NESTING MARTINS

At least 32 nest holes have been excavated by the sand martins on the Cudmore Grove cliff, when the park was visited on Monday 8th. There were only half a dozen sand martins seen flying around the park, while standing on the beach, birds would quickly appear by the cliff and crawl straight into the holes. It's great to see the cliff being used by the sand martins again after being absent since 2011.

A check of the ringed plovers nesting on the East Mersea Point beach revealed one pair with a well-grown chick, as well as another pair in the nearby muddy bay.
As well as these resident ringed plovers, 12 other non-breeding ringed plovers were feeding on the nearby mudflats with 18 dunlin and a turnstone. Also six curlew and fifty oystercatchers were feeding on the mud off the park.

The ringed plover chick was sprinting along the beach at East Mersea Point on Monday. The parents led me away from this chick so I quickly walked on past, snapping a photo and then leaving it be. There was no sign of any other chicks or nests at the Point although a ringed plover nest had been reported a fortnight previously.

On the saltmarsh pools near the Golfhouse were two pairs of redshank and four lapwing but no avocets or common terns.
In the Colne was a great crested grebe in the river and a buzzard high overhead, while on the mud were six shelduck and two little egrets also noted.

The female kestrel presumably from the nearby nestbox was seen having a drink and a quick bathe in the pool in the park's grazing fields on Monday.
Three pairs of pochard and three pairs of tufted duck and a male shoveler were present on the park pond, while the Cetti's warbler and reed warbler were heard singing.

A hobby flew north over the East Mersea Road near the Mersea Barns on Monday, while Sarah Thorley sadly found a dead green woodpecker near Moore Lane in East Mersea.
A buzzard was seen by Steve Entwistle being mobbed by crows over his West Mersea garden, while in Mersea Avenue, Ian Black reported a sparrowhawk and two Mediterranean gulls over his garden.

A brown hare was crouched down in a field at Maydays Farm on a blustery and drizzly Sunday 7th.
Birds noted during the seawall walk at Maydays were a hobby flying fast and low over the fields on its way over to Langenhoe, a male and female marsh harrier on Reeveshall and another pair on Langenhoe, three common buzzards, a continual flow north-west of 300+ swifts, two yellow wagtails, singing corn bunting and one singing sedge warbler. Four great crested grebes were in the Pyefleet, 45 shelduck along the mud, 3 pairs of redshank on saltmarsh, while two pairs of meadow pipit, a cuckoo and three lapwing were also of note.

Earlier at Maydays Steve Entwistle reported two sedge warblers feeding young, four singing reed warblers, two yellow wagtails, cuckoo, two marsh harriers, four buzzards, a kestrel on Maydays and three others on Langenhoe, while a hobby flew over Haycocks Lane.

Also checking the north side of the Island on Sunday was Andy Field who reported between Shop Lane and the Oyster Fishery, a few swifts over the Reeveshall plantations, singing corn bunting, common tern, 3 buzzards, cuckoo, Cetti's warbler and a pair of oystercatchers with two chicks near the Oyster Fishery. Shaun Bater also reported seeing this family of oystercatchers a few days earlier with three chicks.

The Coopers Beach stonechats were photographed on Saturday 6th by Jonathan Bustard, here the male perched up.

The female stonechat also photographed by Jonathan on Saturday - the pair feeding young still in their nest.

Earlier on Saturday morning a red kite was seen by Steve Entwistle flying west over his Empress Drive garden and after a quick phone call, it was seen shortly afterwards from Firs Chase as it headed towards St Peters.

Also over the Firs Chase garden on Saturday were a sparrowhawk, two Mediterranean gulls, ten swifts and a juvenile stock dove feeding on the lawn with an adult. A circuit around the Firs Chase caravan site produced a kestrel, common tern, two whitethroats and two yellow wagtails.

Shaun Bater was pleased to see a red squirrel in his Estuary Park Road on Saturday

The little owl showed well in the East Mersea garden of Michael and Sarah Thorley near Meeting Lane early on Friday 5th. Photo taken by Michael.

Sarah reports hearing sounds from time to time from the owl box in the shed in the back garden. The little owl pictured by Michael shows the distinctive white stripe on the back of the head.

Seems like the little owls are nesting in the Thorley's garden again - one of several nesting pairs on the Island.
Also seen from Michael's house on Friday were 31 swifts.

A great spotted woodpecker chick emerged from its nest-hole on Friday morning in Phil Passfield's back garden in Yorick Road. The male was still bringing food to it, although there had been no sign of the female or any other chicks in recent days.

Along the Strood seawall on Friday were a common buzzard, six yellow wagtails, singing cuckoo, common tern in the channel, redshank calling on Ray Island and 20 swifts over the houses.
Ian Black reported a starling at his back garden feeders showing 3 unusually pure white tail feathers.

A song thrush was prostrating itself in the midday sunshine in the Firs Chase garden on Thursday 4th.

A fledged young stock dove was a surprise visitor to the Firs Chase garden on Thursday 4th. Its the first visit by a young one here although the adults have nested somewhere close-by.

At Cudmore Grove Andy Field reported seeing the kestrel pair in the nestbox at the back of the grazing fields on Thursday 4th, also at least four sand martin holes in use at the cliff.

On Wednesday 3rd a distant osprey was seen from the West Mersea Hard circling high over Salcott Creek, upsetting some of the local gulls, before it drifted north towards the Ray Channel.
The male marsh harrier was seen over the Strood fields, also noted were two buzzards, two cuckoos, two common terns, eight yellow wagtails, singing sedge warbler, four singing reed warblers and a pair of redshank on the Ray. The two oystercatchers sitting on nests in the fields appear to have given up after sitting for nearly three weeks.
A female cuckoo was heard doing its bubbling call as it flew low over the Firs Chase garden on Wednesday afternoon.