BADGERS BACK

The badgers have been back to David Nicholls garden in the middle of West Mersea earlier this week with not just one seen but three individuals seen. His picture above shows two of them feeding on some seed he's put out. It would appear from this sighting that there's a family of badgers now resident in West Mersea.

The weather conditions on Thursday and Friday were misty and gloomy. The sun burnt off the low cloud on Wednesday afternoon to leave a clear and still second half to the day, as in the picture above of the still borrowdyke at the park.


 Through the gloom on Friday 16th a black-throated diver was seen feeding in the middle of the river not far from the Point in the morning. There was no sign of it in the afternoon, athough two common scoters were further up river. Six great crested grebes flew out of the river in the morning and a common seal was noted too.
There were 10 snow buntings at the Point on Friday morning - four less than were noted on Wednesday when 14 were seen that afternoon.A rock pipit was seen flying over and 3 reed buntings were near the seawall.

A marsh harrier flew over the Point on Friday afternoon, scattering the waders below, as it headed to the Langenhoe roost. Amongst the gathering waders on the mud were 100+ knot and 50 bar-tailed godwits and 500+ dunlin.

On Wednesday afternoon a peregrine circled over the mud as the tide receded, scanning below for potential prey. It slowly drifted east towards the river and then headed over to Colne Point. A short while later a group of 80 ringed plovers were seen near the Point and 12 pied wagtails feeding along the beach was of interest.

On the grazing fields there was a record count of 115 common snipe seen on the pools with other individuals no doubt hidden from view. No sign on Wednesday of the two jack snipe seen the day before. The high tide wader roost at the pools included 100+ redshank and 300+ black-tailed godwits.

Two lesser redpolls perched up on a tall tree in the park calling on Wednesday morning and a group of 12 siskins were also seen twice during the day especially near the alders at the pond.

A marsh harrier crossed over the East Mersea road in the early morning gloom on Thursday while a fieldfare flew over the East Mersea shop the morning before.

The first winter moths were noted on Tuesday early evening with two seen by lit windows of the house at the park. This one above was resting on the side of the house. The moth trap later that Tuesday night only produced a feathered thorn, large wainscot and a November moth.