From the beginning of December the new Island Mere hide is now open.

From August 15th until early February 2012, the Environment Agency will be carrying out flood defence work at Minsmere. The reserve will continue to be open as usual but there will be no access to the beach via the North Wall. East Hide will be open but access will be via the Sluice. The reserve has opened up seasonal trails including one to view waders on the North Levels.

Due to coastal erosion, with the section of sand dunes between the North Wall and Dunwich Cliffs being highly susceptible to erosion and therefore flooding of the North Marsh section of the reserve, the North Wall is being made wider and higher to strengthen from seawater flooding incursion on to the freshwater Scrape and reedbeds.

Please be aware that construction traffic will be using the Minsmere entrance roads during this period.

For more information - Minsmere Sea Defences Environment Agency Project.

A kingfisher, recently caught and released on Orfordness, was found to have a Polish ring on it. The bird, which was ringed in Gdansk, had travelled over 1000km to reach Orfordness and may constitute the furthest ringing recovery of a kingfisher in the country. Mike Marsh of Landguard Bird Observatory, who rings on Orfordness, is awaiting confirmation from the British Trust for Ornithology and spoke to the East Anglian Daily Times - Kingfisher from Poland about this amazing migration record.

An adult sandhill crane, a first for Suffolk and the fourth British record was initially seen at Kessingland flying south on October 2nd. With the news released birders down the Suffolk coast kept their eyes peeled hoping to catch it's progress. The bird was next found on North Warren south marsh where it fed and drank for half an hour before continuing it's journey.

The SOG were on a field trip to Orfordness at the time so were on alert when news came to say it was heading towards them. The sandhill crane was then seen by the group north of Orford by Sudbourne Marshes on a ploughed field and then in flight as it continued down the Ore valley towards Havergate Island and veering inland over Gedgrave Marshes to Butley Creek area. It was then relocated at Boyton Marshes and has been present up to October 4th allowing many birders from around the country to see this majestic species. Please park in the village hall car park and make a donation, then walk down Mill Lane to view the fields it frequents. So far over £500 has been raised for the local church.

The sandhill crane is a resident of North America breeding in the United States and Canada and migrates south in the autumn. It seems likely that the bird was blown off course during Hurricane Katia. The crane was imitially seen at Loch of Strathbeg RSPB reserve before heading down the coast and was seen at a number of sites in the North-east at Northumberland, Durham, Cleveland and North Yorkshire. Single sightings the next two days at Lincolnshire and Norfolk before being refound at Kessingland.

Update: the sandhill crane remained at Boyton and Hollesley until Friday, October 7th when it flew high south-east, presumably out to sea. Contacting Fred, who runs the Boyton village web site, who said that over £1850 was raised in donations in car parking at the village hall. This money will go towards the church fabric and village hall. Our thanks to the people of Boyton for organising the car parking and to the birders who kindly donated.

For further Suffolk bird information - Suffolk BINS and reported widely in the press including the East Anglian Daily Times newspaper - Suffolk: Rare bird enjoys glorious sunshine. BBC - Sandhill Crane spotted in Suffolk for first time and on Anglia ITV News - Exotic visitor.

Sandhill Crane at Boyton (Photos: David Hermon)

Turtle Dove at Hadleigh. (Photo:B.Baston)

An adult roller graced Upper Hollesley Common on the Suffolk Sandlings for one day on June 13th. The colourful Mediterranean species had last been seen in the county 20 years ago in 1991 with an individual on Orfordness. Two local birders having seen the bird visited Minsmere to check the identification. Phone calls were made to local birders who confirmed the identification allowing a number of people to see it. It frequented the edge of the military base, using the perimeter fence as a post to hunt for food. Unfortunately it could not be found the next day.

For further Suffolk bird information - Suffolk BINS.

Roller on Upper Hollesley Common (Photo:L.Woods)

Since once more becoming a breeding species in Suffolk since 2008, that was the first occurence for 200 years, the species has continued each year to breed on the nest box under the Orwell Bridge that was initiated by the Suffolk Ornithologists' Group. The pair have succssfully raised young each year since and delighted many birdwatchers with their amazing aerial abilities.

