By pushing the water up it floods the fields and provides great wintering habitat for wigeon, teal and a multitude of waders. It also has the added benefit of suppressing the grass growth over the winter and also killing patches where its deep enough. This in turn provides the best possible breeding and chick feeding habitat in the spring for our nesting lapwing. 

Its been a great year for birds on the reserve with two species of cranes (see below)providing some great highlights. This included the spectacular sandhill crane and the hundreds of birders that came to witness this incredibly rare visitor. More recently we have had regular sightings of a young red kite over the area. This bird has been around the area for a number of weeks and its really encouraging seeing a kite stick around, instead of the usual fleeting fly over. Along with the wintering duck we have also had some good numbers of geese including a hand full of tundra beans and white fronts.

Photo: John Richardson

Finally, please do spend some time browsing the photo gallery as we are very lucky to have some very talented local photographers willing to share some spectacular images of the wildlife found on the reserve.

Here’s to a bird filled 2012!

Until this week, if anyone had told me that I would see a sandhill crane in the UK I'd never have believed them. OK, so there were three previous UK records, but these were predictably in the far flung corners - Orkney and Shetland, plus a record in County Cork.  Surely there was no chance of seeing one in deepest Suffolk.

Sandhill crane is a North American species, breeding in the plains of Canada and the northern US, and wintering around the Gulf of Mexico from Florida to Texas and New Mexico. Like all cranes, they are large birds, standing one metre (three feet) tall with a wingspan exceeding 1.5 metres (about five feet).

Cranes always attract attention with their large size, elegant shape, distinctive bugling calls and energetic displays.

We're not well blessed for cranes in the UK, compared to other parts of the world. Huge flocks of common cranes migrate south every year from northern Europe to spend the winter in Extremadura (Spain), parts of France, Hungary and other areas, where many British birdwatchers will have seen these amazing birds. Similarly, huge flocks of sandhill cranes migrate south through North America, or Demoiselle cranes from central Asia to India.

Common cranes do actually breed in the UK. A small flock has been nesting in the Norfolk Broads for about 30 years (as told in 'The Norfolk crane story' by John Buxton and Chris Durdin), and two pairs have nested at RSPB Lakenheath Fen for the last few years. We regularly see wandering birds on the Suffolk coast, especially in the spring, but for UK-based birdwatchers, that's about the only chances of seeing a crane.

But what has all this to with sandhill cranes? Well, about two weeks ago one turned up in Aberdeenshire, where it found the perfect place to rest at RSPB Loch of Strathbeg. We assume that like many other American migrations that arrived in the UK at the same time, it had been blown across the Atlantic by Hurricane Katia. Being only the fourth UK record, many birdwatchers headed north to catch a glimpse of the incredibly rare visitor. Then, last week, it began heading south, being reported over Northumberland, Durham and North Yorkshire.

Here in Suffolk, we joked that it was coming our way, but how many of us really expected those words to come true? All that changed on Sunday morning, when a lucky local birdwatcher photographed what he thought was a common crane over Kessingland. That would have been a good record, but a closer look at the photos confirmed that this was, in fact, Suffolk's first sandhill crane. As news broke on pagers and websites, birdwatchers all along the coast kept their eyes to the sky hoping it would come their way.

Somehow the crane missed RSPB Minsmere, and touched down instead at RSPB North Warren. Thirty minutes later it was off again, landing briefly on Sudbourne Marshes, before alighting close to birdwatchers visiting Boyton Marshes. Then it was off again, this time settling just a few hundred metres to the south on a stubble field near Boyton village. Hundreds of birdwatchers flocked to this tiny village, me among them.

Just as I arrived with my family, the crane took off again, but luckily it only flew a further two fields away and we eventually had excellent views of it feeding on farmland close to the Alde Estuary. Three days later, the cranes is still their today, and continues to attract the crowds. It's also become a media star, appearing on Anglia TV News last night, in local newspapers, and on the BBC website.

How long will it stay, and where will it go? No-one really knows, but one thing is certain. No-one who has seen it will ever forget it, and I'm sure many tales of its visit to Suffolk will be told over a beer or in birdwatching hides for years to come.

(sorry, I don't have a photo a present - please post one if you were lucky enough to take one)

Sadly, I have not had the time to write much about Boyton marshes of late but that doesn’t mean its not worth a visit.

