lapwing | A Suffolk Lane

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

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

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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!