HAWK VISIT

A male sparrowhawk was seen standing on a blackbird in the Firs Chase garden on Monday 1st. There was a lot of commotion from other birds until the sparrowhawk flew off with its prey.

There have been two young blackbirds seen in the garden, the first of any youngsters seen this spring. Sadly it seems that following the sparrowhawk's intervention, the rearing of the young blackbird has been left to the female now.

Early on Monday afternoon a common buzzard flew west over Firs Chase.

A male blackcap had a quick bathe in the back garden of Firs Chase on Monday. It has been heard singing for a few days now.
A blackcap was also heard singing at the top of the Lane on Monday.

A grey heron was standing by the country park pond on Monday 1st as was a little egret.
Also present here were 6 pochard, 5 tufted duck, pair of shoveler, 4 mallard, 2 little grebes and a teal while singing nearby were 2 chiffchaffs, Cetti's warber and a blackcap.

A near adult Mediterranean gull was on the mud just in front of the West Mersea Hard car park on Monday, along with a dozen black-headed gulls.

 On the Strood channel was a pair of Mediterranean gulls having a rest on the water after following a tractor drilling a nearby field earlier on Monday 1st. Thirty brent geese were noted along the channel with a handful feeding on one of the fields. Three little egrets were seen on Ray Island during the high tide.

At Rewsalls marshes a wheatear was seen in one of the fields on Monday 1st by Andy Field, also a red-legged partridge in a nearby fields

A pair of gadwall was seen on the Strood reservoirs on Tuesday 2nd, along with 4 pochard and 5 mallard, while two chiffchaffs were heard calling. The pair of grey partridge and ten golden plover were in the Strood fields.

A peacock butterfly was nectaring on some blackthorn blossom, as was a comma butterfly, out of the wind at Maydays farm on a windy Sunday 31st.

A male marsh harrier quartered Reeveshall and another two over Langenhoe, while two common buzzards were over Maydays. In the fields were 34 golden plover, 8 mute swans, pair of greylag geese flying over and 20 linnets in the game cover crop.

In the Pyefleet were 5 red-breasted mergansers, pair of great crested grebes, 5 black-tailed godwits, 200 redshank, 30 grey plover and 50 dunlin.

A kingfisher was reported seen in flight by Ray Hempstead at St Peters on Sunday 31st and a muntjac deer was seen late evening in the Firs Chase garden on Sunday.