EXPOSED TO THE WIND

I was able to enjoy a walk around the country park on Friday 7th in the sunshine and didn't have to worry about any dark rain clouds. The wind and the rain in recent days has knocked all the leaves off the blackthorn bushes exposing all the sloe berries, some pictured above. It seems to have been a reasonably good crop this autumn judging by all the sloes about. Some of the blackbirds have been seen recently plucking some off the bushes to eat.

Five fieldfares and a redwing dropped into some bushes near the car park in the middle of the day. Yesterday two groups of fieldfares were seen along the East Mersea Road with one of about 70 near Bromans Lane and another of 50 near Weir Farm. Both flocks seemed unsettled and were flying over the fields.

At the park pond a siskin flew past calling while on the water there were 40 mallard and 12 gadwall, pair of shoveler and the pair of mute swans flew across very noisily and deliberately to show everybody that this was their territory.

As always the most pleasant place to enjoy the park was on the beach, sheltered from the strong north-westerly wind by the sandy cliff. In fact the bright sunshine seemed to emphasise all the orange coloured sand layers in the cliff contrasting with the deep-blue sky above.

The tide was still high but just beginning to turn back during the late morning. At the Point there was a group of 30 sanderling scurrying along the water's edge in the company of 70 turnstone. The first flock of waders seen flying back into the river from their roost were 15 bar-tailed godwits and about 30 knot.

The river Colne was very choppy with the wind whipping up lots of small "white-horses" - probably more "white-Shetland ponies!" A distant female eider in the mouth of the river kept bobbing out of sight amongst the deep waves. Whilst watching this, a red-throated diver flew out of the Colne, passing close-by before flying westwards to the Blackwater. A male red-breasted merganser also headed out of the river although one female merganser was seen feeding in slightly calmer waters near the shore.

Near the Point two little egrets flew about, as did a rock pipit calling and two reed buntings in the sea-blite bushes. One male stonechat enjoyed being out of the wind beneath the seawall as it fed along the saltmarsh.

In the grazing fields 300 wigeon happily grazed away in one corner along with 20 black-tailed godwits who were probing for worms. In the neighbouring field another 50 godwits were also feeding, taking advantage of the rain sodden fields and the easy worm pickings.

Other recent points of interest include the very late sighting of a pipistrelle bat hunting over the car park at dusk on both Wednesday and Thursday nights. In previous winters the bats have always been in hibernation by December. It has stayed quite mild at night although the moth trap only managed to catch one solitary moth during Tuesday night - a winter moth.

On Tuesday two snow buntings were reported feeding beside the seawall near the Point.
Just north of Mersea Island Hugh Owen has had some good counts again of the short-eared owls on Langenhoehall Marshes. On Tuesday he counted six in the area with five in the air together, while on Friday he managed to see only four in ten minutes of looking.