A visit to Suffolk April 28th - May 1st
We booked a three night stay at The Ship in Dunwich, well recommended and good value, intending to just wander around the local heaths and Minsmere one of our favourite parts of the country. After a night and morning of rain on 28th travelling down was distinctly unseasonal with flooded roads and dull, dull weather and rain but by the time we checked in at 16:30 it was almost fine and our first wander revealed a pair of wailing heath chickens on the nearby Dunwich heath. Not having seen or heard a UK Nightingale since 2006!! I was keen to hopefully hear one or two. My first early morning foray onto Westleton Heath quickly revealed two singing birds though views were lacking. Later in the day we came across another seven birds and in total we heard 16 around the Dunwich - Minsmere area and one at Lakenheath Fen on the return journey. Two were seen or at least bits of two were seen hence the very poor images but the iphone recorded some nice song in an area not plagued by human background noise. Why are they absent from Lincolnshire well species declines but also habitat and food availability must be involved - appalling spray drift from intensive arable farming pervades the whole of Lincolnshire and it minuscule woodlands and tidy tidy farms.
Msle Nightingale in song Westleton Heath April 2024 - typically very skulking this was a good view!
Nightingale habitat Dunwich Heath April 2024 - three males were singing along this track with wailing heath chickens and Woodlarks on adjacent heathland
singing male Nightingale Westleton heath April 2024 - we spent over 4 hours trying to see birds in this rea and this was the best view located with Julia’s new bins!
Dartford Warbler was another of my targets and in the past they have been very easy to hear and see on the Westleton - Dunwich heaths but my first morning foray revealed brief views of just one bird in 2 hours in an area where there are usually 5-6 pairs; the state of the heath though quickly suggested the reason - most of the heather was dead, at least 80% in most areas and consequently no insects and so no warblers. Asking local people the reason was stated to be cold wet winters and an explosion of heather beetle. Looking online it seems that this beetle is killing large areas of heather around the country. Eventually we did find three pairs of Dartford Warblers but they were flying long distances in search of food and even feeding in silver birch trees. Images were terrible.
Dunwich Heath with dead heather April 2024
Heather looking slightly better on Westleton Heath - a pair of Dartford Warblers and Woodlarks were nesting here April 2024
Dartford Warbler
Male Dartford Warbler searching for food in silver birch
Dunwich Heath April 2024 - in two days we walked nearly 19 miles across the heaths and around Minsmere in beautiful weather - heard two singing Redstarts but didn’t manage to see any
early morning on Westleton Heath
Stone-curlew or the more apt wailing heath chicken on Dunwich heath - always distant and heavily cropped but great to see and listen to their vocalisations
Stone-curlew Dunwich Heath April 2024
female Stonechat Dunwich Heath
Minsmere sausage rolls are a bit of a local attraction
the distinctive calls of passing Mediterranean Gulls are a newish addition to the heathland birding scene as they commute to the favoured pig fields
We stopped off at Lakenheath RSPB on the return trip and had a long walk in rather hot and humid conditions - I was hoping for feeding Hobbies but unlike my last visit about 20 years? ago all the Hobbies were very distant - roll on the next blog post