LAZING LIZARDS

At least ten common lizards were taking full advantage of the sunshine at the country park on Sunday 30th. Along a short section of old fenceline the lizards were basking amongst the clumps of long grass. Some of them were very young judging by their small size, nearly a third of the size of the full adults. This one pictured above allowed the camera to get quite close, before scuttling off into the long grass. In the middle of the afternoon the lizards switched to the west side of the fenceline, catching more of the sun from fence posts and bramble bushes.

A few butterflies seen included small heaths, common blues, red admiral, speckled wood, meadow brown, small white and large white. Dragonflies hawking along the paths included southern hawker, migrant hawker, common darter and ruddy darter.

On the park pond 4 wigeon were the first of the autumn, also 5 teal, tufted duck, 30 mallard and 3 roosting little egrets. In the bushes nearby was a roving mixed tit flock of 25+ birds comprising long-tailed, great and blue tits, as well as a few common whitethroats and lesser whitethroats.

Three wheatears were seen by Marianne Jones along the park beach on Friday morning whilst one was seen by Martin Dence on the seawall the day before. The spotted flycatcher seen on Tuesday just north of the park, was also seen by Martin Cock the following day.

Had an evening stroll along the Reeveshall seawall, where the Pyefleet Channel water level was at low tide, with the base of the channel visible in places, as pictured above. Lots of gulls and waders made the most of searching out food along here.

The evening haze didn't make for ideal viewing conditions, especially looking at the various waders along the Pyefleet. The most interesting collection of birds was on the Reeveshall pool where a very vocal wood sandpiper was the most notable. Also 4 green sandpipers on the pool were probably different from another four seen later flying along the Broad Fleet of Reeveshall. Ten black-tailed godwits, snipe, 25 teal, 2 little grebes along with a few lapwings, gulls and Canada geese were also on the pool.

Several marsh harriers were seen mainly having a last hunt over Reeveshall before crossing over the Pyefleet for the evening roost. Two males, two females and a juvenile were all seen over Reeveshall and some of these were later seen flying over Langenhoe where four birds were in the air together late on.

Other waders of interest seen along the Pyefleet were 4 knot, spotted redshank, greenshank,5 avocet, 50 dunlin amongst the usual black-tailed godwits, redshank, curlew and grey plover.

A group of 4 wheatears fed along some recently cut grass, while a fifth bird was seen on the saltmarsh.

As the light faded several flocks of noisy geese flew onto Reeveshall to graze on the grass field. Most of the geese were 80 greylag geese with 25 Canada geese but the goose which stood out in the gathering gloom was the pure white plumage of a snow goose. It was watched flying in, appearing much smaller and more striking in flight with the black wing-tips.

A little owl flew away from the north end of the Shop Lane wood and on my return to close the park up for the night, a tawny owl flew off some overhead wires by Bromans Lane.

Martin Cock enjoyed seeing two short-eared owls in the air together over Maydays, flushed away to Langenhoe by the attentions of a marsh harrier. Interestingly I was told by Jo Watkins of West Mersea who watched a large brown owl hunting along the Strood seawall early in the day, which was most likely a short-eared owl too. Martin also saw at Maydays a whinchat, greenshank, common sandpiper and 3 marsh harriers.

The warm evenings have seen the moth trap put out at the park on a couple of recent nights with reasonable catches. The moth above is one of the very similar ear moths and is either the saltern ear or the ear moth, both of which have been recorded at coastal sites close to Mersea. Both species are difficult to separate from each other and need to be examined under the microscope.

Thirty-six species were noted on Thursday night with slightly less on Frday night. Most of the moths are large yellow underwings, flounced rustics, square-spot rustics and setaceous hebrew characters. Other moths seen have included canary-shouldered thorn, coxcomb prominent, frosted orange, rosy rustic, angle shades, blood vein, brimstone, light emerald, blue-bordered carpet, silver-Y, white-point, yellow-barred brindle and one poplar hawkmoth.

This fresh Webb's wainscot with nice clear markings pictured above, has been recorded here before but is listed as nationally scarce. Mainly found along the south and east coasts of England, it has been increasingly found inland.