• About my Blog
  • GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations) and This Site
  • My Life in a Suffolk Lane

A Suffolk Lane

~ A diary of my life in rural north Suffolk.

A Suffolk Lane

Tag Archives: tank traps

January Walks

12 Mon Feb 2018

Posted by Clare Pooley in Rural Diary, walking

≈ 64 Comments

Tags

birds, cattle, clouds, fallen trees, landscapes, lapwing, Minsmere Nature Reserve, primrose, seascape, shoveler, storm damage, Suffolk, super blue moon, tank traps, walking, weather

The day after the storm that cut off our electricity, Richard and I decided to take a short walk to see what damage the wind had caused.

We liked the colours in the sky and the faded earth.

I looked closer at the trees on the horizon.

The wind was still blowing quite strongly and it was cold but we enjoyed being out in the fresh air.

Our first fallen tree

This tree had been part of a hedge round a field.  It looks as though it had been dead for a while before it was felled by the storm.  The tree had snapped at ground level.  Dead trees can be very useful as host to so many other organisms; providing food and shelter for many creatures.  They are left in hedges until either the wind knocks them over or until the landowner thinks they are becoming a danger to people passing by on roads or paths.

A view across the fields

A field full of pregnant cows….

and new-born calves.  These look like Aberdeen Angus to me.

Another fallen tree

This one could have been dead already, as well.  The trunk had snapped three feet up from the ground and the tree was covered in ivy.  Ivy (Hedera helix) is usually no problem on a healthy tree but it can smother weak trees and the ivy here would have caused a lot of resistance to the gale-force winds.

This fallen tree had already had someone working on it.

We found some primroses (Primula vulgaris) flowering in the verge on the other side of our front hedge as we got back home.

A week later we drove to Minsmere Nature Reserve owned by the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds).  We decided to walk out towards the sea.

Large expanse of marshland covered in reeds

Looking north from the end of the path as it reaches the beach. The little white buildings on the horizon on the right of the photo are the old coastguards’ cottages at Dunwich.

Richard and Elinor sitting in the sun

A closer look at the coastguards’ cottages and a glimpse of the sea.

Looking out to sea

Richard ‘shifting’ one of the WW2 tank traps that have been left in a line along the coast.

Tank traps

Here is a link which describes the anti-tank cubes at Walberswick – a village a few miles to the north of Minsmere.

If you look carefully you might be able to see the large flock of Lapwings we saw flying over the marsh

An unsuccessful close-up of the Lapwings (Vanellus vanellus)

Sunset over the Scrape

We liked the cloud formation here.  Stratocumulus undulatus, we have been told.

Sunset

Sunset

Sunset

A slideshow showing some of the birds we saw on the Scrape

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

A Shoveler (Anas clypeata)

Here are some photos I took of the super, blue moon at the end of January

They are not as clear as I would have liked as I wasn’t using a tripod or our better camera.  I include the blurred first one mainly for the beautiful colour of the moon as it rose.

Thanks for visiting!

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Reddit
  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • Tumblr
  • Print
  • Pocket
  • LinkedIn

Like this:

Like Loading...

A Visit to Minsmere

26 Mon May 2014

Posted by Clare Pooley in plants, Rural Diary, walking, wild birds

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

Avocet, BBC's Springwatch, Bird's-foot Trefoil, Bittern, Cuckoo, greylags, Highland Cattle, marshes, Minsmere, Mute Swan, Nightingale, Oystercatcher, Pop-Up Café, Rabbit, RSPB, Sand martin, sea, Sea Kale, Sluice, tank traps, The Scrape, Whitethroat

For several weeks I have been wanting to re-visit Minsmere.  Minsmere is a bird reserve run and owned by the RSPB (the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) to which all four of us belong.  Minsmere is also the RSPB’s so-called ‘flag-ship’ reserve – the biggest and best in the country and we are lucky enough to live just a few miles from it.  There were three main reasons why I wished to go to Minsmere – I hadn’t been there for ages and missed it – I wanted to hear a nightingale again and there is usually a nightingale to be heard there at this time of year and lastly – I had heard that the BBC would be filming their Springwatch programmes there for the next three weeks starting on Monday 26th May and I wanted to go before they arrived.

R has been on annual leave this last week so we decided that we should go to Minsmere on Friday afternoon.  E and I had a very early start on Friday – up at 6.15am for me and 6.30am for her as she had a hospital appointment to go to in Norwich at 8.30am and we needed to leave the house at 7.15am to get there on time.  When that was over E decided she would like to do some shopping for books so we called in at Waterstones and she made a couple of purchases.  We then went to HMV to look at DVDs etc. and then we had lunch in a coffee shop.  We returned home via Beccles for more shopping.  Fortunately the weather had stayed dry for all of our journey.

