STONECHAT FAMILY

A pair of stonechat has bred on the Island for only the second time in many decades. A youngster was seen being fed by its parents beside the borrowdyke at Maydays farm on Saturday 1st. Both birds have been behaving more anxiously over the last week as if young were in the area.

After sitting down on the seawall and waiting, the stonechat youngster eventually showed out of a bush and was calling out to be fed. The male and female stonechats have been present since the start of May and breeding was expected after they stayed around. The last time stonechats bred on the Island was in 2020 at Coopers Beach.

Also at Maydays was a calling cuckoo, a flock of 15 presumed failed breeding lapwings in a field, two Cetti's warblers, two reed warblers, lesser whitethroat, three whitethroats, ten linnets, three swifts, singing yellowhammer, buzzard and a marsh harrier on Langenhoe.

The osprey was perched on a post on the Geedons Marsh on Saturday morning having caught and eating a fish, viewable from Fingringhoe.

A female adder was lying on the seawall path at Maydays near the sluice on Saturday and a little further on a very small adder which would be a youngster from last summer. Three brown hares were seen in one of the fields.

A cream-spot tiger moth was photographed by Caroline White beside the Cudmore Grove beach on Saturday. Also seen at the park were kestrel chicks visible in their nestbox, Cetti's warbler calling by the pond, two chiffchaffs and a green woodpecker. 

A barn owl was seen by Mollie Kirk flying through their garden of the park bungalow on Saturday evening, followed a bit later by a sparrowhawk.

Earlier in Saturday evening Caroline saw a barn owl quartering the field near Chapmans Lane / East Mersea Road. Tony Clifton reported seeing earlier in the week a barn owl perch in his garden along East Mersea road near Meeting Lane on Monday 27th and Tuesday 28th. 

A red kite was seen on Saturday by Andy Field flying over Firs Chase.

A pair of Egyptian geese was on a pool at the back of one of the Strood fields on Thursday 30th. A pair of lapwing and oystercatcher appeared to be nesting in the recently sown maize field, while a pair of mute swans was on the pond at the back of the fields. Along the dyke were two sedge warblers, two reed warblers also eight linnets, buzzard, sparrowhawk noted and a whitethroat in Feldy View.

A movement of swifts headed north-west off the island on Thursday morning with at least 200 counted, along with five house martins heading off island too. Along the Strood Channel were three common terns, curlew, avocet, four shelduck, Mediterranean gull and five pochard flying down to Old Hall.

Andy Field saw similar birds along the Strood channel but also saw a yellow wagtail and four reed warblers.

An oystercatcher was sitting tight on its shingle nest in the old fishing box in a dinghy near the Dabchicks on Thursday.

In East Mersea Caroline White saw the four kestrel chicks showing nicely at Cudmore Grove, the nightingale singing near the car park, ten long-tailed tits, and two chaffinches.

Martin Cock saw a red kite and marsh harriers from the Shop Lane seawall but not the osprey on the Geedons which had been reported. A grey squirrel was seen in Shop Lane.

Michael Thorley photographed this Cucumber Green Spider at Cudmore Grove.

The hoverfly Merodon equestris was photographed in East Mersea by Michael.

Two swift eggs were visible in the nestbox on Andy Field's house in High Street North on Wednesday 29th.

A brief visit circuit around Firs Caravan park perimeter footpaths produced a pochard and common tern over the channel while a song thrush was heard singing.

A peregrine was seen flying over Barrow Hill on Wednesday by Rob Lee.

A little owl was seen at the Cudmore Grove turning circle on Wednesday evening by Daniel Woollard.

On Tuesday 28th Andy Field walked the Cudmore Grove circuit and noted common tern still sitting on the Golfhouse pool island, also black-headed gull sitting, lapwing and redshank still on grazing field, two pairs of ringed plovers along the beach - one on the Point and the other by the tarmac ramp. Also four kestrel chicks in the box, barn owl in its nestbox, buzzard, sedge warbler, four reed warblers and the nightingale still singing near the car park.

At Maydays on Tuesday Martin Cock flushed a grey partridge from the seawall, also the pair of stonechat still present and two yellowhammers singing.

A garden warbler was discovered singing in Michael and Sarah Thorley's East Mersea garden on Tuesday morning - but not seen later.

Two spoonbills flew down the Strood channel on Tuesday and continued south-westerly over Feldy Marsh. Also seen during the morning walk along the Strood seawall were a greylag goose, mute swan, six pochard, six avocets, four common terns, marsh harrier, sedge warbler and a reed warbler.

A shrew was spotted stationary on the Strood seawall path on Monday 27th. The pair of mute swans were on the pond, a pochard flew along the channel, two avocets, common tern, three buzzards, two sedge warblers, two reed warblers and a blackcap singing near the caravan park.

A Wasp Beetle was in Feldy View on Monday- the second sighting there this month.

A male marsh harrier quartered the Strood fields on Sunday 26th, one of two seen. A hobby flew high over the Strood causeway before drifting off the Island, four buzzards and two kestrels were also noted.

Along the channel were three redshank, ringed plover, two pochard in flight, while a gadwall pair were on the fields. A Cetti's warbler sang by the Strood layby, a flock of 25 linnets in the weedy field, sedge warbler and three reed warbler were singing.

An osprey was reported in the Colne perched on a post on the Geedons, seen from Fingringhoe on Sunday.

A Hairy Dragonfly was resting along the Strood seawall on Sunday, also an Emperor Dragonfly flying over the dyke.

Always nice to see the first Elephant Hawkmoth of the summer in the Firs Chase garden moth trap on the 29th.

Pale Tussock on the 25th.