David, Roger and I were off to
Minsmere today hoping to see a Western Swamphen, which will be a first for
Britain if accepted. David drove and we
had a pretty quiet journey seeing very little the best being a couple of
Buzzards, one near Great Glen and the other near Godmanchester.
We had received a tweet on
route that the bird was still there and we arrived in the car park at Minsmere
at around 08:45 and after getting ready we signed in at the centre and made our
way around to the South Hide to view a pool from the track. There was quite a crowd when we arrived and
on joining a second group we soon saw the bird as it walked slowly along the
edge of the reeds, although it wasn’t always in view. It was rather a smart looking bird with a
very obvious red bill and legs and white under-tail coverts with the rest of
plumage and iridescent blue, which changed depending on how the light was
striking the bird.
Western Swamphen
After watching the swamphen
for a while we went into the South Hide to view the lagoon in front but there
was very little with a single Ringed Plover being the best. We then continued along the path towards the
shore observing the pools to the right of the path as we did so. Whilst the area looked superb for waders
there was very few with just a Snipe and two Green Sandpipers being found along
with a juvenile Bearded Tit.
On reaching the beach we
looked out to sea but there was virtually nothing and so we continued along the
beach to reach the East Hide. There were
good numbers of Black-tailed Godwits and Spotted Redshanks on the scrape with
198 and twenty-four respectively and there was also thirty-one Avocets and at
least twelve Dunlin. I also observed two
Little Ringed Plovers, three Ruff, a Bar-tailed Godwit, two Common Sandpipers
and a Green Sandpiper with a Turnstone observed in flight. There were five Little Gulls and a Common
Tern amongst a small flock of Black-headed Gulls and a Red Kite was observed
over the wood to the west.
We continued along the path
and then took the northern path that leads back to the centre. There were two Stone Curlews with a single
young bird in a field to the north of the track and a visit to the North Hide
produced a Little Grebe, a Hobby and another Green Sandpiper.
After lunch we went to Dunwich
Heath and after parking I picked up a couple of Sandwich Terns over the sea as
they headed south. We then went for a
walk across the heath and managed to see a single Dartford Warbler very briefly
and a pair of Stonechat. Unfortunately
we were unable to find two butterfly targets Silver-studded Blue and Grayling
despite searching for Grayling on the beach both below Dunwich Heath and at
Minsmere.
We eventually called it a day
and headed back home, seeing very little on route.
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