R and I had a hot drink and a chat while I rested after my busy morning and then we set off.  There was a slight shower of rain as we drove there but it had all cleared away by the time we had parked the car in the carpark.  We decided to go towards the sea first and walked past the wildlife ponds near the Visitor Centre.  There is a sandy cliff behind the visitor centre where Sand Martins nest each year.  The Martins were very busy nesting and catching insects, flying low over our heads.  We were very pleased to hear a Cuckoo calling all the time we were there.  We hadn’t heard one for some years.

Image

The rabbits on the reserve have no fear of humans

The path starts off over heathland and then carries on towards the sea on a raised bank through water meadows and marshland.

Image

On our right to the south is Sizewell ‘B’ nuclear power station with Sizewell ‘A’ behind it.

Image

On our left are the Coastguard Cottages on land owned by the National Trust.

Image Image

This is looking back along the path we had just walked.  It has recently been re-laid and covered with gravel.  Crunching along these paths is a noisy business and all the birds disappear as soon as anyone steps onto them.  A lot of damage was done here during the storm surge in December and in the high winds and flooding during the winter; the RSPB have worked very hard trying to put things right again.  They also like to make as much of the reserve accessible to the disabled as possible – and – the BBC are filming one of the country’s most popular programmes here so it must look really neat and well cared for!

Image

The entrance to the beach.

Image

The dunes at the top of the beach.

At last we got to the sea.  The sky out at sea looked very threatening but overhead was bright and sunny.

Image

Image

This is looking north towards the town of Southwold.  The lighthouse was flashing its light so conditions and visibility at sea mustn’t have been good.  I tried to get a photo with the light from the lighthouse shining but couldn’t.

Image

Sea Kale growing on the beach

These are tank traps that were put here at the beginning of the Second World War.  If there had been an invasion it was hoped these might hold up the tanks for a while. There are many mementos of wartime in Britain, especially round the coast.

Image

PD James’ book ‘Unnatural Causes’ is set here on the Suffolk coast.  One of characters in the book dies a most unpleasant death in one of the hides along the beach.

Image

Image

The sandy path that runs between the dunes and the reeds of the reserve.  We had walked by the sea for a while but an extremely stiff and cold onshore breeze was blowing so I escaped to the warm shelter of this path.

Image

Bird’s-foot Trefoil growing at the side of the path.

We went into one of the hides further along the beach and sat and looked inland across the Scrape at the birds nesting, eating, wading and getting on with their lives on the reserve.  The hide we were in had been damaged some time over winter and had no roof but as the weather was so lovely it didn’t matter much.  The birds were aware of our presence and didn’t get too close.  We were still able to see a lot through binoculars but we weren’t able to photograph much.

Image

Image

These are greylags with goslings.

Image

An Oystercatcher.

Image

A poor photo of an Avocet.  You can almost see its long upturned bill!

Image

Mute Swans and other waders, ducks and gulls.

We eventually decided to move on and left the beach by another gate further south from the one we’d entered by.  There is a sluice there.  Water levels are monitored all the time.  The Scrape and lagoon need to have enough water in them but water levels must not get too high.  The RSPB works with other groups such as the owner of the nuclear power station and the National Trust to maintain flood defences.

Image

Image

Image

Image

Views over the marshes.

Image

A photo of a Whitethroat singing from the top of a bush. We couldn’t get any closer I’m afraid so it’s not very clear.

Image

Highland cattle are used for marshland grazing.  They also use (or used to use) Konic Ponies for the same purpose.

Image

We walked back towards the woods on the noisy path listening to Sedge Warblers and Whitethroats and many more birds along the way.  We saw that the whole reserve was wired for sound.  There were cables everywhere and cameras attached to nest boxes and every now and then we came across one or two people working in ditches and under bushes trying to fix something.  In the woods we also found a Pop-Up Café.

Image

This was run by an enterprising East European couple.  R and I had the best coffee I’ve ever had.  It cost us £5.00 for two coffees which is very expensive for Suffolk but we did get two free pastries with it.  The girl put a pretty pattern on the top of mine.

Image

After eating our pain au chocolat and drinking our coffee we walked a little way up into the wood and sat listening to the birds.  We heard a Bittern ‘booming’ which we were pleased about but unfortunately we weren’t able to hear a nightingale.  It was becoming late by this time and we decided to go home.  The BBC is only filming on Mondays to Thursdays so I may go back next Friday and just walk round the wood and try to hear the nightingale.  A and I walked here a few years ago listening to one singing and we even saw it too.  When I first moved to Suffolk in 1988 I lived in Halesworth and I used to be able to hear nightingales singing all night from the Folly on the edge of the town.  Sadly there are fewer Nightingales about and I haven’t heard one for about four years.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Reddit
  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • Tumblr
  • Print
  • Pocket
  • LinkedIn

Like this:

Like Loading...
Follow A Suffolk Lane on WordPress.com

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 687 other followers

I talk about what it's like living in a quiet part of Suffolk. I am a wife, mother and daughter, a practising Christian and love the natural world that surrounds me. I enjoy my life - most of the time!

