Sunday 18 September 2011

BLACKBERRY CROP


Made the most of the lovely weather on Sunday 18th with a 9km walk around some of the footpaths in East Mersea. There were quite a few other folk also out enjoying the sunshine too although this photo of the beach between Fen Farm and Coopers Beach appears momentarily deserted.

Walking along the foreshore as the incoming tide covered the last of the mud, 30 golden plover and 5 little egrets were noted near Coopers Beach and a few swallows flew west along the seawall.




Along some of the paths bramble bushes were laden down with a good crop of blackberries and in several places the blackthorn bushes seemed to be covered in masses of sloes. The good weather in the spring provided ideal conditions for flowers to get pollinated.



My wife Nolly ensures that Monty gets his fair share of the juicy blackberries during our walk along the path between Shop Lane and Meeting lane.

A scan of one of the fields revealed a hobby standing on one of the clods of earth near the Gyants Marsh area. The distinctive "wheet" call of the chiffchaff was heard from many copses and hedges during the walk with about ten birds noted.
At Rewsalls farm there was a flock of 150 linnets perched up on wires over a recently cultivated field.

There were up to 25 red admiral butterflies seen during the walk, many close to the big clumps of flowering ivy in the hedgerows. The other main spot for butterflies was a game cover crop at Rewsalls where about 20 small whites were flying around.

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