GREEDY GRASS-SNAKE

This grass-snake was brought to me at the country park on Wednesday 19th by Simon and Maddy Clifton who had found it in their Yorick Road garden in West Mersea. The distinctive yellow collar shows up well and the fork in the tongue tip can just be seen too.

The grass-snake had been found close to their pond with what seemed like a swollen section of its body, as if it had just swallowed one of the newts from the pond. As grass-snakes are widespread across West Mersea - and to spare some of the newts, it was decided to release the grass-snake here at the park at East Mersea. Simon and Maddy can enjoy their newts for a bit longer - until their pond soon gets discovered by the next passing grass-snake!

Grass-snakes aren't often seen at the park although one was seen near the cliff-top in early April. Adder sightings have dropped off and there is just the one frequenting a regular spot being seen on both Tuesday and Wednesday. During a walk around the park with members of the Mersea Wildlife Forum on Thursday evening a slowworm was unexpectedly seen crossing a path.

Also during the walk on Thursday evening an avocet was a surprising sight as it fed in the pools in the grazing fields. The last time avocets were seen in the fields was a year ago when a pair stopped off briefly to mate. Also seen in the fields were a new brood of 4 young lapwing chicks and also the brood of 12 mallard ducklings. Four black-tailed godwits and 2 redshank were seen along with the usual mix of gadwall, shoveler, shelduck and mallard. At the park pond there were 3 pochard, 7 tufted duck and the swan still sitting on her nest.

The cuckoo was seen near the pond and as with recent days was calling out loudly. On a couple of occasions the bubbly call of the female has been heard, and the bird is then glimpsed in the company of the male cuckoo. The nightingales have been singing well over the last few days and the turtle dove has also been seen in the car park singing.

The most interesting recent bird sighting was on Tuesday morning when an osprey flew over the car park. Whilst chatting to a friend at the south end of the car park, I noticed a crow rise up to mob a large raptor which was drifting west. Unfortunately I was 200m away from it and without binoculars wasn't sure what it was. Luckily 3 birdwatchers had seen the bird and one of them came dashing up to me to tell me excitedly they had just seen an osprey! I quickly grabbed my binoculars from the house and ran over the car park to be shown the distant speck of the bird heading away west. Later on Tuesday I received a message to say that Richard Hull had seen a honey buzzard fly over the Hard at West Mersea early in the afternoon.

The little owl was seen alongside Bromans Lane at dusk on Tuesday evening. A couple of times in the last few days the pied blackbird has been seen by Blue Row, once on the verge and then later on the overhead wires. Instead of this male bird being all black, it has big blotches on its upper body and head, so very recognisable.

On Wednesday night this big common cockchafer or May Bug, came crashing onto the window of the house in Firs Chase. When I went outside it was crawling about in the flower border, with its big feathery feelers waving about. It's been some time since I've seen one of these here on the Island.

There was a green hairstreak butterfly fluttering along the seawall on Tuesday morning, although it was often hard to watch once it landed, as its green wings blended well with the green leaves and grass.