LOCAL SEAL IN THE NEWS

There were brighter spells of grey amongst the overcast and windy conditions on Tuesday 21st. After a period of almost a fortnight, the painted lady butterfly has not been the commonest butterfly around. Several whites including this green-veined white, pictured above feeding on purple loosestrife, were noticeable across the park and even alongside the East Mersea roadside verges. The blustery conditions were not good for many butterflies although speckled woods, red admiral, meadow brown and holly blue were some of the ones that were seen in the park.

Not much to report on the bird front at the country park other than several sand martins still hawking over the park and a few chiffchaffs calling.

Martin Cock visited Reeveshall and noted 100 teal, pochard, snipe, two spotted redshank and a little ringed plover. Also on that windy day Richard Brown saw at Reeveshall a bearded tit, marsh harrier, wheatear, 7 house martins, 5 avocet, 7 green sandpiper, 2 common sandpiper, ringed plover and a peregrine.

Martin was lucky enough to glimpse a harbour porpoise swimming offshore from West Mersea. Apparently one had been reported recently in the area.

The local Colchester newspaper carried a story on its front page of a common seal that was being seen near the pontoon by the West Mersea hard, attracted to the scraps of bacon that the children are using to catch their crabs with. As the article pointed out, the seal is supposed to feed on fish - not bacon!

The moth trap that was set examined on Tuesday morning had a small selection of moths in it with just as many lying motionless in the surrounding grass as in the actual trap. Around 40 moths of about 20 species was the tally which included this grey dagger(with a balding head), pictured above.


A handful of these orange swifts were found along with other moths like swallow prominent, angle shades, coxcomb prominent, flounced rustic, yellow belle, yellow shell, straw underwing and copper underwing.