SWALLOWS ON WIRES

A group of about twenty swallows, mainly young ones, were gathered on wires near the East Mersea church on Friday 15th.

The swallows took the opportunity to have a preen in between flights around the area. Up to fifty swallows in total were seen here during the mid morning period.

A walk along some of the paths in the Rewsalls area provided views of three singing reed buntings on the marshes, and also this female perched on a bush.

Also noted were 5 yellow wagtails, 2 reed warblers, 8 linnet, meadow pipit, kestrel and three little egrets in the dyke. Two whimbrel were on the shore while a flock of 50 common terns were fishing in a group offshore.

Good numbers of butterflies were enjoying the sunshine with lots of meadow browns seen as were half a dozen or so ringlets.

Gatekeepers were fluttering along the hedgerows and over the bramble flowers with probably 50+ noted.

An early evening walk along the Strood seawall revealed a brood of pochard on the dyke. Five ducklings in total were being nervously watched over by the mother. Pochard with young have occasionally been seen along this dyke in previous years

There was plenty of mud on show along the Strood Channel and a greenshank was of interest here. Also seen were 200+ redshank, 3 black-tailed godwits, 2 whimbrel and a single golden plover, while a great crested grebe was in mid channel and four common terns were seen fishing.

A sparrowhawk flew over the channel carrying some prey towards the Ray. A corn bunting was heard singing in the middle of a field and 10 sand martins flew west off the Island.

The saltmarsh along the channel has some colourful clumps of sea lavender in bloom at the moment.

On Saturday 16th there were two common buzzards seen in East Mersea near Gyants Marsh, west of Shop Lane. This bird was calling out while perched as if it might have been a youngster telling its parents it needed feeding.

A sparrowhawk was seen flying over the fields and what sounded like a youngster calling from the Fishponds wood. A yellowhammer was singing to the east of this wood and a pair of common terns flew south with a hungry youngster in tow.

A couple of small tortoiseshells were seen, as were a red admiral, comma and peacock. Also small white, large white and green-veined white on the wing too.

One or two large skippers were along the field edges near the bramble bushes as were several Essex / small skippers, meadow browns, gatekeepers and 20+ ringlets.

Fifty swifts were flying over the houses at High Street North on Saturday while a hobby was seen the previous day over Martin Cock's house.

A harbour porpoise was reported being in view for twenty minutes just inside the river Colne, while a grey seal was seen in the Pyefleet by Martin from Maydays on Wednesday.