CONFIDING SNOW BUNTING

A snow bunting was playing hard to find in recent days on the beach at the East Mersea Point- here tracked down by Shaun Bater on Friday 16th,

 

Shaun Bater managed to track the snow bunting down after an hour walking around looking for it and took these four photographs of it on Friday. 

The snow bunting is very confiding and stays still and well camouflaged among the shells and shingle and is almost stood on while looking for it. Shaun got to within six to eight feet from the bird for these photos.

Another of Shaun's pictures of the snow bunting. The bird was first seen earlier on Friday morning by Andy Field.

Along the Strood seawall on Friday a male hen harrier was watched hunting over the grass field for about fifteen minutes. It was quartering the field, occasionally dropping down and then back flying again. After a while some carrion crows started mobbing it and it disappeared out of view near the seawall. The bird must have returned a couple of hours later as it was seen again by Ron Harvey.

Also seen along the Strood seawall was a kingfisher along the dyke, three stonechats, fieldfare, two rock pipit, leucistic starling with 1000 starlings in a field, buzzard, seven red-legged partridge, greenshank, 200 golden plover, eight lesser redpoll over as were two siskin and ten redwing near Feldy View,

Five lesser redpolls flew over the Firs Chase garden, also chiffchaff heard there and two visits during the day by a hummingbird hawkmoth.

Near Meeting Lane in East Mersea Michael Thorley reported a flock of forty chaffinch with eight goldfinch and a brambling feeding in a recently harvested maize field, also a goldcrest in a hedge.

A meadow pipit was calling from the side of the Strood seawall on Thursday 15th along with three others while three rock pipits were also noted during the walk. Four stonechats were seen, the leucistic starling with 1000 starlings, two common buzzards, marsh harrier, 150 brent geese and ten knot were also seen from the seawall. Near Feldy View two fieldfares, five redwing and one lesser redpoll were noted while a common buzzard flew low over Firs Chase gardens being mobbed by crows.

A common seal was watched swimming up the Strood Channel within 100m of the Strood causeway.

A small white, red admiral and common darter were seen in the Firs Chase garden.

Angela Buckley visited the Strood on Thursday and saw a pair of stonechats, marsh harrier and a buzzard during the afternoon.

Ian Black saw two sparrowhawks over Ray Island, a buzzard over the High Street and five redwing flying over on Thuraday.

On Wednesday 14th the tide began covering the mud along the Strood Channel late morning. Birds noted from the seawall included 25 brent geese, four Canada geese flying, 25 shelduck, 50 wigeon, greenshank, marsh harrier, fifty skylarks, two stonechats, three rock pipits and a Cetti's warbler. In the Feldy View area nine siskin, a lesser repoll, brambling were seen flying over while in bushes were five redwing, chiffchaff and ten blackbirds.

At Coopers Beach on Wednesday Martin Cock saw four gannets offshore and a merlin over the sea, while at Maydays there was a kingfisher, chiffchaff, 30 redwing and 60 linnet.

Ian Black reported a big movement of thrushes over Mersea Avenue on Wednesday evening.

Michael Dawson watched the osprey fly close-by on Wednesday as they were dredging for oysters in Salcott Creek, also a peregrine and marsh harrier seen from their boat in the Mersea Quarters

The snow bunting was found on Tuesday morning on East Mersea Point by Andy Field. I went in the rain during the afternoon and managed to take this photo of it just a few metres in front as it fed along the strandline at the eastern-most part of the Point.

Also noted in the area of the Point and park fields were two fieldfares, two stonechats, snipe, 75 brent geese, 120 wigeon, 50 teal, 20 shoveler, 15 meadow pipits and five rock pipits, blackcap and Cetti's warbler near the Golfhouse sluice.

 Tuesday mid-morning Andy Field watched from the park two gannets fly up the Blackwater and also three distant common scoters and a Sandwich tern in the Colne.

Martin Cock reported 30 meadow pipits, four rock pipits as well as the snow bunting in the rain on Tuesday at the Point. First thing on Tuesday morning a short-eared owl was seen hunting over the saltmarsh by the Golfhouse by Adrian Amos and Andrew Tillsley.

At Coopers Beach on Tuesday morning 35 little egrets were scattered across the flooded marshes - the area now getting regularly inundated by the high tides. Also a gannet seen offshore mid morning, four swallows flew west, stonechat, rock pipit, three common buzzards, 2 Mediterranean gulls, 25 linnets, fifty goldfinches, a leucistic starling and 19 pied wagtails as well as a chiffchaff by the East Mersea church.

Andy Field took this video clip of the snow bunting feeding on the East Mersea Point beach -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFPRJbfovY4;

The snow bunting refound and photographed by Andy Field on Tuesday - first found six days earlier by Steve Entwistle on the beach 400m to the west.

A skylark photographed by Andy on the beach at East Mersea Point on Tuesday.

On Monday 12th a merlin flew low along the Strood dyke before perching on the metal railings by the sluice. A short while later a kingfisher also flew along the dyke and perched at the same sluice. A green sandpiper flew over from Ray Island calling and then landed at a pond at the back of the fields, a greenshank, ten knot and 200 black-tailed godwits were also noted. A buzzard, marsh harrier and a sparrowhawk were seen, while in the fields were 100 skylark, 30 linnets and a rock pipit by the seawall.

A brambling flew past Feldy View calling on Monday, also two siskin and a swallow while three redwing, ten blackbirds and a chiffchaff were in the bushes.

A male red squirrel has been making daily visits recently to the feeder in the Firs Chase garden - seen here on Thursday 15th.