AVOCETS RETURN

One or two things of interest at the east end of the Island on Thursday 19th. The field of poppies amongst the mayweed just at the end of the East Mersea road was one eye-catching scene.
The horse paddock next to the Golfhouse also caught the eye with a dense carpet of creeping buttercups across much of the field, pictured below.

On the saltmarsh pools opposite the Golfhouse was a surprising amount of avocets. Fourteen birds is a good count for here and four birds were sitting on nests. The first attempt to nest failed about a month ago and the influx of other birds now, may indicate that they failed somewhere else and are having a second attempt here. Fingers crossed the predators stay away and that the pools don't dry out too quick. The picture below shows 3 or 4 avocets and a couple of shelduck too

Elsewhere on the park today were noted the sparrowhawk, the nightingale calling near the cliff and an increasing number of sand martins with at least 40 nest-holes counted behind the beach.

The breeze kept many insects down although one sheltered corner had large skipper, holly blue, meadow brown and speckled wood. A red admiral was seen near to the flowering cotoneaster in the car park.

The last hour was spent along the Reeveshall seawall along the Pyefleet. I missed the best part of the sunset because a barn owl out hunting Reeveshall distracted me. You can never get enough barn owl watching done, even if there is a pretty sunset to admire!
The Reeveshall marsh harriers were flying about too with both male and females seen over the fields. The cuckoo was also heard here as were at least two singing corn buntings.

On the Pool was one very smart looking spotted redshank, completely black all over except for some fine spotting on the wings. Four other spotted redshanks were also seen but not quite in their full breeding plumage. One greenshank, four green sandpipers and six black-tailed godwits have also come back from their northern breeding grounds. A dozen lapwing may be local birds, while 2 wigeon, 3 teal and 3 pochard have been present all summer.

Along the Pyefleet were 3 more spotted redshank, 40 grey plover, greenshank, 30 black-tailed godwits, 4 turnstone, one dunlin, which all appear to have arrived in the last week. The annual mid-summer pre-roost gathering of sand martins took place over Reeveshall and Langenhoe with about 300 birds flying around.

Driving along Shop Lane at dusk a tawny owl was seen perched on top of a telegraph pole and headed into the wood. A short while later a barn owl swooped over my car on the East Mersea road near the pub.