MERSEA TSUNAMI

A BBC's Timewatch crew visited the country park's grazing fields on a bitterly cold Saturday 24th to look for evidence of the tidal wave that followed the well documented Colchester earthquake of 1884. Professor Simon Haslett is being asked by TV and radio presenter Vanessa Collingridge if the layer of sand and shingle discovered nearly a metre under the fields, could've been deposited there by the tsunami. Confirmation should come later after the soil samples have been analysed in the lab with the results shown on the television programme, sometime next spring.

Whilst I hovered around in the background in the fields, one or two birds of interest were noted during the morning period, despite the Arctic wind. First to show was a pair of stonechats calling anxiously on the seawall as we walked past. Several small flocks of brent geese were seen flying around the coast looking for the main flock of geese. The regular group of 100 wigeon were gathered both in the fields and in the dyke.
Three flying cygnets distracted the film-crew as they swooped low over our heads before settling on to the nearby dyke. Several little egrets flapped by as they moved off the mudflats for the high tide.

The anxious calls of some carrion crows alerted me to a male sparrowhawk flying over the fields. It disturbed 40 curlew from one field along with wood pigeons and some starlings. A short while later some curlew and ten black-tailed godwits took to the air and circled around the fields. One of the regular kestrels was hovering in the cold wind above the fields, hoping to catch a snack.

The regular group of about thirty goldfinches flew around the fields as they checked out the thistles. Three skylarks and one or two meadow pipits were also noted during the morning. The strangely unseasonal sound of a great spotted woodpecker drumming was heard and then later, two green woodpeckers were seen flying onto a tree alongside the fields.

Several thrushes made their presence noted today. Early in the morning a song thrush was again in song along Bromans Lane which appears to have inspired the mistle thrush to start singing today too. Amongst a group of about ten blackbirds were five redwing that soon flew away and one noisy fieldfare that perched up high calling.

On the park pond the first water rail of the winter here was heard calling from the reedmace but was too shy to show. Usual variety of ducks on the pond with up to fifty noted of mallard, wigeon, teal, gadwall and shoveler

Graham Ekins had a very productive visit to West Mersea with views of a short-eared owl hunting saltmarsh to the near the Strood Channel, male hen harrier also along here, two marsh harriers over Old Hall Marshes, female long-tailed duck different from the two birds seen last week and 2 snow buntings seen opposite the Victory pub. He also saw offshore 3 common scoter, eider, guillemot, 14 red-breasted mergansers, 23 great crested grebes, 2 slavonian grebes, 2 shags and a great northern diver. An excellent variety of birds for West Mersea.