Trimley Reserve

Today, on the Trimley Reserve I had wonderful views of a Short-eared Owl, down to only 8 ft as it glided in front of the winter flood hide; it spent about 20 minutes hunting over the meadows before going to ground. The Wood Sandpiper was on the summer flood for a second day. Other highlights included Cuckoo, Ruff and Common Sandpiper.

Bluebells at Captains Wood

Reserves update

At Hazelwood Marshes, today, there was a Chinese Water Deer. Other highlights were Marsh Harrier 3, Turtle Dove, Nightingale, Cuckoo, Garden Warbler and at least 8 pairs of Avocet breeding on one of the islands.

At Trimley Marshes there were several Yellow Wagtails, 2 Hobbies and the first of the Black-headed Gull chicks running about on the rafts.

At Captains Wood there were 2 Hairy Dragonflies (at last, my first for the year). The Bluebells were fully out and looked beautiful.

Trimley latest

We had our first brood of cygnets (8) today.  

Anyone visiting the reserve ought to lookout for the albino Whitethroat, which is holding territory, in the hedgerow just beyond the barn at Searson's Farm.

Butterfly numbers are still very poor; only 3 Orange Tip and 4 Speckled Wood.

Reserve Update

At Snape this morning the Trust launched its ‘Investor in Wildlife scheme’. The purpose of the event was to celebrate the achievements of the Trust with our corporate partners; over 50 supporters attended. There was two early morning walks, starting at 0730 hours, around the Snape Marshes reserve and then back to the Golden Key for breakfast. It was a lovely morning, everyone enjoyed the event and we saw some wildlife. Being on the reserve in the early morning sun was a treat, a Barn Owl was seen hunting over the Marsh, a Little Egret was feeding in one of the watercourses and a number of summer migrants were seen or heard such as Cuckoo, Whitethroat, Nightingale, Turtle Dove, Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Yellow Wagtail and Sedge Warbler. I tried to find a grass snake but could not, probably because it was too cold, I did, however find a Slow Worm.

Despite the comments of some workmates I only had one Bacon roll!!

At Trimley Marshes this pm there was a Spoonbill and 65 Black-tailed Godwit.

Bird Update

There were more summer migrants at Trimley including several hundred Swifts hunting over the reservoir and a Red-rumped Swallow (a new species for the reserve), which was present all day. Other highlights included 3 Hobbies, Common Sandpiper, Greenshank and a drake Garganey.

It was a special moment for me at midday. With a colleague, I was on the Peregrine ledge on the Orwell Bridge where we ringed four Peregrine Falcon chicks. We also individually colour ringed them with an orange ring inscribed with two black letters.

Trimley Update

New birds observed over the weekend at Trimley included Spoonbill, Garganey, Hobby, Bar-tailed Godwits, Green and Common Sandpipers. 

Further upstream at Levington (Loompit Lake) there were up to 4 Red-rumped Swallows.