WADER RECORD

Most of Thursday 16th was sunny and the morning sun glistened across the mudflats. When the mudflats are looking bright and silvery, then the atmosphere and the mood of the coast is really lifted.

The other satisfying view from the park beach was seeing the first autumn wheatear. Stopping off for a brief refuel, this female briefly headed out onto the brushwood fenceposts out on the mud to escape from the dogwalkers. Up to 50 painted ladies were enjoying the warmth on the beach out of the cool northerly breeze. Several sand martins continued to flash back and forwards to their nest-holes in the cliff.

Managed to find this large two inch long female wasp spider on its web two feet off the ground in the park. This very distinctive spider with its wasp-like markings was first found on the Island four years ago and has been found in a slightly different locality in the park every year since.

This spider has been spreading rapidly northwards from southern England in recent years and the first record in the park four years ago was only the third record for north Essex. Since then it has turned up in a number of north Essex sites as well as spreading north into neighbouring Suffolk.

It is not just the spider that is eyecatching but also the large web with its thick stabiliser zig-zag thread down the centre. The web is normally low down amongst the long grass where the spider hopes to catch crickets and grasshoppers.

The sunshine brought out this common lizard to bask in the warmth. It was a bit wary and turned its head round to watch me pointing the camera at it, before darting off into the long grass. In the usual spot near the car park one of the sandy coloured adders was only just noticeable amongst the tall brown grass. It too was wary and soon slid off into the cover of the nearby bramble bush.

By the park pond a willow warbler sang, while on the water were young tufted duck, ruddy ducks and noisy young little grebes.

The painted lady is still the commonest butterfly around with about 70 on the park, also meadow brown, hedge brown, small heath, holly blue, small white and speckled wood. Common darter, migrant hawker and the azure damselfly were seen around the park.

Spent another rewarding evening along the north side of the Island enjoying the wonderful skies and a record number of wader species along the Pyefleet Channel. Big dark clouds skirted past the Island whilst the sun continued to shine down on the fields of Reeveshall Farm.

Many birds are already on their journeys south and wader numbers continue to increase. Nineteen species of wader in my two hour stroll is a personal record for me here and just goes to show how rich this area is for birds at this time of year. The breeze picked up only slightly but generally the combination of low tide and lack of wind made viewing conditions ideal.

The full wader list was 100 curlew, 350 black-tailed godwit, 1 bar-tailed godwit, 2 greenshank, 200 redshank, 1 spotted redshank, 25 oystercatcher, 2 avocet, 20 lapwing, 50 grey plover, 2 golden plover, 20 ringed plover, 1 little ringed plover, 6 knot, 20 dunlin, 25 turnstone, 2 snipe, 4 common sandpiper and 6 green sandpiper. Not a bad haul for the eastern section of the Pyefleet.
Most of the black-tailed godwits fed in a grass field which has just been baled for hay. The little ringed plover was seen in the fading light on the Reeveshall pool actively picking at items around the muddy edge.

Other birds of note included 4 marsh harriers, 4 swifts, 200 swallows, 2 wigeon, 4 teal, 3 gadwall, 5 little egret, 2 wheatear and a whinchat.

Martin Cock was also out along the Pyefleet at the Maydays end and noted 2 whinchat, a little owl and a very late cuckoo. He told me that if I used my telescope I could see the three common seals basking on the mud in the distance on the north side of the Pyefleet.

Another sunset to catch the eye with the dark clouds turning orange as the sun dropped down.