BUILDING SITE BIRDING

This is Adrian Kettle's close-up photo of the black redstart that was watched by several local birders on 26th Saturday on the edge of the new housing estate being built at West Mersea. This little unassuming brown bird blended in well with all the big mounds of earth. However a closer look at its orange tail, makes it no little dull brown bird.

We have sharp eyed Alistair Cock to thank for recognising the bird hopping around the building site, while he was driving his truck about during the week. It turns out the bird had been present for several days before the news got out and was confirmed.
Black redstarts are quite scarce on the Island with maybe one sighting every three or four years here.

Not the most attractive of habitats for birds but this black redstart was happy using all sorts of look-out perches such as clods of earth, stacks of pallets and steel fencing - as in the picture above. The bird would flash its orange tail as it swooped down to pick an insect or grub off the ground. It would return back up to vantage point and give the tail a quick quiver.

Whilst I was on the new land of Wellhouse Green soon to be sports pitches, I took the opportunity to have a quick walk over the site. A brand new hedge has been planted all round the edge and I was able to walk along the grass strip round the perimeter of the sports field which is soon to be earmarked as a public path.

The rough grassland was providing feeding for about 30 linnets, which flew around every few minutes before they dropped back down to search out more weed seeds. In the newly sown grassland for one of the sports pitches, a small group of 9 skylarks were happily feeding. It will be interesting to see what wildlife uses this big field in the coming months and years, having been a big arable field for many previous years.


One of the colourful winter sights in East Mersea at this time of year, is the colourful display of winter aconites and snowdrops at the East Mersea church. It feels like spring is just round the corner when these flowers are in full bloom.

In a field near the church beside the East Mersea road, was a big flock of 100 redwing and 300 fieldfares. In the bright sunshine, the colourful markings of these thrushes really stood out, as they hopped across the field. There were also 12 stock doves and a couple of song thrushes here too.