BLUE HUE VIEW

The weather took its time in warming up on Sunday 10th although by late afternoon the sky was covered with large swathes of grey- as in the photo above. The yellow flowers of the black mustard add some colour to the top of the sea-wall although it seems to be spreading like wild-fire each year, blanketing out all other plants. Together with the alexanders, both plants have dominated the plant-life with little else getting a look-in.

Two avocets were still present on the saltmarsh pool near the Golfhouse, both feeding actively with fast side-ways sweeps of the bill through the shallow water. Two reed buntings sang from the tops of saltmarsh bushes, whilst in the reeds in the dyke were three reed warblers happily singing away. The incoming tide forced the usual 45 oystercatchers close in as well as a handful of ringed plovers.

One of the national papers recently commented on the increasing popularity of elderflower cordial in the UK. There are lots of wild elder bushes around the park still laden down with big white flower-heads. I met one friend who had filled a carrier bag of flowers to take home to process into cordial.

Most of the flowers in the park seem to be yellow with one or two exceptions such as this extensive clump of germander speedwell. Little sky-blue flowers tucked away in the grass provided a nice alternative hue to admire.


For some reason the leaves of the common cow parsley seem to be very purple this spring. The plant finished flowering a month ago and is now going into its autumn very early.

At dusk the barn owl came into the park to hunt over the long grass. Perched beside the East Mersea road was a little owl, also ready for a night-time of hunting.