With lockdown measures having been eased slightly we were able to get out and about a little this weekend actually using the car.
On Saturday we stayed fairly local, just visiting Chippenhall Green near Fressingfield. This is one of the ancient meadow sites for
Green-winged Orchids and a good wander all over the green revealed loads as usual. There were quite a few that were going over and/or showing signs of frost damage but the variety was pretty good. Not quite the marvellous variety we get at nearby Winks Meadow but after a lot of searching I did find one pure 'alba' specimen. While Belinda was occupied by the local grazing horses I walked around and was delighted to find 2 singing
Turtle Doves, one of which I managed to get a view of.
Yellowhammer and
Common Whitethroat were also in song. We returned to the car to find our way blocked by the over-friendly horses. It took a while to usher them away while one was enjoying scratching its arse on our wing mirror!
On the way back we stopped for a walk at Weybread, concentrating on the south west area behind Wharton's nursery. A
Reed Warbler (yeartick) was singing beside Kingfisher Pit and a patch tick
Red Kite glided over mobbed by the local
Oystercatchers. New plants id'd there included
Rough Chervil, Field Madder, White Bryony, Wild Cherry and
Hounds-tongue.
Green-winged Orchids
Field Madder
White Bryony
Hounds-tongue
Sunday dawned bright so we decided to head for the coast to actually see the sea for the first time for a long time! We took a packed lunch and did a long walk through Dunwich Forest, over Dingle Hill to the beach and then back through the middle of Westwood Marshes. It felt so good to be on the coast again - helped almost immediately we left the car with a showy singing
Firerest in Dunwich Forest. The whole was gave me a few new birds for the year -
2 Sandwich Terns, Sand Martins and
Sedge Warblers plus
c4 Cetti's Warblers, a couple of
Reed Warblers, Garden Warbler, numerous pinging
Bearded Tits and a fantastic
Hobby hawking over the reedbed. To top it off, at the end of the walk a
Nightingale sang briefly twice and another
2 Firecrests were singing strongly. A pond in the forest held a male
Broad-bodied Chaser, Large Red Damselflies and
Hairy Dragonfly. The latter proved to be out in good numbers on the marshes later in the walk. There was plenty of botanical interest too with
Three-nerved Sandwort, Mouse-ear Hawkweed, White Ramping Fumitory, Danish Scurvy-grass, Meadow Horsetail, Birdsfoot Trefoil and
Sea Kale in flower plus
Sea Pea, Yellow-horned Poppy and
Beet yet to come.
Mouse-ear Hawkweed
Danish Scurvy-grass
Three-nerved Sandwort
