SUMMER SALTMARSH

Early evening stroll along the Strood seawall on Friday 13th was lucky for me - lucky just to be able to enjoy this unspoilt part of the Essex coast. There was a breeze blowing but it was a warm summer air in your face. The tide was out along the Strood Channel so there was plenty of mud to look at, as well as the bright sunshine.

Despite scanning almost every bird feeding along almost two kilometres worth of channel, there was a low variety of waders. Most of the 200 birds were redshank, medium sized waders with a steady plod across the mud, pecking here and probing there. Numbers however have increased in the last fortnight since I last walked along here, presumably boosted by redshanks on passage.

I managed to hear and see a couple of greenshank, as well as a whimbrel, both also on their passage from northern breeding grounds. Several curlew were noted and a dozen oystercatchers were the only other waders although two young shelduck fed on the mud.

As always the musical accompaniment for the walk was provided by corn buntings, reed buntings, reed warblers and skylarks singing from the fields and along the dyke. Flitting along the path were a pair of yellow wagtails and a pair of linnets.
A female sparrowhawk crossed purposely over the fields back to the tree cover near the Firs Chase caravan site, an area where I recently heard there might have been a pair breeding.

The saltmarshes are at their most colourful at the moment with lots of sea lavender adding splashes and carpets of - well, lavender colours! There are extensive patches of sea lavender on the marshes at the bottom of the Strood Hill, which is where this picture above was taken
In certain corners of the Island bordering some of the saltmarshes is the tall straggly plant dittander with its dense clusters of tiny white flowers. It is quite a local plant along the coast in Essex but at this time of the year, dittander certainly towers over most of the other coastal plants as the plant stands over a metre high.