Friday, 22 February 2013

Felixstowe and Levington Creek

Yesterday afternoon Mum and fitted in a few hours of birdwatching. We headed to Felixstowe to see the Waxwings that had been roaming there. We timed it just right because as we went down Glenfield Avenue, we saw a flock of 50+ Waxwing in a tree down Springfield Avenue. I say we timed it just right because after about 3 minutes of photos, they all departed away heading to Grove Wood.









Stunning Birds

We then headed to Levington Creek, which Mum and I had never been before, so it was a new experience. We parked at Levington Marina, and followed the footpath onto the Creek. I was astounded by the number of Reed Buntings were about. I reckon there was at least 15 birds present.

A nice pair

We then met a bloke who directed us to a Mediterranean Gull on the shore, nearly in summer plumage, but too far for a photo. We then followed the path along the bank towards the lagoon, and we saw 2 Little Egret, more Reed Buntings a Meadow Pipit, a very twitchy Rock Pipit, and a possible Water Pipit

Rock Pipit, Cheers Jim

We then reached the lagoon, and we were maybe hoping for the resident Spotted Redshank to be on the lagoon. The only things of note were a flushed Snipe and another Little Egret. We had lunch, and moved on to the gorse bushes. I spotted a fairly big long-legged wader flying right over us. It looked like a Spotted Redshank but I wasn't saying anything until it called. Our luck was in as it proved to be the Spotted Redshank as it called and landed on the lagoon. We snuck up on it, but it saw us and moved on out of site. It was a brilliant bird. We then moved back along the bank and we flushed the bird again a bit further down the lagoon. Typical! It then flew back out onto the mudflats. Other waders and ducks of note were Dunlin...


Curlew...


Wigeon...


Teal and Redshank..


Plus Grey Plover and Shelduck...

Shelduck

A great day with 4 new species taking the year total to 132. A brief visit to the patch on Wednesday afternoon didn't produce anything apart from a pair of Great-crested Grebes on both Needham and Bosmere. The Grebes were the only water birds at Bosmere apart from 3 Mallards. Disappointing :(
Happy Birding!
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3 comments:

  1. Jim22 February 2013 at 12:59

    Hi Ben,

    good write up as usual.
    Your pictured Pipit is actually a Rock, not a Meadow. (Sure you knew this really!)

    Cheers,
    Jim.

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    1. Ben Moyes22 February 2013 at 14:04

      Ok, Cheers Jim. I didn't put this on the blog but coming back along the path we spotted an extremely grey pipit, greyer than the pictured Rock Pipit. We reckon that this is a Water Pipit. Just researched pics of a water pipit, and looks very much alike. Cheers. Ben

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  2. Jim22 February 2013 at 15:26

    It could well have been, and this would have been a good record. Sometimes, you have to accept that not all birds are ID'd for definite. There are different races of Rock Pipit which further muddies the water (I don't know which ones readily occur here in the UK).
    When we next see each other, I will show you my copy of the advanced bird ID guide. Really useful as it lists the key features needed to nail a tricky ID.

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