Magical murmurations
Last year's Suffolk escape has been repeated with the addition of a few extra days near the coast in Norfolk. We enjoyed staying at Trustan's Barn (in Darsham, Suffolk) so much last year that we decided to repeat the experience with our friends. My apprehension that it might not live up to our expectations was immediately lifted as soon as we arrived and were greeted by Sally, one of the owners. She asked if we had planned to go to Minsmere, which we had, and she said we might still be in time to see the murmurations of hundreds of starlings which had been happening over the last couple of weeks. None of us have ever seen such a spectacle so we were eager to head over to the RSPB reserve to try our luck.
During dinner at the nearby King's Head in Yoxford we planned the next day. First a trip to Snape Maltings, an arts complex on the River Alde, where Benjamin Britten converted one of the malthouses into a concert hall. Next we thought we'd have a short drive to Orford to see the small town with it's castle and quayside and get some lunch. Finally returning back up the coast to Minsmere to spot the birdlife and hopefully get lucky with a sighting of the murmurations.
Snape not only has the Maltings, which houses the concert hall, art galleries, cafes, card and gift shops, there is also a good walking trail along the banks of the River Alde, partly on a causeway through the reed beds, which is a real delight. Looking southwards across the river we spotted an interesting old church at a village called Iken and decided to call in to see it later.
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| Along the River Alde |
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| Art by the reed beds at Snape Maltings |
In one of the galleries there is a fabulous set of oil paintings by Maggi Hambling for sale, they depict churning waves in blues and blacks and are stunning. If I had a few thousand pounds to spare I would have been tempted..!
Five miles down the road from Snape Maltings, Orford is a pretty village with pubs, an excellent bakery (Pump Street Bakery), a small but perfectly formed 12th century castle, a Norman church with a ruin on the side and a small quay with views out to the Orford Ness nature reserve.
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| Chasing the light at Orford quay |
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| Orford Castle |
Travelling back to Minsmere we stopped off to see St Botolph's church at Iken, unusually it has a thatched roof over the nave and inside we spotted a small bat fast asleep on the wall. It is one of East Anglia's earliest Christian sites, with reference in the Anglo Saxon Chronicles to a minster being built there in the year 654!
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| Iken church |
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| Sleeping bat |
Arriving at Minsmere we were not really sure where the best place to spot the murmurations would be. A few people were heading for the north wall, a walkway through the reeds, others were going out on to the beach. The late afternoon light shone on the reeds making them glow with a golden hue. It was a stunning sight.
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| Golden sunlight at Minsmere |
We walked around to the east hide and watched for a while, there were plenty of birds but no large flocks. We decided to walk a bit further around and had almost arrived at the south hide when we spotted a small flock of birds close to the hide we had recently left. As we headed back to the east hide one of the small flocks swooped over our heads. We were getting excited, it looked like we would get to see the aerial displays after all.
As we watched from the hide a number of small flocks of starlings landed on the tiny islands in front of us, as each group arrived the ones already on the island exploded up into the air like a firework going off. This pattern repeated until the islands looked like they had grown in height.
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| Small flocks of starling arriving at Minsmere |
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| More flocks join the others |
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| Hundreds more starlings join in |
All of a sudden the flocks took flight and merged together into a huge black swirling mass, flying around the reed beds forming amazing shapes in the sky. They flew around the east hide for quite a while and then moved over to the north reed beds where they eventually dropped down into the reeds to roost for the night. It was a fabulous sight to see, really magical and mysterious.
Over dinner at The Sibton White Horse inn we decided it would be an excellent idea to return to Minsmere the next evening and watch from a different spot. Maybe we would be lucky again.
If you enjoy walking on pebbles the walk north up the coast from Minsmere to Dunwich is a pleasure, if you don't then take the path up the cliffs and over the top, first going into Dunwich Heath nature reserve and walking past the National Trust cafe. We discovered the ruin of Greyfriars Abbey overlooking the sea, although I guess the sea would have been further out in Saxon times.
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| Greyfriars Abbey |
The small village of Dunwich used to be a bustling town and thriving port on the Suffolk coast, the unofficial capital of East Anglia, until flooding and the sea covered the town. As you stand on Dunwich beach and look out to sea imagine the town up to a mile out into the water, now submerged. It is quite an evocative thought.
A coffee stop at the Ship Inn at Dunwich was the perfect refreshment for the rest of our walk. The lunch menu looked very good but we didn't get the chance to return.
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| Dunwich beach |
We continued north to Walberswick, along Dunwich beach and into the marshes, one of the largest in the UK. It is a good walk for bird spotters as there were plenty of birds to be seen in the reed beds. It is a peaceful and beautiful setting and in the cold but bright afternoon light it raised my spirits just to walk through these lovely surroundings.
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| Walberswick marshes |
Back at Minsmere we plumped for the north hide and were rewarded with small flocks of starlings flying directly overhead to begin the late afternoon's activities. After a short while we began to see larger flocks joining the others in the same place as before. Their toings and froings followed a similar pattern as the previous evening and when they began to merge into a larger flock we left the hide and moved over to the north wall where we could get a fine view of their aerial acrobatics over the reed beds to the north of Minsmere. We were entranced with the shapes the flock created and the sound of the flight above us. It was even better than the night before. What a spectacular sight to experience, I will remember this for years to come.
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| Murmuration of starlings at dusk |
The next stop in this East Anglian odyssey was near the north east Norfolk coast where we were heading to a converted barn for a few more nights. Before we left our super B&B we took a stroll around the meadows at Trustan's Barn following a footpath around the fields where Sally's ironwork sculptures of owls, deer, birds, hares and a snake(!) marked out the route.
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| One of Sally's sculptures |
We had had the best of the weather and rain set in on our journey north. The Norfolk section of this trip will be in my next blog post.
I recommend all the places listed in this post, we had good meals in the pubs and Trustan's Barn is the perfect place to stay if you want to visit Minsmere.
For a link to the Lonely Planet guides to England and to Great Britain click here.
This area also features in one of my posts from last year which you can find here, or search for Suffolk on my blog.
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