SUNNY AND STILL STROOD

Perfect winter morning for a walk along the Strood seawall on Saturday 10th with sunny and still conditions. Two of the sixty avocets were feeding along the channel as the tide came in.

Twenty black-tailed godwits were also feeding along the channel.

Several curlew were to be seen along the edge of the incoming tide.

A redshank was feeding along one of the small saltmarsh channels.

In the Strood fields 100 lapwing and 200 golden plover were feeding.

The black brant was seen feeding in the wheat field near Whittaker Way houses along with 700 brent geese on Saturday morning by Sean Nixon. He also saw two snipe flushed off the grass field by a passing marsh harrier.

Three mute swans flew over the Strood causeway and landed in the water before slowly swimming down channel. Along the edge of the saltmarshes were 200 wigeon and 100 teal.

There was no wind at the start of the day with waters in the Strood channel like a mirror.

Marsh harriers were often seen during the two hours walk with four individuals noted at different times.

One of the two buzzards seen on Saturday was this one perched overlooking the road by the Strood layby.

 

A female pintail on the country park pond was an unusual visitor there on Friday 9th. Also 95 mallard, 14 gadwall, tufted duck were also present.

A female stonechat was feeding on the main field of the park on Friday, feeding on a recently mown area of long grass. A goldcrest was feeding in trees along the park horseride.

 A buzzard perched in the trees beside the park pond on Friday.

At the back of the park's grazing fields a muntjac deer was grazing mid morning on Friday.

Six great crested grebes were seen in the Colne, also five red-breasted mergansers.

Also noted were four snipe, four mute swans, two greylag geese flying over, two avocets, Mediterranean gulls, two rock pipits and eight reed buntings.

A mistle thrush and song thrush were by the Golfhouse and ten skylarks, fifty lapwing and four stock doves were in a recently sown arable field near horse paddocks.

A woodcock was seen flying away by Martin Cock on Friday to the west of Shop Lane near Gyants Marsh.