A bright and sunny late morning walk along the Strood seawall on Friday 20th, provided views of the familiar waders and wildfowl as the tide receded. The most noticeable birds were the 500 noisy brent geese swimming in the Strood Channel, waiting to return to the nearby winter wheat fields. There were also wigeon, teal and a few shelduck, some on the edge of the saltings as well as on the mud too.
Several species of wader included 200 dunlin, 200 redshank and 200 lapwing being the most numerous while a few black-tailed godwits and some knot were also noted. Despite the fields still being very wet, the only waders seen here were 10 curlew.
The only small birds seen along the walk were singles of goldfinch, linnet, 3 reed bunting and a handful of skylarks with a few singing too.
In front of the jetty at the West Mersea Hard, there was the regular common seal swimming only about 20 metres away. Also in the Mersea Quarters were 12 little grebes but little else in the water.
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