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Back from trip to UK



Hi folks,

I just got back from almost a month in my home country and decided to 
give a very brief report to confirm that the UK countryside is indeed 
open and the birding is fantastic. Despite all the concerns over foot 
and mouth, most of Britain was not affected at all, and although the 
occasional case is still cropping up, they are confined to small 
pockets in Wales, Yorkshire and Cumbria. With the pound relatively 
weak at the moment, a trip to the UK is also quite affordable. That's 
enough of the English Tourist Board sales pitch, back to the birds.

I spent most of my time in the South East corner of England, in 
Sussex and Suffolk, where I got to bird the classical English open 
farmland (small pockets of woodland, hedgerows, ponds, small fields 
of mixed arable and livestock) and also one of Britain's premier 
marsh wetlands. The entire trip revealed over 80 species of birds. 
The highlights in Sussex included green and great spotted 
woodpeckers, 4 species of titmouse (great, blue, coal and 
long-tailed), kestrels, sparrowhawks, yellowhammers, skylarks, the 
endangered corn bunting, chiff chaffs, black caps, a little owl, 
red-legged partridges, wrens (the winter variety), kingfisher, 
great-crested grebes, European gold finches, green finches, linnets 
and a goldcrest.

In Suffolk, I visited the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds' 
reserve at Minsmere, famous for its breeding populations of avocet 
and bittern. This place is incredible, with well maintained hides 
(including a tree-top one and another that looks out directly over 
the reed beds in which the bitterns nest) and a great mix of habitats 
to view. This year they have had record numbers of marsh harriers 
breeding, 9 out of 10 nests being successful. I wonder if this is due 
to a 2 month closure in spring because of foot and mouth fears? Maybe 
closures at the start of the breeding season could be good idea every 
year?? Highlights here included over 200 avocets, arctic and little 
terns, 20+ spotted redshanks (my only lifer on this trip), 
oystercatchers, green sandpipers, a little egret, teal, wigeon, 
shelduck, greenshank, redshanks, 4 marsh harriers (one came very 
close to the hide), dunlin, black-tailed godwits in breeding plumage, 
ruffs in breeding plumage, green plovers, ringed plovers, reed 
warblers and lots of toads.

Coastal walks in Suffolk also gave me reed buntings, pied and yellow 
wagtails, greylag geese, a cuckoo, sand and house martins and even 
more toads! All told the trip was immensely enjoyable and got me 
close to some species that I have only seen from afar. I suppose the 
best part of a trip to the UK for a NC birder might be the 
opportunity to see some of those rare vagrants/visitors that 
haplessly end up on the NC coastline now and again (green plover, 
European wigeon etc) in large numbers and close proximity so you have 
a good chance to observe and learn them for the next time one flashes 
up on a rare bird alert when you get home.

If anyone is planning a trip to the UK, please do not hesitate to 
contact me for more details on the best places to go.

-- 
Steve Perry

Receptor Biology Lab, Duke Uni Med Center, Durham, NC

stevep@receptor-biol.duke.edu