TAME BUNTING

After some recent dull days, the sun shone all day on Wednesday 17th. The highlight of a walk to the Point at East Mersea was finding this very tame snow bunting pictured above. It was happy to try and blend in with the shingly surroundings along the beach, rather than fly away when I walked past it. It allowed me to get within a couple of metres of it and I was able to see it eating the seeds off some stalks of grass.

Having thought this was the only snow bunting around, I was pleasantly surprised to see the main flock of 28 birds take off from the beach further round the Point. They called out as they flew away, sadly heading east across the river to the beach at Point Clear. Over the last fortnight, this flock has regularly commuted betwen the beaches on either side of the river Colne.

This giant structure in the picture above, used for installing offshore wind-turbines has been dominating the Colne estuary in recent days. Even a common seal seemed to be trying to get a closer look at it. Two female common eiders were feeding in the river with a couple of gulls close-by ready to pounce on any food items brought back to the surface. One red-breasted merganser and a great crested grebe were also seen.

On the mud the usual 800+ golden plovers roosting in two groups either side of the Point. On the Brightlingsea side of the river were 24 avocets feeding along the water's edge. A group of 220 brent geese were grazing algae on the mud near the Point, only one youngster in this group.

On the grazing fields there was a varied but small number of waders and wildfowl, although the majority of wigeon were resting or feeding on nearby saltings and mudflats. Two snipe, black-tailed godwit, curlew, redshank and 30 brent geese were noted in the mid-morning. Also in the area, 2 stonechat, rock pipit, 2 reed bunting and 30 goldfinches seen.

At the park pond 12 gadwall as always fed in the open water amongst the usual mallard, shoveler, teal and 3 tufted ducks. On Tuesday there were 5 tufted ducks and a pochard here.
A male sparrowhawk dropped onto a pool of water near the pond for a drink, while later a kestrel was seen bathing in a puddle in the car park.

At the end of the day 5 winter moths were seen just after dark in the car headlights in the car park area with a further 5 along Bromans Lane, despite the temperature being only 2 degrees above.

Martin Cock saw the great northern diver and a Mediterranean gull from the Esplanade at West Mersea today. Yesterday he noted two short-eared owls in the long-grass fields at Rewsalls Marshes by Coopers Beach.