HAWKS AND LEOPARDS

The end to another day at East Mersea on Wed 18th with yet more exciting news on the breeding bird front to report. Local birdwatchers Martin Cock, Andy Field and Steve Entwhistle have enjoyed recent views of a pair of bearded tits amongst reeds in the dyke at Maydays Farm on the north side of the Island. A female and the male were seen flying into a dense stand of reeds, which seems to indicate that they maybe feeding young here.
It is almost 20 years ago since they last bred here following some severe winters in the late 1980's. There has been a small population on the nearby Langenhoe Marshes for the last ten years, so it has only been a matter of time that they wuld return here.

Andy was also able to report that the family of marsh harriers on Reeveshall appear to have at least three young, compared with just two young that I saw briefly last weekend.
The two pairs of avocets continue to look after their young chicks on the saltmarsh pools near East Mersea Point. Although each pair nested on separate pools, they have now all teamed up, presumably to use their collective resources to protect their four tiny youngsters.

On the mudflats at low tide, up to fifty black-tailed godwits many with ginger bellies, twenty dunlin in the distance and five little egrets stalking the mudflat rills and pools.

On the park pond a young grey heron was seen being chased off by a female mallard who was desperately trying to protect her one and only small duckling - successfully this time. Mallard numbers seem to have increased a little as the ducks go into moult with thirty noted. Also the young broods of ruddy duck and tufted duck continue to thrive.

Other birds on the park of note include the young sparrowhawks still at the nest, up to 40 sand martin holes now in the cliff by the beach, a male yellowhammer sort of singing near the hide and the occasional brief call of the nightingale in the car park.

Forty species of moth were noted at the trap on Thursday morning with these three big hawkmoths the main attraction. These are the three P's - pine hawk (left) and privet hawk above with the poplar hawk below. It was just as well that I scanned the short grass at 4.30am around the trap as the privet and poplar were resting motionless nearly ten yards from the trap, while a second pine hawk was only discovered when I went to carry the trap away.

This strikingly marked moth with lots of black spots is the suitably named leopard moth. Only one was seen last summer so this might be the only record this year here. The first ruby tiger of the summer was also seen and hopefully not the only one for the year.

Other moths noted included 3 drinkers, common emerald, 30 latticed heaths, 10 scalloped oaks, shark, dun-bar, lesser swallow prominent, 2 silver Y and buff ermine.

Two peppered moths turned up at the trap but each one showing different colour forms - the pale one and the black one. The pale form is the commonest one here at the park and if we have recorded peppered on about a dozen nights over the last two months, all have been pale ones.