Tuesday, September 25, 2012

24th Sept - Minsmere

Visiting Minsmere and surrounds with my mum for a couple of days, so snuck out pre-breakfast for some migrant action at the Sluice Bushes. After a night of strong ESE wind and rain, with mist forecast for dawn my expectations were rather high.  The Sluice Bushes however were totally devoid of birds  during the time I was there (until 7.30am), perhaps I was just too early?  The biggest interest came in the shape of a lone wader I picked up coming in-off in the company of a small group of Teal
it was a bit smaller than Teal but not much. From below there was obvious demarcation between brown chest and white belly. Upper parts had not obviously strong wing bar. The bird eventually peeled off from the duck and decked, I went to East hide but all I could find was a distant wader (no scope, and only 7x binos)  with apparently orangey legs, so made the assumption it was my bird and it was a ruff...but...I went back a bit later once the light improved and found that my "ruff" was in fact a Redshank, so I actually never saw the original bird on the deck.

I think it was a Pec (there has been one around Minsmere for a while) but can't claim it on those views :o(

Later in the day visited Minsmere again with my mum.  Got to North Hide as an extensive pulse of rain filtered in  on a strong ESE wind. We sat it out for a while, with a few hirundines  providing the only interest, and lots of duck.  Eventually we made a dash for the reserve HQ and hid inside munching chocolate cake and spending lots of money on things I would never buy unless the profit went to conservation.  The rain got heavier, and with not much else to do we drove to Sizewell, Thorpeness and Aldeburgh (for me to case these areas out as I'm not very familiar with Suffolk birding sites). The only birds of note where a large flock of hirundines over a lake in Thorpeness which I grilled before they climbed high and disappeared southwards, but I also picked up a group of about ten Brent Geese heading north off shore at Aldburgh.  The rain cleared and the wind switched SW.  I started getting SMS messages from Sacha in Norfolk saying that a fall was taking place in Norfolk. Let's see if there is anything to come from the switching conditions tomorrow morning in Suffolk... 

1 comment:

Sacha Barbato said...

Friday... The big rarity will be found this Friday!!