Flyladyphotography By Wendy Cooper

  We recently had a few days in Suffolk and one morning, I did something I'd been promising myself for a very long time, to get up early and go for a wander on Dingle Marsh, which is just across from where we stay.     Dingle Marsh is just along the coast from RSPB Minsmere and is an important site for breeding and wintering wildfowl and waders.  It is one of the largest freshwater reedbeds in the country and is managed by the Suffolk Wildlife Trust, the RSPB and Natural England.    So join me early one morning, shortly after the sun has risen.  It is warm, sunny, there is a gentle breeze and the sound of the sea against the shingle on the beach and hints of birdsong as we walk to the marsh... We wander along the little lane down to the marsh and are greeted by the morning Wren, high up in a tree and serenading the sun, which had risen out over the sea.   On reaching the marsh, as we walk alongside the reedbeds we can hear Sedge...

  Back in February, we decided to have a little trip to the North Norfolk coast to blow out the cobwebs.  It was a bright, sunny and chilly weekend and on the Saturday afternoon after lunch, we paid a visit to Cley next the Sea, a Norfolk Wildlife trust reserve.   The reserve consists of saltmarsh, shingle beach and reed beds and not too far from the Visitor centre, there are a couple of scrapes with nice views from the hides.  There are also plenty of walks out to the beach across the reserve, although they are still on the list to explore! As you walk to the hides, you are mostly walking along the edge of the reedbeds and as we approached the first hide, just before it, sifting through the mud for tasty morsels were a Ruff and a Redshanks.         The pair of them were quite close to the path and unconcerned by by being watched at close quarters, so we made the most of such good views. From the hide we could see, some way off...

  Back in January, we decided to have a trip to RSPB Lakenheath Fen, in Suffolk.  The day was bright, crisp and rather chilly - the frost from the morning still being about well into the afternoon.  The reserve is a mixture of fenland and woodland, surrounded by farmland with a river running through it.  As we drove into the carpark, a sparrowhawk flashed low across the front of us, in hot pursuit of a late lunch, the start of a promising afternoon.   Just outside the visitor centre there are feeders and a waterway, I have never seen so many Reed Buntings in the open before - usually I'm lucky to get a glimpse when they hop up out of the reeds.  They were basking in the sunshine as well as visiting the feeders.   As we followed the footpath towards the first viewpoint, there were a fair few rooks too-ing and fro-ing between the fields the otherside of the railway line and the trees, very cheeky and very loud!   When we reached ...