MALE MANDARIN SURPRISE

A male Mandarin duck was a surprise sight in the Strood borrowdyke on Thursday 29th. It appeared quite wary and flew off when I bent down to pick up the camera. Luckily it only flew a short distance along the dyke and landed again for several more minutes before flying over on the Strood side of the seawall.

After flying off to the opposite side of the Strood channel, the Mandarin duck swam into a creek in the Ray Island saltmarsh with a couple of teal and was not seen again. A couple of years ago a female Mandarin duck was seen in the same section of Strood dyke.

Weather conditions on Thursday were perfect for a walk along the Strood seawall with lots of clear skies and a light wind for a change. There was a good variety and number of waders on the Strood mudflats, although many of them were distant towards the Strood causeway. 

Four little stints were feeding on the mud with 100 ringed plover and 70 dunlin, while also noted were 150 golden plover, 50 grey plover, five bar-tailed godwits, 150 black-tailed godwits, four knot, two greenshank and 150 redshank. Also along the channel were 45 wigeon, six teal, 14 little grebes, five Mediterranean gulls, while three marsh harriers and seven buzzards were noted too.

In the fields and ditches were a wheatear, four stonechats, 80 linnets, 20 skylarks, ten meadow pipits, five reed buntings and Cetti's warbler, with seven chiffchaff and a blackcap seen near the Firs caravan site.

Michael Thorley visited Coopers Beach and saw eight Sandwich terns perched on the posts along the borrowdyke on the Rewsalls marshes, also 150 golden plover and 12 little egrets seen. In Michael's garden near Meeting Lane there were two chiffchaff, eight red-legged partridges and a greenfinch.

Two little stints were seen along the Strood channel just before high tide on Wednesday 28th - one of the little stints is pictured above on the left of three dunlin.

Another shot of the little stint on the left of three dunlin in the Strood channel on Wednesday.

Other waders seen before the tide covered all the mud were 140 ringed plover, 50 golden plover, 200 black-tailed godwits, 60 dunlin, three knot, five bar-tailed godwits, also 30 Mediterranean gulls, 30 wigeon and 12 little grebes along the Strood. Three Sandwich terns were feeding along the channel as the tide came in, with two of the birds resting on a couple of buoys while the third bird fished.

Two wheatears were feeding on the Strood seawall on Wednesday.

The wheatears have also been seen in the ploughed area at the bottom of the Strood Hill field.

Three stonechats were in and alongside the lower part of the Strood Hill field on Wednesday. A large flock of 150 linnets was feeding in the stubble field, as were 20 skylarks, 20 meadow pipits and five reed buntings. A sparrowhawk, two kestrels and a marsh harrier were seen and two chiffchaffs near Feldy View.

At Coopers Beach on Wednesday, Steve Entwistle watched a summer plumaged red-throated diver offshore and also a winter red-throated diver too. Two Sandwich terns were fishing in front of the clubhouse and what looked like a harbour porpoise was seen too.

The first brent goose of the winter in the Strood channel was seen walking over the mud on Tuesday 27th. Other birds along the channel were 220 golden plover, 40 grey plover, 150 black-tailed godwits, two knot, 30 wigeon, 11 little grebes and five Mediterranean gulls.

A wheatear was feeding at the bottom of the Strood Hill field and on the Strood seawall on Tuesday. Also here were 150 linnets in the stubble fields, 25 skylarks, 20 meadow pipits, three stonechats and two marsh harriers passing through, as was a swallow. A chiffchaff was calling in Feldy View.

A red squirrel was seen in the Firs Chase garden and another one crossing the road near the Firs Road / Firs Chase junction.

In East Mersea Andy Field walked the Cudmore Grove circuit on Tuesday morning and was pleased to finally find some curlew sandpipers for the island this autumn with six juveniles seen feeding on the mud behind East Mersea Point. Also seen were two Sandwich terns, 50 dunlin, 20 grey plover, 16 ringed plover, 30 black-tailed godwits, forty wigeon, twenty teal, three chiffchaffs, three Cetti's warblers, mistle thrush and also 47 little egrets at the park pond.

At Coopers Beach on Tuesday five Sandwich terns, a gannet, two brent geese, Mediterranean gull and six common gulls were seen by Steve Entwistle, who also noted 110 golden plover on the Rewsalls saltings.