Suffolk – Loompit Trout Lake – 4th June 2011

Watch out for: Summer visitors; Warblers, Martins & Terns

It’s always good to visit sites in all seasons and this has been a good winter place for wildfowl & gulls.  However in the summer it changes into a site for breeding Ducks, Geese, Cormorants & Swans and a location for summer warblers that also breed.

On the water there were all of the following in good quantity; Pochard, Tufted Duck, Mallard, Graylag, Canada, Coot & Mute Swan.  In the surrounding reeds; Reed & Sedge Warbler.  Then in the near by hedgerows; Whitethroat, Garden Warbler, Linnet, Long-tailed Tit, Goldfinch & Blackcap.

Of interest, it is generally thought that whilst the Tufted Duck are sedentary, ie the birds you see in the winter are those you see breeding in the summer, the Pochards do move around between seasons.

The breeding birds in the UK will leave for the winter, going south into southern Europe and the birds we see in the winter here have bred in northern Europe or even in the Russian Tundra.

Also Ducks and Drakes migrate at different times, the male birds moult earlier whilst the females are tending to their young thus are a few weeks behind.  This is why you see large numbers of male bird gathering at places like Abberton prior to heading south with very few females.

East Anglia Year Count: 142

Life bird count: 403. Year bird count: 208. Month bird count: 56.

Photos: Eurasian Linnet (Carduelis cannabina); Sedge Warbler (Acrocephalus schoenobaenus)