Recently there has been an article with photos and video in the local Evening Star newspaper - Orwell Bridge peregrines and further images including SOG projects officer Mick Wright ringing the young peregrines - Walk On The Wild Side.

An adult audouin's gull, a first for Suffolk and the sixth British record was found on the scrape at Minsmere RSPB on May 9th. The bird was initially viewable from either East or North hides before flying off and was later relocated on South scrape. Early evening it flew off South and has not been refound. A gull species from the Mediterranean and parts of North-west Africa, in the last 30 years the population has expanded greatly from around 1000 pairs to over 40,000.

For further Suffolk bird information - Suffolk BINS and an article from the East Anglian Daily Times newspaper - Minsmere:Audouin's Gull.

Audouin's Gull at Minsmere (Photo:B.Stone)

On Saturday, 21st May 2011 there will be a bird festival in Holywells Park, Ipswich run by the Park Rangers in conjunction with a variety of groups including SOG, Ipswich RSPB, British Trust for Ornithology and Friends of Holywells Park. The event will start with bird ringing from 6.00am and guided walks every two hours until noon with a variety of stalls and activities from 10.00am to 2.00pm including craft activities and nest box building. All are welcome to attend. Admission is free. Contact the park rangers on 01473 433994 or email park.rangers@ipswich.gov.uk for more details

Entrance is via Cliff Lane, TM176432, by the Margaret Catchpole public house with car parking off the access track opposite the Old Stable block. 

SOG is planning to have a stall there so we would welcome any assistance in running the stall and participating in the walks etc.

Council have produced a questionnaire where we would appreciate membership feedback on the group. A copy will be supplied with the Harrier, and further copies are available from Bill Stone, the membership secretary. The questionnaire can also be downloaded from here - SOG questionnaire.

Update - so far we have received around 20% of the questionnaires back, of which we are very grateful. We would urge as many members as possible to send them in - there are two weeks to the deadline - as this will give council a clear picture on our members thoughts on the group.

On the morning of 24th March 2011 at Landguard Bird Observatory, warden Ollie found a treecreeper in one of the ringing nets. This was a short-toed treecreeper, a first for Suffolk and the 26th record for Britain. The bird has continued to be present on site during the rest of the day, during Friday and up to the time of writing, early saturday. Update: The short-toed treecreeper remained at Landguard for two weeks until April 6th.

Short-toed treecreeper Landguard Bird Observatory March 2011. (Photo: L.Woods.)

For further bird information here - Suffolk BINS and details of Landguard Bird Observatory here - LBO.

On February 24th 2011, SOG held its annual AGM at the Holiday Inn. The AGM started with a review of the group for the previous year highlighting the many field trips, indoor meetings and the publication of the Harrier. Nominations for the council were held with a new Chairman being appointed - Roy Marsh. Presentation of trophies were carried out, firstly the SOG Denis Ockleton Trophy was presented to Richard Rafe, the outgoing SOG Chairman and Harrier editor. He was thanked for all his hard work for SOG over the last 20 years.

Richard Rafe (right) receiving the Denis Ockleton Trophy from Adam Gretton.

Further presentations were carried out by Suffolk BINS for their two categories - Bird of the Year 2010 and BINS Cup 2011. Bird of the Year, selected by a vote from Suffolk BINS members went to Chris Darby for his excellent find of a king eider off Kessingland, a county first.

Chris Darby (centre) being presented with Bird of the Year Cup by Roy Marsh (left) and Lee Woods.

The January 1st Bird Race run by Suffolk BINS was competed by a few local teams and the winners, who retained the title from last year, were the Pied Twitchers, who amassed a total of 121 species for the day.

Roy Marsh (left) presenting the BINS Cup 2011 to the Pied Twitchers - Craig Fulcher, Nick Andrews, Lee Woods and Scott Mayson. Further details here - BINS Cup 2011.

Suffolk BINS founders Roy Marsh and Lee Woods then gave a slideshow presentation on the birds of Suffolk 2010 showing some of the highlights to have occured in the county the previous year. The slide presentation can be viewed on the Suffolk BINS web site here - BINS presentation.

