BREEZY AND BRIGHT AT MAYDAYS

Andy Field and I braved the chilly wind to visit Maydays Farm and walk along the seawall pictured above, on a sunny Saturday 28th. We had hoped to find the small flock of twite that had been seen twice over the last week here, but without any joy.

Although the tide was out and there was plenty of mud on show, the strong wind hindered the viewing through the telescope. Four marsh harriers were seen on Langenhoe along with two distant common buzzards. Along the Pyefleet 2 great crested grebes were seen and the only wader flock of note were 200 knot.

On Reeveshall, 1000 brent geese fed on a big grass field along with a big flock of 1000 golden plover and a few hundred lapwing too. A stonechat was seen by the seawall along with some greenfinches.

It was nice to see lots of small birds beside a young tree plantation and flying around the various hedgerows near to the seawall. A mix of 20 chaffinches, 20 greenfinches, 10 yellowhammers, reed bunting as well as 15 fieldfares and a redwing were all noted along with the commoner birds like robin, blackbird, song thrush and tits.
A little owl flew along a hedge perching up on one or two trees and a water rail squealed briefly from the nearby borrowdyke.

On the Maydays saltmarsh, the only small flock of finches were 30 linnets and 10 goldfinches along the seawall but no sign of the twite. At least ten little egrets were seen dotted around the huge expanse of saltmarsh, along with the usual curlew and redshank. A snipe flew over and dropped down onto the saltings.