BACK IN THE GROOVE

Back to walking the Mersea foreshore after a short break visiting another magical and colourful island with its wonderful beaches too - in Cuba! Within minutes of arriving back to breezy old Mersea on Saturday 17th, it was straight out onto the beach to find something of interest and also ensure that Monty the mutt got to walk off some of his holiday excesses!

Had a brillant time away soaking up the sun and enjoying the blue skies and jade seas. However there is something unique and vibrant about our muddy estuaries here that the tropical coasts just don't do. Here there are flocks of waders, wildfowl and gulls all around the Mersea foreshore that make the shore really buzz with life. Coupled with big and dramatic skies and there is a different mood and atmosphere every day.

Pictured above, was this clump of lesser celandines which caught the eye because it was growing in a grassy bank less than 10 metres from the high tide line. This early spring flower is usually found in shady and damp ground such as along ditches.

No divers or grebes to be seen on the sea but then there were at least ten kite-surfers and several wind-surfers racing backwards and forwards. Close in to the beach several turnstones were flicking over pebbles as the tide receded.
Out on Cobmarsh Island behind this traditional old fishing smack pictured above, were about 100 oystercatchers still enjoying the last few minutes of their high-tide roost. Around the Mersea Quarters on the islands, boats and along the muddy shores were plenty of herring gulls with 300 or so on view. Only one pair of lesser black-blacked gulls were seen but there were probably others.

In the middle of the main channel near the Hard was the regular wintering shag, busy diving underneath for its fish amongst the moored boats. The similar looking cormorant is usually present all year round but shags only visit Mersea in winter so this bird was the highlight of the short walk.

Thirty brent geese fed on the mud only 30 metres away from Coast Road traffic and people.