BLOG ACTION DAY

September 15th was decreed Environmental Blog Action Day - so here is an update a few days late from the little island off the Essex coast.

Chill in the air today, Thursday 18th but at least the sun shone all day. As the leaves drop off the trees, a lot of the seeds and berries become more noticeable such as these ripe whitebeam berries in the country park. I'm sure the blackbirds and starlings will have their eyes on them and it won't be long before the trees are stripped bare.

In recent days the jays have been busy flying around the park with great big acorns in their beaks. The acorns are buried in the ground as a food-store for later in the winter - assuming the jays can remember where the acorns are buried.

The blue skies above the park brought the skylarks to life and amongst the handful that were present, was one that rose into the air singing as if it was springtime again. A fieldfare was heard calling from the car park in the morning and there was also a lesser redpoll that flew over.

I noticed lots of birds rise into the air above the recently sown arable field near the car park. Thirty golden plover, 100 lapwings, lots of wood pigeons and 250 starlings which spiralled higher and higher into the air. After lots of scanning I picked out a high gliding sparrowhawk which was obviously the reason the birds took to the air.

On the park pond there was an influx of shoveler ducks with 24 seen which is a sizeable group for here. Twenty mallard were busy displaying noisily to each other at one end of the pond, while a dozen teal snoozed under willow bushes at the other end. The loud flight call of the kingfisher was heard but not seen and later in the day two little egrets dropped in to roost during the high tide.

Despite the sunshine no butterflies were noted, a few common darters and a migrant hawker were seen, while the local adders appear to have retreated for the winter already as none have been seen for three weeks or so.

Walked to the Point for the last hour of daylight and enjoyed the calm waters of the high tide. On the shingle one of the last plants still in flower at this time of year were several clumps of sea mayweed, pictured above. A plant that has a precarious life on the shingle beaches of the Essex coast where they have to adapt to the increasing coastal erosion taking place.

The only small bird noted was a rock pipit that flew into the air calling. However I was treated to a good view of a marsh harrier passing overhead. The anxious mobbing calls of a black-headed gull high above made me glance upwards to see the harrier gliding at least 200 feet overhead, as it headed back to the nearby Langenhoe Marsh for the night.
Three large dark silhouettes of grey herons passed slowly overhead as they crossed the Colne and continued high westwards over the Island.

The setting sun provided some memorable skies which changed colours gradually over the last half hour of light. The view above is looking back west from the Point, where the high tide was just starting to uncover some mud.

Ten species of wader could already be seen feeding on the narrow strip of newly uncovered mud. The fading light was making identification tricky but there was no shortage of the familiar and excited calls from the curlews, both godwits, oystercatcher, grey plover, lapwing, redshank, turnstone, dunlin and knot.

The pink clouds were reflected in the borrowdyke with one or two coots and little grebes sending ripples across the still water. Across the dyke were the regular group of fifty wigeon in the central ditch and a few mallard.

The tranquil scene of the park beach with the flat sea and the pinkish sky reflecting on the water. It had been an eyecatching sunset that was obviously repeated elsewhere in the country because I even heard presenters on the national radio talking about it when I got back into the house.

The last bird of note for the day in the park was a little owl in silhouette, that I saw land on my bungalow chimney for a couple of minutes. After its brief survey of the surroundings, it flew off calling.

I was passed this photo of this strange corpse found recently washed up on the beach here on Mersea. Found by Professor Jules Pretty on September 12th, this is Mersea's first record of mink. It is unlikely to be the last one recorded here as there have been one or two recent sightings of mink close to the Island. It will not be good news for our local wildlife especially the water voles, if mink take up residence here.

Other recent sightings include a wheatear and fieldfare at the Youth Camp on Monday and also the regular tawny owl was seen flying along Bromans Lane on Monday night.