One of the well-known local birdwatchers in very unseasonal plumage - Martin Cock in his shorts in November! Looks like the very warm autumn weather has delayed Martin's moult from summer clothing to the more usual winter clothing of thick coats and woolly hat.
Met up with Richard Brown on Sunday 4th, also out birdwatching on his local "patch" between the Youth Camp and the Coopers Beach caravan park. All of us were interested to see if the short-eared owl was still around hunting the Rewsalls fields near the seawall. Richard last saw the bird on Friday but sadly it didn't show today.
We did enjoy seeing six stonechats perching up on fence-posts with some nicely marked males showing off their orange chests in the bright sunshine. Also in and around the fields were several skylarks, meadow pipits and one reed bunting, while a flock of 15 linnets fed along the seawall.
A lesser redpoll flew west near the caravan park and Martin saw a corn bunting north of the Rewsalls marshes.
There seemed to be a good scattering of pied wagtails seen along the walk with up to 20 birds noted in a variety of locations such as the beach, near caravans, buildings and alongside water.
In the dyke were 7 teal, two little grebes, 15 mallard while a little egret flew around and landed in the fields for a rest.
The walk was started whilst still high tide although it was soon receding. Out on the sea were the distant silhouettes of at least 36 great crested grebes and one red-breasted merganser. Three bar-tailed godwits flew past on their way to newly uncovered mud.
Mud was quickly uncovered by the tide in front of Coopers Beach and thousands of waders could be seen arriving from different directions. Looking into the sunshine made identifying the distant waders more of a challenge and especially if they remained still against a dark background.
The biggest groups were the golden plover totalling 1500 birds while the most numerous were 2000+ dunlin. Several bar-tailed godwits were seen on the outer edge of the mud, otherwise lots of the regular Mersea waders. Closer in to the beach were 50 sanderling scurrying around small mudflat pools with some dunlin.
Two waders I wasn't expecting to see were a green sandpiper and a snipe, accidentally flushed from a brackish pool alongside the caravan park.
A couple of plants on the beach to catch the eye was this sea holly, pictured above, still displaying the spiky blue flowers into November.
Below is the increasing common plant on the Mersea beaches, the sea spurge, also in flower found just east of the Coopers caravan park.
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