TERNS RETURN

A pair of common terns was back on the saltmarsh lagoon near the East Mersea Point on Friday 28th, where a pair nested last year for the first time. To the right of the terns pictured above, is the first sitting avocet of the spring. Twelve avocets were present on this lagoon on Friday - the highest number this spring.


Nearby a reed warbler was heard singing for the first time this spring at the park, two male reed buntings were singing while a pair of house sparrows feeding on the seawall was unusual.


In the grazing fields there were 3 wheatears, 14 shelduck, a pair of greylag geese while four swallows hawked overhead.


On the park pond five pochard, six tufted duck and a new brood of coot chicks was noted on Friday.
A male gadwall and two little egrets were present at the pond on Thursday 27th.

One of the common whitethroats was in full song from a bush top at the park on Friday. Two willow warblers were also singing, from opposite ends of the park during the morning.

A common lizard was sunning itself on a mossy log at the park on Friday.

A light brown female adder was basking in the sunshine near the Golfhouse on Friday morning. An adder was seen in the park on Thursday.

The only clump of sea kale at the park is flowering along the beach. It has been growing in this same spot for the last few years, just above the high tide mark and has survived the tides through the winter.

A few flowering heads of cuckoo flower are flourishing in the grassland near the park pond - before the cows are brought on by the local grazier later this month. This is the only damp grassland site on the Island where it grows.