Birding Braunie

This little sortie into Suffolk...or is it Norfolk...or is it both? I get dizzy travelling that road from the M11 to Brandon, just  a stone-curlew’s throw from Thetford Forest. The signs say welcome to Suffolk, then Cambridgeshire then Suffolk again or Norfolk or somewhere then the screeching of tyres and your passengers fly across the car interior as you nearly miss the entrance to Weeting Heath. Attention! Myself and my accomplice on this particular mission, Brenda, are greeted by a gentleman who reminds me of the bull elephant in the Jungle Book. The khaki shorts, handlebar moustache and general air of a time not out of place in the time of the Raj. I’m being unfair as the 'major' is a calm and caring man who has always been stationed at Weeting since I can ever remember. He talks about a time when he lived in central Africa and I can see it. I could listen to his banter all day but we had come to see the Stone-curlews and hopefully the regular Spotted Flycatcher that fr

It’s amazing really the quality and quantity of wildlife you can see at Rainham Marshes. An oasis within an industrial desert, Rainham Marshes attracts as good a species as the best reserves in the country. From the endangered Water Vole tucked deep in the reed margins to the irrepressible chattering of a Reed Warbler, wherever you looked there was something to see or hear. A cuckoo called and then flew over the woodland. Common Blue butterflies danced swiftly through the wild rose bushes and damselflies that appear to have more than one reverse gear tease and tangle with each other as they hover over the nettle beds. Most of the wildfowl are now lazy and seem disinterested in the squabbles of the Common Terns on the scrapes. Young coots bob about on the water and the rather weird Marsh Frogs bellow out across the marsh. For me there is no better place to be when the sun shines and the winds abate. Reed Warbler Reed Warbler Female Azure Damselfly Blue-tailed Damse