ANDY'S ALBUM

Andy Field passed me a selection of photos he's taken in East Mersea recently.
Above, the fox cubs at the park are sometimes seen out during the day near the pond or the grazing fields playing about.



This well-marked adder was seen beside the East Mersea footpath between Shop Lane and Meeting Lane a few weeks ago. The fresh and bright markings suggest it has just shed it's skin.


There has been a small group of non-breeding eider summering around the mouth of the river Colne. At the start of the spring there were six eiders seen but that has dropped to 3 or 4 birds at times now.


The eider sometimes come close to the shore, like these two swimming past the Point on the 29th June.


The heads of two young kestrels can just be seen in this nestbox in an oak tree at the back of the grazing fields, photographed on the 23rd June. The following week the two chicks were seen perched on one of the branches on the 29th June, the first successful sign of fledging.


The trickiest butterfly on the Island to photograph is the purple hairstreak as it spends most of the time in the tops of the oak trees. Andy digiscoped this one on an oak at Gyants Marsh near Meeting Lane, one of four that he saw in the area.