PYEFLEET HOUR

Managed to squeeze in an hour's walk in the middle of Saturday 6th along the Pyefleet and as always it turned up one or two surprises to make the walk worthwhile. Near to this Reeveshall dyke pictured above, were a pair of stonechats using the fenceposts as look-outs for locating insects. A young kestrel was happy enough to stay in the area flying from bush-top to bush-top as it too liked to have a vantage point. A brightly marked male yellowhammer also found a bush near the dyke to perch on, before flying off.

For once the near side of the Pyefleet Channel was almost wader-less despite plenty of mud being exposed. The only waders of note were two greenshank on the far side. Lots of black-headed gulls were sitting around on the mud or flying up and down the Channel. My eye was drawn to one gull with pure white wings which turned out to be the scarce Mediterranean gull. This adult in its winter plumage flew around with the other gulls, occasionally swooping down to try and pluck something off the water.
A young common tern which also flew slowly along the Channel, may be the last one to be seen here this autumn as most of the others have already left for Africa.

As the summer migrants head off south, the winter migrants continue to arrive and a group of 12 brent geese flew towards Langenhoe Point. A rock pipit was also the first one seen along the Pyefleet this autumn, as it flew past calling.

The Reeveshall pool was deserted with only a little egret to be seen. Scanning the distant Langenhoe Marshes, there was the familiar sight of a marsh harrier flying slowly along. However a big raptor perched on a bush was closely scrutinised and when it took off, the pale underside to the wings revealed it to be a common buzzard - and quite a darkly marked bird. A kestrel was seen to repeatedly dive down on the buzzard to try and drive it away and even a magpie joined in the mobbing.
I later discovered that Martin Cock had seen this same buzzard a couple of hours earlier flying over Maydays onto Langenhoe where he saw the bird occasionally hovering in the air as it hunted for food.

A common seal briefly surfaced near Pewit Island before dropping back down and out of view.
The second hour's walk was the dusk patrol along the Strood seawall, checking out the various roosting habits. It is still pleasing to see the notable roost of at least 40 corn buntings dropping into the reedbed that is pictured above. Even with the light virtually gone, the birds could be heard trying to settle into the reeds, fluttering about and swopping locations, as they tried to feel secure for the night. The only pied wagtails noted, appeared to head over to a small pond at the back of the fields where they may have roosted in some reeds there.

Across the channel 8 little egrets perched up in a tall tree on Ray Island for the night. Along the Strood Channel winter wildfowl are becoming noticeable with two brent geese and 50 wigeon seen. The fading light made wader identification tricky but there were plenty of calls coming from them. Two greenshank were located in flight after they called out loud. The noisiest group were 600 golden plover on the far side, all whistling to each other as if they were itching to fly off.
As the darkness descended two pipistrelle bats were seen out hunting over the saltmarsh from the Dabchicks with one bat heading well out into the main channel amongst the boats.