FLY- CATCHERS

An early evening walk at the country park on Wednesday 26th proved worth doing after a windy and wet day, when two spotted flycatchers and a pied flycather were found together along one of the paths. Pictured above is one of the obliging spotted flycatchers perching on top of a dead branch.

Having teamed up with Ian Black, we enjoyed watching the spotted flycatchers perform and then spotted another bird nearby which turned out to be a pied flycatcher. Unfortunately it was more elusive than the spotteds, spending more time amongst the foliage and only giving fleeting views.

It was still quite breezy in the evening but these flycatchers found a bit of a sheltered spot along a hedgerow on the north side of the park. This spot was the same location where a spotted flycatcher was seen in the spring.

On the main pool in the park's grazing fields were three ruff which seemed to spend most of Wednesday feeding here. A passing sparrowhawk flushed them off along with 20 black-tailed godwits early evening, but the ruff soon returned ten minutes later.

These two ruff were phonescoped by Andy Field earlier on Wednesday morning and three swifts also seen passing the park.

Also on the main pool were 70 teal, 3 common snipe and a shoveler, while at the nearby pond 30+ little egrets and two grey herons were counted.

Early on Tuesday morning a spotted flycatcher was found by Martin Cock and Andrew Tilsley beside a horse paddock to the north of the park, where this mistle thrush was also photographed nearby. A second spotted flycatcher was also discovered beside the park pond. Ten mistle thrushes are still feeding in the car park rowans.

Two kingfishers chased each other noisily around the pond on Tuesday morning before flying off to the east.

Five spoonbills were seen on the distant Rat Island in the Colne by Martin and Andrew on Tuesday.

A fleeting glimpse of a small brown butterfly on some flowers by the park's information room on Tuesday morning appeared to be a brown argus. A red underwing rested on the side of the building again on Tuesday.
A hummingbird hawkmoth was seen at the park near the toilet building trying to find a sheltered spot out of the strong wind. One had also been seen at the beginning of the day in the Firs Chase garden in West Mersea.

The Bullock family reported seeing a red squirrel in their East road garden in East Mersea on Tuesday.
A badger trotted across the East Mersea road just up from the Strood just after night-fall on Tuesday.