Corton My Local Patch

Id lived in Cumbria for the last 14 years and work had changed, lottery funding for most of my work had run out and id had to go Self employed, this i wasn't enjoying so it was time for a massive change. Rach n I had been visiting Norfolk for many years so we decided to change everything and move we had nothing to loose.
The Birding In Cumbria was hard work (I need Visible Migration and Rarities) with county and patching being very disappointing.
So I bit the bullet up-sticked and moved to Corton in July 2013 thanks to a friend who rented me his holiday villa whilst I looked for work. Rach stayed in Cumbria as she had a good job and we both couldn't afford to have no job at all. It took a couple of months to get a job but finally got a job I enjoyed as a Gardener for Orwell Housing Association. The stress and time apart was all worth it though.
Rach finally got a job just before Christmas and had moved down to the rented property here in Corton.
Since then we have rented out our Cumbria home and loved Corton so much we brought a house here, so this is where my Local patch is now.

Corton Lowestoft Suffolk NR32
So down to the nitty gritty. Its a great patch and the car stays at home. This is a great walk for the dogs and means I can cover the patch virtually everyday.
Below is a map showing my patch and the area I cover time permitting. Click to Enlarge

 

 The main areas I manage to cover in a couple of hours after work tend to be the Old Sewage Works (OSW) Disused Railway  (DR) and the New Sewage Works (NSW).
My Travels start from home and takes in the coast first usually with a quick seawatch with the OSW behind me as this spot is good for seawatching but also Vis Mig and at the same time keeping an eye on the OSW fence line. Storm Petrel, Leach's Petrel all the Skuas Black Brant and Sooty Shearwater being the goodies. Fly overs RedKite, Little Egret, and White fronted Geese. In the Fields either side ive found a Little Bunting (although not confirmed only had bins but pretty sure that's what it was), Lapland Bunting, and Shorelark.

The Old Sewage works still works and has a compound with weedy scrub and is good for Migrants, Wryneck, Pied fly, Common Redstart and ive found 2 Red Backed Shrikes here.

 

 

If I get time ill head along the coast up to Radar Lodge This again is a weedy scrubby area where birds like to perch on the perimeter fence, here ive found 2 Great Grey Shrikes together and possibly up to 4 bird but never together. Theres a line of trees along the drive great for Migrants and the field behind good for Brent Geese.

From here I usually head back to the OSW and check the populars around the church field, best birds here were a Greenish Warbler and fly over Stone Curlew.
Moving through the Churchyard over the road to the Disused Railway an excellent area with massive potential for migrants, Ive found Firecrest and a Yellow Browed Warbler here with many commoner migrants. Muntjack are common.

 

 

There are two routes to the New Sewage works from here both as good as each other taking in the very small Pond area, Bee Eater, Marsh Harrier and Kingfisher being my highlights here but again very good for allsorts including Willow Emerald, Small and Red Eyed Damselfly.

Also around the area are incredible numbers of Bee Orchid, in excess of 300 spikes including some white ones.

From here its returning home via a small woodland at the bottom of the Disused railway but im yet to find anything decent here.
Birding doesn't stop when I get back to the village as I've found a stunning male Black Redstart here.

 

Back home I usually spend a short time in the garden and have had some great fly over birds nothing spectacular yet but Green Woodpecker and Jay daily, ive also recorded Hobby, Greenshank, Green Sandpiper Tawny Owl and Med Gulls...

This is just a short list of things ive seen and found here myself  but others who have been covering the patch for years have seen some stunning stuff and hopefully ill be adding to it over the coming months and years.

Total species to date 27/09/2014 is 169 Full list Here