Waveney Bird Club

Dawn Chorus Walk at South Elmham Hall

Good Friday 22 April 2011

Compared to last years dawn chorus walk which was cold and windy, conditions for this years walk couldn’t have been any better. Beginning at 6am with a cloudless sky and barely a breath of wind in the air, the starting point was from underneath a rookery and although hearing all the Rooks calling was a nice sound in itself, they did tend to drown out all the other bird song apart from a drumming Great Spotted Woodpecker which was easily heard by everyone. The sound of the rookery gradually faded as we walked away from it and into the first field where a couple of Blackcaps could be heard singing from the hedgerow along the footpath. It was also here that we noted the first of four Bullfinches recorded throughout the morning. Slightly further on it was the turn of two Whitethroats to entertain us with their singing and one of these showed well briefly on top of a clump of bushes.

Yellowhammer, Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler and Lesser Whitethroat were the next birds to go onto the list and eight singing males of the latter in the general area was a good count.
A Grey Heron and Common Gull, both seen briefly in flight, added a bit of variety to the morning although these were nothing compared to what later had in store for us!
At just beyond the halfway point a GREY PARTRIDGE popped its head up from out of the long grass for everyone to appreciate and at the same time about half a dozen Brown Hares showed well on the horizon.

We were about three quarters of the way round and wondering what else, if anything might be added to the list when right out of the blue everything seemed to kick off all at once.
Found in the middle of a stubble field and a nice inland surprise was a WHEATEAR, most probably a Greenland race bird. They migrate through Britain later than our own breeding birds and although they are a fairly common sight on the coast at this time of year, finding one on farmland 17 miles inland was very rewarding.

Shortly after this a bird spotted flying low, directly overhead, turned out to be a BLACK TERN of all things! It is well known that Black Terns migrate over land but they would normally be so high up that it would be virtually impossible to notice them from down on the ground so to record one on an inland dawn chorus walk, migrating over farmland is exceptional and amazing! This bird may well have spent the morning feeding at nearby Weybread Gravel Pits which is only three miles away as the tern flies and once it left there to continue migrating, its trajectory brought it in a direct line to us and we managed to pick it up before it could achieve any altitude. There was a smaller fishery to the north-east of us so it could easily have dropped in there too.

While watching a lovely pair of Stock Doves perched in a dead tree we had yet another good sighting when some might say an even more lovely TURTLE DOVE flew in to join them. All three could be enjoyed in the same field of view through the scope and the smaller more petite size of the Turtle Dove was easily noticeable. It began purring for a short time before flying across the field showing well in flight and landed in another tree.

We were approaching the end of the walk and still added a few more birds including a Barn Own which was seen hunting over a distant field, followed by a pair of low flying Barnacle Geese. There are a large number of well established feral Barnacle Geese in Suffolk now, and a few pairs are breeding at various sites along the Waveney valley. Last but not least was a Reed Bunting singing at a reedy pond in the farmyard, and a Swallow flying around the farm buildings brought the walk to a close and then it was back to the visitor centre for hot cross buns or for those with more of an appetite - a hearty full English breakfast!

The total amount of species noted was 48 including two genuine surprises and this combined with perfect weather made for an excellent dawn chorus walk.


Acknowledgements:
Many thanks to Steve and Kathy for organising such an enjoyable morning and to John and Nicola Sanderson for giving us access to their beautiful farm.

Steve Howell