REEVESHALL RAMBLE

Had to call into Maydays Farm on the north side of the Island on Sunday 27th, after which I stretched the legs along the length of the Reeveshall seawall. I walked along the side of the Pyefleet Channel, where I was able to watch the small flock of twite feeding on the saltmarsh. The rather poor picture above is of one of the skulking twite as it emerged briefly into view.

You can just about make out the yellow bill and the cinnamon colour on the throat in the photo. The eleven birds spent most of their time quietly working their way amongst the old glasswort plants, pecking at the seeds on the stalks. One of the birds was seen with a shocking pink coloured ring on its left leg, part of the twite ringing project in the English Peninnes. Occasionally the flock would fly off and appear to head to a nearby pool for a drink, before settling back down on the saltmarsh again.

I was pleasantly surprised to find myself stumbling across three snow buntings feeding on the side of the seawall path. As I walked slowly along, the buntings kept making short flights just ahead of me, until they decided it was easier staying put on the saltings, allowing me to pass them by.

A pair of green sandpipers flew along one of the ditches and later on there was another sighting, which may have been a third individual. Three stonechats were seen on the Maydays section with the usual pair seen near Shop Lane and a distant pair seen across the Pyefleet Channel on Langenhoe.

It seemed like there were two male nicely marked marsh harriers flying around the Reeveshall and Langenhoe areas. Not as many views of female or young birds today with only a couple seen, including a good view of a female hunting over Maydays. I was rewarded with two views of the ringtail hen harrier, the first one distant as it hunted over Langenhoehall marshes. The second view was much closer as it crossed the track in front of me near Maydays Farm as it headed east over Reeveshall.

Several kestrels were seen, with three at Maydays perched close to some of the set-aside fields. There were also three seen on Langenhoe, along with a sparrowhawk hunting low amongst the bushes.

No birds of note along the Pyefleet despite plenty of mud on show early in the walk. The usual waders of redshank, grey plover, curlew, oystercatcher, flock of 200 knot and also about 500 dunlin were seen. Along the water's edge were 200 wigeon and 100 teal with 4 red-breasted mergansers also along the Pyefleet.

Scanning the Maydays saltmarsh whilst following a group of 25 linnets, I noticed the large brown shapes of two common seals lounging on the marsh for the high tide period.


As I drove away from the Maydays Farm, I noticed this group of corn buntings perched on a bush near some set-aside. This group were part of about 30 birds seen flying around the fields.
Ten stock doves were seen feeding in one field near here and one brown hare lay close to the ground in the same field.
Over by the Reeveshall farm there were about 500 wood pigeons seen rise into the air but these were outnumbered by about 1500 starlings in the same area.