NEW YEAR LISTING

Met up with Andy Field at the crack of dawn on New Years Day at the country park, with the intention of seeing as many different species of birds as possible on the Island in one day. Various sites were visited during the day including Reeveshall pictured above and although the weather stayed cold and cloudy, the lack of wind was a bonus.

A tally was kept during the day of when and where the various species were seen -

07.45 - East Mersea road near pub - barn owl, blackbird;
08.00 - Country park - wren, robin, redwing, jay and goldcrest (heard only);
08.15 - Country park - stock dove, wood pigeon, carrion crow, blue tit, great tit, magpie, chaffinch, goldfinch, pheasant, moorhen;
08.30 - Park pond - mute swan, wigeon, teal, mallard, shoveler, tufted duck, coot, black-headed gull, lapwing, dunnock, song thrush, sparrowhawk,water rail (heard only), with mistle thrush and jackdaw seen to the north;
09.15 - Seawall corner vantage point - great crested grebe, little egret, brent goose, shelduck, eider, oystercatcher, golden plover, grey plover, knot, dunlin, black-tailed godwit, curlew, redshank, common gull, herring gull, great black-backed gull, snow bunting;
09.45 - Park fields and dyke - snipe, reed bunting, stonechat, little grebe, skylark;
10.00 - East Mersea Point - avocet, bar-tailed godwit, ringed plover, red-breasted merganser; (A second eider, an adult male seen in Colne also 2 common seals).
10.45 - Golfhouse and Ivy Farm - collared dove, lesser black-backed gull, meadow pipit, rock pipit, starling, great spotted woodpecker;
11.00 - Oyster Fishery - cormorant, grey heron, kestrel, marsh harrier, green woodpecker, long-tailed tit;
11.15 - Pyefleet - goldeneye, turnstone;
11.30 - Reeveshall - fieldfare;
13.00 - East Mersea rd near North Farm - greenfinch;
13.15 - Park pond - gadwall;
14.00 - Rewsalls marshes - short-eared owl; (Two owls seen briefly together )

Mid afternoon visit to Maydays farm with kind permission of David Sunnocks provided views of a number of small buntings and finches. A second barn owl, marsh harrier and a common seal were also noted in the limited time here.

14.30 - Haycocks Lane and Maydays farm- house sparrow, pied wagtail, linnet, yellowhammer, corn bunting;
15.00 - Dawes Lane - Rook;

The last site visited was the West Mersea beach, here at Kingsland Road pictured above, as the light started to fade. Unfortunately we missed adding 4 Slavonian grebes and a Mediterranean gull that had been seen earlier in the day by Martin Cock and Steve Entwistle.

15.30 - Offshore - great northern diver and on Cobmarsh Island, sanderling noted.

16.45 - Country park at dusk - tawny owl heard calling briefly near Bromans Lane.

The final tally for the day was a very respectable 82 species seen with a further 3 heard only. The target suggested at the beginning of the day was 80 so it was very satisfying to have passed this. This is the first time a New Year's Day bird-race has taken place, so there is now a target for someone else to beat next year.

First moths noted in this new year were 7 winter moths in the country park in the early evening.