Kevin Verlander finished proceedings with a talk an Antarctica complimented by a lovely selection of photographs taken on his Ice Adventure.

On Sunday September 12th a King Eider was seen and photographed at Kessingland drifting South. Later in the day it was relocated off Minsmere and has continued to frequent Sole Bay moving between Dunwich cliffs and Sizewell. This is the first record for Suffolk of this Arctic duck. The same bird had previously been seen off the Yorkshire coast in early July and more recently in early August off Sheringham and Winterton, Norfolk.

King Eider in Sole Bay. (Photo:B.Baston)

A newspaper article in the Evening Star can be found here - Rare duck makes first visit to county, and further news on sightings can be found here on the latest updates from Suffolk BINS.

The Suffolk Community Barn Owl Project (SCBOP) has been a great success in providing nest boxes for the barn owl across the county. Several groups, organisations, farmers, landowners and local communties have worked together to help this beautiful bird of the Suffolk countryside. Suffolk: Creating the Greenest County (SCtGC) is an aspiration that involves the whole county in responding to climate change and enhancing the natural and historic environment. SCtGC works with local communities and businesses to reduce their carbon footprint and enhance their natural environment. They have annual awards to celebrate and highlight excellent environmental achievements. They have three categories: Greenest Business, Greenest Community and Greenest School. SCBOP has recently won an award in the Landscape and Biodiversity category within the Greenest Community section. More information here - Suffolk CtGC Award Winners 2010.

On April 21st at Lackford Lakes SWT a white stork briefly paid a visit when SOG member Ian Goodall saw the stork over the reserve. It was later seen drifting over the A14. More information on the latest Suffolk bird news at Suffolk BINS.

White Stork at Lackford (Photo:I.Goodall)

Suffolk Bird Atlas 2007 - 2011

 

Generally March can be a quiet month, the time when winter visitors are heading off and the first summer migrants are returning. This month though, Suffolk has seen a wonderful selection of rare birds. Pride of place goes to a superb male lesser kestrel found at Minsmere on Sunday 28th March. This is the first time it has been recorded in the county and there have only been 16 previous sightings in Britain. In addition to the lesser kestrel there have been over six alpine swifts, a pallid swift at Kessingland - only the fourth for Suffolk - and also at Minsmere up to seven penduline tits in the vicinity of Island Mere. More information on the latest Suffolk bird news at Suffolk BINS. Many thanks to Dave Horton for the images below.

Adult male lesser kestrel at Minsmere (Photos:D.Horton)

On February 25th the Suffolk Ornithologists' Group held their AGM at the Holiday In, Ipswich. A good number  of members attended to see the nomination of the council for the coming year, an update on the group, along with an overview of the Suffolk BTO Atlas by Records Officer Mick Wright and ended with a talk by David Tomlinson on his 'Travels in search of birds'. 

In between was the presentation of three trophies, firstly, the Denis Ockelton trophy, that is awarded to an outstanding contribution to Suffolk ornithology. This year it was presented to Will Brame, a regular finder of rare and scarce birds in Suffolk and in recognition of his detailed and prompt descriptions of the rare birds seen, that are submitted to the Suffolk Ornithological Records Committee (SORC) and for national rarities, the British Birds Rarities Committee (BBRC).

Will Brame receiving the Denis Ockelton trophy from SOG president Steve Piotrowski.

This was followed by two trophies presented by Roy Marsh and Lee Woods, founders of the Suffolk birds news service - Suffolk BINS. The Finders Keepers Cup 2009 was presented to John Grant who found the bird of the year 2009 - a red-flanked bluetail at Minsmere sluice bushes. More details on the Suffolk BINS web site - Bird of the year 2009.

Roy Marsh (left) and Lee Woods (right) from Suffolk BINS presenting John Grant with the Finders Keepers Cup 2009.

In recent years Suffolk BINS have also organised a January 1st Bird Race - and the team with the highest number of species wins the BINS Cup. This year the Pied Twitchers were the winners of the BINS Cup 2010 with a great score of 123 species.

Roy Marsh (left) presenting the BINS Cup 2010 to the Pied Twitchers - Scott Mayson, Nick Andrews and Lee Woods. More information here - BINS Cup 2010.