There are at least 12 pairs of avocets nesting on the summer flash with astonishing numbers of chicks around. It must be one of the best sites to see chicks anywhere on the Suffolk coast. This counts is a rough estimate but it definitely looks like more pairs have nested this yeat than last. There is some concern about the water levels given the exceptionally dry spring but at the moment it appears to be holding up well. The correct water level is vital for this species as to little water means the pool will be in danger of drying up and removing vital feeding areas and opportunities but to much will mean the chicks and adults will not be able to get access to food.

Also on the flash where up to six pairs of black headed gulls, I’m not exactly sure but I think this may be the first recorded breeding for the site, its at the very least the first on the flash.

There where also two pairs of common terns who where very much taking an interest in the site and I would say where quite likely to nest on the little islands, this I am far more confident in saying is a first for the site.

It is also a great place to see breeding lapwings, hear singing sedge warblers, calling cuckoo's and displaying redshanks. There is always the chance something rare will drop onto the flash as well.

The news is less positive from Hollesley marshes, the dry spring has taken a heavy toll on the newly created scrape and the grass is probably too long and thick to encourage breeding lapwing, there was however one bird holding territory, possibly one of the pair that bred successfully on the site last year.

In a final bit of good news, little terns are showing an interest in nesting on the shingle bank at the aptly named Shingle street. These are a red listed species, making it a high priority conservation species.

There are only approximately 1,900 nests in the entire of the UK. All of the nests which are confined to shingle beaches along the coast, which is in itself a rare habitat, the east anglian coast is of particular importance to the species.

Only nesting on shingle and sandy beaches brings it into conflict with human users of the beach. If you are taking a trip to shingle street please pay attention to the fence which is due to be constructed on Tuesday and ideally keep any dogs on leads whilst near the tern colony. Even the best behaved dog can cause devastation to ground nesting birds.

Please give these little birds the respect they deserve, a little tern colony is a delight to watch and see.

Whilst this blog post isn’t strictly about Boyton marshes it does concern Grove marshes our other lowland wet grassland site just down the coast.

For those have not visited the site and in fairness not many do, it is around 83 hectares in size and consists predominantly of wet grassland. During the summer it is home to Lapwing and several pairs of Sedge Warbler, Reed Warbler and Cetti’s warbler and a wide host of other songbirds including whitethroats, Blackcaps and garden warblers.

However, it is during the winter period that Grove marshes really comes into its own providing a haven for winter wildfowl regularly including over a 1000 wigeon, 500 teal, 200 black tailed godwits, 100 Lapwing and many other species of ducks and waders.

It was recently home to a pair of taiga bean geese that commuted between Grove and Boyton proving very popular with local birders.

It’s been a busy winter down at grove marshes with several changes to the site in addition to the standard management of the site.

Throughout the year the site is regularly topped to remove thistle heads and shorten the sward in addition to the spring, summer and autumn grazing. The topping of thistles stops this species out-competing the grass and wildflowers and spreading across the site removing feeding area and reducing ecological interest. Topping also shortens the sward and breaks it up, allowing short billed waders such as lapwings to access invertebrates in the soil. We are aiming to create a patchwork of sward length and sward density to favour both lapwings and redshanks. Lapwings favour shorter sparser swards and redshanks favour denser longer grass. Both these species are species of conservation concern with lapwing on the red list and redshank on the amber list.

We have also had a contractor working on site, slubbing out ditches. As ditches become choked up with mud, silt and vegetation their loose there ecological interest, failing to provide a feeding resource for neither breeding waders nor winter wildfowl. Breeding waders such as redshanks, lapwings and oystercatchers use these water courses to feed not only themselves but also take their young and wildfowl use these same courses in the winter.

We have also put in 75 metres of new foot drain on one of the marshes to further enhance the site for Lapwing. Like the slubbing of the foot drains this provides further feeding opportunities for waders, extending the resource available.

We are also extending the scrape area that is already there. It should be a third bigger by the time the digger has finished. This will create further feeding opportunities for both passage and breeding waders; we are also excitingly adding three islands to the site. Similar to that which can already been seen at Boyton marshes. The hope behind these is to attract breeding Avocets to the site, further enhancing the biodiversity interest of the site. The islands have been very successful at Boyton marshes; we are hoping that this will be replicated at grove marshes.

To visit the site drive down to Hollesley, take a left or a right at the water tower and at the bottom of the hill the site is on your left.