CARPET OF DAISIES

The spring sunshine has brought out all the daisies in their thousands at the country park. The grass has been slow to grow in this area set aside as an overflow car-park pictured above, resulting in a white carpet of flowers. The nightingale in the clifftop scrub could be heard singing in full flow just to the side of this area of daisies on Wednesday 29th. The other nightingale was also singing by the park entrance.

A willow warbler singing on Wednesday morning in the trees in the park corner was most likely a migrant bird that arrived during the previous night. A few more sand martins are flying around the cliff with 10 birds noted. In the grazing fields a bright male yellow wagtail fed around the muddy pools along with a pair of pied wagtails.

A greenshank was still present in the fields on Wednesday, for the fourth day running. Also the pair of redshank, 6 pairs of lapwing, pair of oystercatchers, pairs of gadwall and shoveler and a mallard still with 13 ducklings. There was a lot of commotion in one corner of the fields when a fox broke cover in the middle of the day, with lapwings making the most noise. Earlier a group of 14 greylag geese had been seen in the fields.


Along the beach towards the Point a little egret was seen feeding in one of these brackish pools on Wednesday. In the mouth of the river Colne a little tern flew past calling as the tide came in. A dozen ringed plovers were noted along with a few turnstone.

At the Point a wheatear was seen perched on a signboard,probably the same bird reported for the day before. Six avocets were also noted on the saltmarsh pools on Tuesday with a couple seen on Wednesday. A pair of reed buntings were seen on the seablite bushes.

A grass-snake was found dead on the East Mersea road near the pub on Thursday, always a sad sight to see.