Suffolk...

 I was going to do a better holiday blog, but things are backing up on me a bit so this will be brief, just for completeness. While we were away for 2 weeks there were very few noteworthy bird reports from Suffolk but my Northumberland Birds WhatsApp group was niggling away at me with almost daily reports of the goodies back home. Most galling was a tremendous juvenile Red footed Falcon on one of our local moorland patches. I even recognised the telegraph pole it was perched on in the photos! After about 10 days of daily gripping frame fillers, we were on our way home. Bird still present at 10.30am. Looking good. After 360 miles with a sickly clutch I decided to get up there first thing next morning. Yes you've guessed it. That 10.30 am sighting while I was on the A1 near Stamford, was the last. It had gone.

Back to the Suffolk report. The only good bird ( for us) was a very close Dartford Warbler in the dunes at Sizewell. We went for a brace of Glossy Ibis at Aldburgh but dipped those. Im starting to sound like Unlucky Alf here...

So, I'll just end with some snaps from the week...

Peggy enjoyed her trips out and pub lunches...

Southwold, always a pleasure.

Aldeburgh Food Festival at Snape Maltings.

Crabbing at Walberswick.

Above, Shingle Street. What a place.

Sunset from the house

Wood Mouse watching the moth trap action...

Small Rodents....

As you may have seen earlier, we have a small mammal table near our bird feeders where we feed at least 2 Bank Voles and 2 Wood Mice. Tonight I have just been watching two of each getting stuck in...

I had to crank up the iso on the camera as the light is going  but you can see the visitors. The Wood Mice fed on the top level approximately 12 inches above the lower log frequented by the Bank Voles...In fact the scene is pretty much like looking at both of these photos like this -

Infested...

Looking from the kitchen window this evening at dusk, 2 Bank Voles and a juv Wood Mouse fed together, right out in the open, often jumping around each other, below our bird table. Watching this scene had me thinking that many people would have been on to the council by now...

 I say the Wood Mouse was a juv as it was physically smaller than the voles, which the adults are not. Weather permitting tomorrow, I'll try and get a photo. I'll need to time it so the light is ok but the birds are going off to roost so they dont frighten my rodent residents...