STROOD YELLOW WAGS

The regular male yellow wagtail was singing beside the Strood seawall on Tuesday 4th. There appeared to be three different pairs at various intervals along the Strood seawall.
A male marsh harrier spent time quartering the fields, passing close by to a cuckoo perched on some overhead wires - the cuckoo had been calling repeatedly from the tree tops and telegraph poles up by the edge of West Mersea.

A corn bunting was singing as were 4 reed warblers and 3 reed buntings, while ten linnets were feeding in the rape field. A pair of Mediterranean gulls flew high over Ray Island and two common terns were seen along the channel.

At Cudmore Grove on Tuesday, Andy Field reported 5 pochard, the pair of kestrels in their tree at the back of the grazing fields, five sanderling in summer plumage, two common terns in the Colne and also a stoat seen carrying a small mammal near the bird hide.

A brood of six young mallard ducklings were in the park borrowdyke on Monday 3rd. Three pairs of tufted duck were also present while the pair of mute swans present has not nested at all this spring.

Also on Monday an adult Mediterranean gull was an unusual visitor to the park dyke in the company of a few black-headed gulls. Nearby three black-headed gulls appear to be nesting on an island on the saltmarsh lagoon. A redshank, one shelduck and an oystercatcher were also on the lagoon while on the nearby mudflat were four ringed plover and two dunlin.

Two male marsh harriers were flying over Langenhoe Point, while two great crested grebes and a common tern were in the Colne.

Three young song thrushes are being raised in the Firs Chase garden by their attentive adults.

The adult song thrushes have been busy feeding masses of snails to their young, leaving lots of shells lying on the patio.
A juvenile great spotted woodpecker with its red cap flew across the garden and perched high in a tree along with another great spotted woodpecker.

There are still several visits a day by several red squirrels to the feeders in the Firs Chase garden. Two of the youngsters pictured here were happy to feed alongside each other, now that two extra feeders have been installed on the tree. One of the squirrel coat's has turned quite dark-brown along the back. There have been some frantic chases around the tree trunk at breakneck speed recently, normally resulting in one backing off.

It was calm and sunny along the Strood Channel on Sunday 2nd with main highlights seen from the seawall being a common buzzard, common tern, 3 yellow wagtails and a cuckoo calling from the top of Strood Hill.
The cuckoo was also calling on Saturday 1st near the top of Strood Hill and a lesser whitethroat was singing by Firs Chase.

There's a nice display of ox-eye daisies in the Feldy View cemetery.