MAYDAYS WALK

Walked along the seawall by Maydays Farm on Monday 5th, on an overcast early afternoon with the tide out along the Pyefleet Channel. Scanning the Channel westwards, pictured above, and eastwards too, provided views of waders and gulls scattered across the mud.

The variety of waders was low although there were lots of redshank everywhere probably 400 birds seen. Also 30 curlew, 120 grey plover, 25 dunlin, 30 oystercatcher, 20 curlew and 2 black-tailed godwits. About 70 shelduck were seen on the mud along with 20 teal while amongst the large number of black-headed gulls on the mud were a pair of Mediterranean gulls.

Marsh harriers were very much in evidence as usual with 2 males and female over Reeveshall, while on Langenhoe there were a further 6 birds flying around. Also on Reeveshall were 2000 starlings and 10 pairs of lapwing amongst the sheep and lambs.

A male yellow wagtail flew over the Maydays seawall calling, the first bird of the spring for the Island, while on the Maydays saltings 6 little egrets were noted. A male yellowhammer was seen near the farm, a male reed bunting sang from the borrowdyke and 10 linnets flew around the fields near the seawall.

A walk on Sunday afternoon along the Strood seawall wasn't very productive due to the high tide. A marsh harrier flew along the Feldy seawall, 2 little egrets were seen on the Ray saltings, as were small roosts of redshank and curlew and also 10 brent geese. A flooded corner of the fields held 12 black-headed gulls, 4 curlew, pair of shelduck and a ringed plover.

The song of a goldcrest was heard from a cedar tree in Firs Chase on Sunday, a surprising rarity on the Island this winter.

On Saturday the male sparrowhawk was doing its rollercoaster display flight several times high over the Cudmore Grove car park during the sunny morning. Also enjoying the morning sunshine were 5 adders at the park. The swallow was seen again at the bottom of the Strood Hill later in the day.