MERSEA MUNTJAC

A few birds of interest seen at Reeveshall during an evening walk along the seawall on Friday 4th, including a young brood of shelducks pictured above on the pool, being closely guarded by mum from a curious swan. Also present on the pool were 3 black spotted redshanks, 2 green sandpipers, greenshank, 4 redshank, 2 black-tailed godwit and 20 lapwing. However the lapwing soon took off when a female marsh harrier flew overhead.

There was also a great view of a barn owl flying high over the pool an hour and a half before dark, carrying a vole as it flew from Reeveshall, across the Pyefleet to its nest in a small shed on the Langenhoe Ranges on the mainland. The owl was seen several times hunting over the long grass on Reeveshall, providing some very clear and close views. On one occasion the owl was watched crossing back onto the Island and had located and pounced onto a vole within a minute of beginning its hunt. It crossed the Pyefleet again taking the vole back to the nest.

The tide was well out along the Channel and wader numbers are slowly picking up. Sixty black-tailed godwits, 10 curlew, 10 grey plover, 20 redshank and 5 more spotted redshanks were all noted along the middle part of the Channel. Two little terns, 4 common terns and 3 great crested grebes were feeding along the narrow channel of water.

As the light began to fade and the 200 sand martins began to gather, a hobby flashed across the pool and perched on a small tree. It flew rapidly along a ditch and was soon lost to view. Surprisingly this is the first hobby I've seen this summer although there have been two other sightings made by other local birdwatchers in the last week on the Island.
The male marsh harrier was also seen hunting over Reeveshall late in the evening.

Three corn buntings sang from different points along the seawall, whilst beside the Oyster Fishery a yellowhammer sang from a hedgerow tree. In the small dyke also near here were 5 tufted ducks and a little grebe family, whilst over Langenhoe nine pochard were seen flying about.

Two brown hares sprinted off the saltmarsh near the Reeveshall Pool and back over the seawall as I walked along the path.

Earlier in the day at the country park, a couple of nightingales could be heard making their "wheet" and frog-like croaking calls from my back garden. The Bromans Lane turtle dove was also heard singing during the day. Sand martin numbers have increased in recent days with about 100 flying over the fields on Tuesday. A greenshank was heard calling from the mudflats on Wednesday.

There was a reasonable selection of moths in the trap on Thursday morning with around 40 species noted. As the trap hasn't operated for a fortnight, several new moths for the year were seen including this master of twig camouflage pictured above - the buff-tip moth. The main stars as always were the hawkmoths with 4 elephants, 4 poplars and a lime, all resting in the trap. Other moths seen were buff arches, scalloped oak, lunar-spotted pinion, riband wave, treble brown spot, brown-tail, yellow-tail, common footman, willow beauty, brown-line bright-eye and barred straw.

Two of these attractive common emeralds with the green wings were also found in the trap. Pictured below is one of several magpie moths that were seen, this one trying to remain hidden amongst the leaves and twigs on the ground. A couple of small magpies were also seen.

I finally managed to see a muntjac deer on the Island- a rare but not unsurprising sighting considering the increase in reports. This latest sighting was late at night driving along the East Mersea road past the Pick-Your-Own field where the deer was thinking about crossing the road as I approached in the car. The small deer paused momentarily as I slowed down to watch it in the car headlights, before it turned and headed back into the field.

As far as I know, muntjac have not bred on the Island but several individuals must have swum across the Channel to get here. I have heard of at least three muntjac corpses being found washed up by the tide over the last ten years. There have probably been half a dozen sightings in the last five years of muntjac in East Mersea. This year one was reported from Shop Lane and another sighting near the Firs Chase caravan site on the north edge of West Mersea.

On the subject of potential mammal colonists from the mainland, there was a possible sighting by one of the local residents of a mink seen swimming across a dyke near the East Mersea Point. Mink would not be welcome on the Island because of their impact on the local wildlife. The nearest mink have got to reaching the Island so far, was a corpse being found on the West Mersea beach last September.