My Posts

Jul 2022
M T W T F S S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031
« Feb    

Pages

  • About my Blog
  • GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations) and This Site
  • My Life in a Suffolk Lane

Archives

Blogs I Follow

Posts I Like

amphibians art Arts and Crafts churches cooking Days out domestic animals family fish Folk Traditions Gardening Historic Buildings holidays Insects Landscaping literature music Norwich plants Rural Diary seashore theatre trees Uncategorized walking weather wild animals wild birds wild flowers woodland

Tags

architecture autumn beach berries birds blackbird blackthorn butterfly church clouds common knapweed cow parsley crocus daffodils Diary dogwood family field maple flowers fungus garden gardening geese greylags ground-ivy Halesworth Hawthorn heather holiday Holly Holy Week horse chestnut Hoverfly insects ivy Lake District Lent lesser celandine lichen Lords and Ladies Mallard mallards Minsmere moorhen moss music Norwich Peak District pheasant plants pond ponds primrose primroses Rain rooks Rumburgh Rumburgh Church sheep Sheffield snow snowdrops spring Suffolk Suffolk Wildlife Trust sunset the Beck trees viburnum bodnantense walking weather wild cherry wild flowers winter-flowering honeysuckle witch-hazel

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Goodreads

Blog at WordPress.com.

Interesting Literature

A Library of Literary Interestingness

naturechirp

Celebrating God's creatures, birds and plants...

Sophie Neville

Writer and Producer

Going Batty in Wales

Developing a more sustainable lifestyle in SW Wales

Paol Soren

A bit of this and that

Our Lake District Escapades

Exploring the Lake District and beyond

Making Book

All sorts of stuff about books and book manufacturing

Julian Hoffman

Notes from Near and Far

Short Walks & Long Paths

Wandering tales from around the coast of Wales

Dukes and Princes

History, heritage and genealogy about Europe's highest ranking aristocrats

The Biking Gardener

An English persons experience of living and gardening in Ireland

Nan's Farm

A Journal Of Everyday Life

Walk the Old Ways

Rambling Journeys in Britain with John Bainbridge. Fighting for the Right to Roam. Campaigning to Protect Our Countryside.

Writer Side UP!

Waking the Writer Side...and keeping it "Up!"

Meggie's Adventures

Travel, thank you notes and other stories from Meg King-Sloan

amusicalifeonplanetearth

Music and the Thoughts It Can Inspire

lovefoundation.co.uk

Traveling Tortuga

Simply Living Well

Pakenham Water Mill

Historic watermill in the beautiful Suffolk countryside

Take It Easy

Retired, not expired: words from the after(work)life. And music. Lots of music!

Secret Diary Of A Church of England Vicar's Wife

Public Rights of Way Explorer

PROW Explorer

thanksfortheadventureorg.wordpress.com/

The Beat Goes On

#TBGO

PLESZAK

Frank Pleszak's Blogs

John Bainbridge Writer

Indie Writer and Publisher

roughwighting

Life in a flash - a weekly writing blog

Walking the Old Ways

Rambling in the British Countryside

A Voice from Iran

Storytelling, short stories, fable, folk tales,...

CapKane

thoughts on social realities

SkyeEnt

Jottings from Skye

jodie richelle

embracing my inner homemaker

Skizzenbuch/Blog

Just another WordPress.com weblog

Author Kevin Cooper

Life, Love, Tears & Laughter: Then, Now & Hereafter.

Have Bag, Will Travel

The Call of the Pen

Flash Fiction, Book Reviews, Devotionals and other things.

Book Jotter

Reviews, news, features and all things books for passionate readers

John's Postcards

STADTAUGE

Ailish Sinclair

Stories and photos from Scotland

Art in Nature

The ‘Beauty of the Moment’

The Strawberry Post

Here to Entertain, Educate & Inspire!

You dream, I photographe it !

Smile! You’re in Barnier World......

theinfill

the things that come to hand

Dr. Mary Ann Niemczura

Author of "A Past Worth Telling"

Provincial Woman

LIFE IN MUD SPATTERED BOOTS

A Quiet Celebration of Life on a British Farm

The Pink Wheelbarrow

The Mindful Gardener

The sensory pleasures and earthy delights of gardening.

Luanne Castle's Writer Site

Memoir, poetry, & writing theory

  • Follow Following
    • A Suffolk Lane
    • Join 687 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • A Suffolk Lane
    • Customise
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
    To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
    %d bloggers like this: