REED SONGSTERS

Three male reed buntings were singing along the Strood dyke on a sunny Friday 9th, also a whitethroat and two sedge warblers seen here too. Two house martins flew over the seawall, ten swifts were over the houses and a cuckoo was calling from Ray Island.

A family of four recently fledged young swallows were perched on wires above the Company Shed on Friday.

A brood of mallard ducklings was hiding amongst the club-rushes along the Strood dyke on Friday

In the Strood channel two avocets, two curlew, lapwing, Mediterranean gull and a great crested grebe were noted, a pair of buzzards called to each other high over the fields and another was being mobbed by gulls at the Hard.

Five brown hares were chasing each other about at the top of the Strood Hill field on Friday, pictured distantly through the heat haze.

Also seen on the walk was a hairy dragonfly, common blue and brown argus butterflies. At Firs Chase a speckled wood, small white and five holly blues were seen in the garden on Friday.

A red kite was seen by Martin Cock flying over West Mersea heading towards East Mersea on Friday.

Caroline White visited Cudmore Grove on Friday evening and had a brief view of the barn owl, cuckoo calling by the hide and a pair of ringed plovers at East Mersea Point.

At Coopers Beach on Friday evening, Steve Entwistle saw 70 herring gulls, 11 common terns, single curlew, 45 black-headed gulls, lesser black-backed gull, two Mediterranean gulls and eight mallard all flying. Also a Cetti's warbler at the football pitch, two linnets and a green woodpecker.

Simon Patient on Thursday 8th was lucky enough to see a fulmar fly past Coopers Beach and catch it on film on his phone - a screen-grab pictured here. The bird was first seen flying close inshore heading west before returning and flying eastwards. Fulmars have been a rare bird to see from Mersea over the last twenty years or so.

At East Mersea Point on Thursday a little tern was seen a few times by Steve Entwistle flying about and fishing in the river Colne near Sandy Point close to Point Clear.

A pair of avocets was on the Rewsalls side-lake on Thursday at high tide but not much else seen on the Rewsalls marshes other than a pair of oystercatchers, four shelduck, cormorant, four mallard, 20+ black-headed gulls and a little egret. A cuckoo flew past, red-legged partridge was calling, reed warbler heard, while in nearby hedges were four whitethroats, blackcap and two yellow wagtails in the fields.

A large skipper was resting out of the wind near the East Mersea boating lake on Thursday.

A holly blue was on a sheltered bramble bush near the Youth Camp.

A female blue-tailed damselfly was seen egg-laying at a pond by the East Mersea boating lake on Thursday. Nearby a hairy dragonfly was hawking back and forth behind a hedge out of the wind.

A meadow brown butterfly was in the Firs Chase garden on Thursday, also a red admiral, five holly blues and a large red damselfly. A cuckoo was heard calling over the garden very early on Thursday morning.

A common blue butterfly was seen in Feldy View on Wednesday 7th, also there was a brown argus.

A Swollen-thighed beetle Oedemera nobilis was seen on an ox-eye daisy in Feldy View on Wednesday.

Birds seen along the Strood seawall on Wednesday morning included two cuckoos, five avocets, two curlew, three Mediterranean gulls, great crested grebe, two common terns, male marsh harrier, two buzzards, two distant red kites over Langenhoe farm while a sparrowhawk and 18 swifts were flying about over the houses. 

Three sedge warblers, two reed warblers, whitethroat, two yellow wagtails were beside the seawall while Cetti's warblers were singing on Ray Island and the Strood reservoirs.

Three emperor dragonflies were hawking along the Strood dyke.

At Cudmore Grove on Wednesday Oli Cottis watched two little terns from Stone Point, also two Mediterranean gulls and a marsh harrier. 

Later in the day Steve Entwistle watched two black terns flying out of the Colne from the Fingringhoe direction - its been a few years since this species has been seen from the Island. Other birds seen at the park were lesser whitethroat, blackcap, chiffchaff, five long-tailed tits, cuckoo at the pond, barn owl hunting field behind pond, Mediterranean gull, six lesser black-backed gulls, sparrowhawk, seven great crested grebes, buzzard, ten common terns and six sand martins - four over grazing fields and two at the park pond.

On Wednesday evening ten swifts were flying over Steve's house in Empress Drive.

The nesting oystercatcher stood over its nest that's in the dinghy behind the Dabchicks sailing club on Tuesday 6th. A brief visit to the Strood seawall revealed three avocets, two common terns, marsh harrier, two cuckoos, green woodpecker, two sedge warblers, two reed warblers and a whitethroat.

Andy Field found it very quiet at Cudmore Grove on Tuesday during his walk of the circuit there. Of note there were whitethroats and reed warblers the most numerous, cuckoo, sparrowhawk, Cetti's warbler by the pond, young blackcaps being fed by adults, two probable little terns on far side of the Colne, common tern, Mediterranean gull, Cetti's warbler by Golfhouse and a lesser whitethroat by paddocks.

A little owl was seen on a street light at 9.30pm along the Coopers Beach seafront by Simon Patient. It was then seen flying off west towards the clubhouse there.

On Monday 5th at St Peters area of West Mersea birds noted included a brent goose, four shelduck, great crested grebe, great black-backed gull, five common terns, little egret, two marsh harriers at the mouth of Salcott channel, reed warbler by the Monkey steps reedbed, 150 starlings, two yellow wagtails and two linnets.

A common broomrape growing on a front lawn in Strood Close on Sunday 4th was a surprise. The plant apparently has been recorded previously in West Mersea somewhere.

A brief visit to the Strood seawall on Sunday saw a great crested grebe, two buzzards, five swifts, three shelduck, kestrel, two sedge warblers, reed warbler and a whitethroat.

On Saturday 3rd there was the unusual sight of a muntjac deer seen from the Maydays seawall walking across the mud and then swimming the Langenhoehall channel as if trying to come over to the Island. It walked off the mainland in front of the Langenhoe solar farm and waded across the soft mudflats without too much problem.

 

It then swam across the channel without too much problem with its head sticking above the water.

The muntjac deer then walked onto the mud on the other side of the Langenhoehall channel, then walked across the nearby saltmarsh and into the next channel of water of the Pyefleet, where it swam for a short distance before turning back. It then walked west across the saltmarsh and disappeared off in the direction of the Strood causeway.

Three little terns flew quickly east along the Pyefleet on Saturday, also four common terns, two great crested grebes, five curlews seen along the channel from Maydays. Five marsh harriers were seen hunting over Reeveshall and Langenhoe, all of them males, house martin and four swifts flew north to Langenhoe where a cuckoo and a Cetti's warbler were heard. 

Also at Maydays on Saturday a Cetti's warbler sang, two whitethroats, three reed warblers, two yellow wagtails were noted, singing meadow pipit, four redshank on the saltmarsh, pair of lapwing with one bird still sitting, while two corn buntings were beside the Reeveshall seawall. A brown argus and common blue butterflies were seen by the seawall.