THE TWITE TWITCH

A very productive walk along the Pyefleet seawall on Sunday 30th with part of the walk being joined by Martin, Ann, Lyn - and some furry friends who weren't as keen at staring at mudflats!
Viewing conditions weren't as sunny as yesterday but at least there was no wind and as the tide was well out, there were plenty of waders around.

The first bird of the walk was a water rail flying across the dyke letting out a squeal as it landed(Steve Entwhistle told me that he also saw this bird later in the day).
At the eastern end of the Pyefleet 25 avocet were seen on Langenhoe Point, 12 red-breasted mergansers, 4 goldeneye and a pair of pintail. All along the edges of the Channel were good numbers of ducks with 1000 wigeon, 500 teal and 300 shelduck.

More waders arrived into the Pyefleet as the tide slowly came in during the course of the walk. The full scale of the birds in the area was appreciated late on when something spooked everything into the air at the eastern end of Langenhoe. Huge flocks rose into the air with 1000 lapwing, 2000 golden plover and 300 black-tailed godwits. Many of the regular waders headed up channel, joining up with existing birds bringing rough numbers to: 2000 dunlin, 400 knot 200 redshank, 150 grey plover, 50 oystercatcher.


This common seal was one of two seen along the Pyefleet. It spent all morning lounging on the mud on the far side, occasionally hauling itself round to lie in the opposite direction. The other seal was seen swimming towards us with its eyes staring at us from just above the water line.
While on the mammals, a fox was seen standing on the Langenhoe seawall and one brown hare crouched low in a Reeveshall grass field.

Wherever you looked, there was a marsh harrier to be seen both on Mersea and on the nearby Langenhoe Marshes. At one point eight birds were counted in a quick scan of Langenhoe and the final tally for the day was at least ten.
Whilst standing at this viewpoint at the seawall corner of Maydays pictured below, I was able to see a ringtail hen harrier on a field on Langenhoe. This is the first one this winter that I've finally caught up with. Twenty years ago the local wintering harrier scene was very different with marsh harriers very scarce but up to a dozen hen harriers roosting on Langenhoe.

I spent a bit of time scanning the distant Langenhoehall Marshes for short-eared owls without any luck. Four marsh harriers and the same hen harrier as earlier, four green woodpeckers perched up and a small flock of fieldfares could be seen.
Received news after my walk from Hugh Owen on Langenhoehall Marshes, that he didn't see the short-eared owls until 3.45pm when one was flushed by a marsh harrier. A further three short-eared owls appeared around 4 o'clock.


One of the birds that I was hoping to catch up with on the walk was the twite - making this a sort of twite twitch!They weren't on the Reeveshall saltings of recent days, so maybe they had moved to the Maydays saltings - a mile to the west. No sooner had I arrived at this point pictured above, when I found a dozen small finches feeding on some saltmarsh plants. They flew off to feed further away but I managed to get the telescope on them, to confirm them as twite, seeing their distinctive cinnamon throats and yellow bills. They soon disappeared from the area but this group may've returned to the Reeveshall saltings as I flushed a small finch flock off and later Steve Entwhistle also saw what he thought were the twite here.

A very unexpected find along the seaward side of the seawall were a pair of snow buntings. These could be the same birds seen at the park last month. Scanning the seawall on the north side of the Pyefleet, a tiny flash of blue beside a sluice outfall turned out to be a kingfisher.
Seven stonechats were seen in several locations close to the seawall, while at least 3 green sandpipers were noted flying out of various ditches.


The muddy creeks and channels of the Maydays saltmarsh were popular feeding grounds for several little egrets, some very nervous and noisy redshank, a couple of rock pipits and a flock of 25 linnets.

The view to Maydays Farm looking along a strip of game cover between some thick bushes. This area was teeming with small birds such as finches, buntings and thrushes. Just before I reached this spot on the seawall, there was the bittersweet moment of seeing all the birds suddenly scatter and disappear from view - but then there was an excellent view of a peregrine that was checking out the birds before I did.

The peregrine banked sharply away and flew over the fields, picking up speed as it reached some tall trees. It lunged at a small bird which was probably a fieldfare, catching it with the talons and then proceeded to pluck it as it flew along. Feathers could be seen dropping down and after a minute or so, the peregrine appeared to discard it, as it then carried on flying normally onto West Mersea.

The small birds slowly returned to the game crop and bushes with rough counts for this site and adjacent fields being - 100 fieldfare, 10 redwing, 2 song thrush, 20 blackbird, 50 chaffinch, 20 linnet, 30 corn bunting, 20 reed bunting, 5 yellowhammer and 10 greenfinch.

Flying over set-aside fields were a couple of sparrowhawks tussling with each other. It may have been one of these birds an hour later that crossed high over the Pyefleet. Two kestrels were also seen on the walk, bringing the raptor tally to a noteworthy five species for the day.
At the end of the walk, a duet was heard between two little owls as they called to each other near ShopLane.

Nick Green reported that he had seen from West Mersea 2 great northern divers, 3 red-throated divers, Slavonian grebe, common scoter, 2 eider and 5 shags.