Monday, 9 July 2012

Nature Reserves(1): Landguard Point, Felixstowe


What a stormy day we had yesterday!

We set off to explore a corner of the coastal nature reserve (and designated SSSI) by the Bird Observatory at Landguard Point in Felixstowe, not far from the fort. The weather was reasonable on arrival, but we soon got utterly drenched in a colossal downpour. The irony of it all is that we had only just passed a board telling us that we were 'standing in one of the driest locations in Britain'!

So my apologies for the quality of some of these photographs. I blame the approaching storm: it was certainly a strange light, veering from 'watery sunshine' to 'dark, dark shadow'.

The first creature we saw, gulls apart, was this rabbit by a blue tress of Viper's Bugloss.
As we rounded a point, our eyes alighted on these small birds ...
... which I guess are Linnets ...
... though I don't remember the ones we saw in Wales being so small.
There were also a few Greenfinches about ...
... and a number of birds we have not identified ...
More Linnets?
... and what are these?
... they were roughly Starling-size ...
... but their gait was more like that of a Moorhen!
... answers on a postcard (well, in the Comments section), please!
This is definitely an area to return to in calmer conditions. Oh, and I nearly forgot to add a final splash of colour ...

The vibrant Yellow Horned Poppy (Glucium flavum), a protected species
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3 comments:

  1. Naquillity9 July 2012 at 20:22

    we had a good soaking storm here, yesterday, too. it's definitely cooled things down a bit. this morning i saw a rabbit hopping across my yard but couldn't get a picture before it disappeared. those Linnets are beautiful. hope all is well. have a great day.

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  2. eileeninmd9 July 2012 at 23:20

    What a wonderful nature reserve. It looks like a great place for your birding. I love the pretty Linnets and Greenfinches. Lovely post!

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  3. Andrea10 July 2012 at 04:25

    Hi Caroline, so your driest area is still teeming with flowers, meaning they still received enough rain. Here, even if we don't like thunderstorms and typhoons, we almost wish for them when we are deep in the dry season, as when they are here, surely they bring rain.

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