LAYING OUT TO DRY

 

There was a common seal at its usual location on the saltmarsh by the Maydays seawall on Sunday 27th.

 There was a noticeable difference in the colour of the coat after the seal had clambered onto the saltmarsh and dried out. These pictures above were taken about an hour apart with the seal becoming much paler and with a whiter face in the second picture.

There was the nice surprise of seeing a pair of red-legged partridge running along the Haycocks Lane near Maydays farm - and a nice bonus that one posed in front of the car for this picture.

Two common buzzards perched up on hedges near Maydays farm and two marsh harriers were seen over Reeveshall. On Langenhoe a common buzzard was also seen flying around and three marsh harriers there too.

It was high tide along the Pyefleet channel so no mud on show. Two whimbrels and a greenshank were the main waders of interest although two or three pairs of lapwing appeared to be nesting in the nearby fields. Two little egrets, twenty greylag geese and 30 shelduck were noted in the area.

Two male yellowhammers were nice to see, while 3 reed warblers sang from the dyke and a lesser whitethroat from some scrub.

Steve Entwistle visited Maydays farm on Sunday afternoon and saw 5 common buzzards, 3 house martins, 4 whitethroats, lesser whitethroat, reed warbler, greenshank and also five orange-tip butterflies.

Found this very colourful large red damselfly during an afternoon stroll through the middle of West Mersea, as it rested in the churchyard in the High Street. A hairy dragonfly was seen flying over Coast Road on Sunday afternoon.