SUMMER -GEESE

There seemed a good number of summer-geese feeding on the Reeveshall fields on Saturday 23rd with 66 greylags, one pictured above, along with17 Canada geese and a bar-tailed goose.

A peregrine sat in the middle of the grass field surveying the scene for several minutes. A pair of marsh harriers were flying along the Broad Fleet and nearby fields, being mobbed by some of the lapwings when they passed by.
Hovering above the marshes at Langenhoehall was a common buzzard, while two kestrels hovered over Langenhoe Marshes. A sparrowhawk flashed along one of the hedges near the Maydays farm.

Along the Pyefleet, the only waders other than a few oystercatchers and a handful of redshank were a single curlew and five grey plover. Two great crested grebes were in the channel, fifty shelduck on the mud while two common terns were also seen. A pochard flew away from Reeveshall towards Langenhoe marshes.

Three reed warblers were singing along the dyke at Maydays, one of them pictured above.
At least one pair, possibly a second, of yellow wagtails were also watched feeding on both sides seawall, in the fields and on the saltmarsh.

One male yellowhammer was singing close to the farm buildings at Maydays with another one singing in Haycocks Lane. Fifteen house martins circled above the farm house at Maydays.

A female cuckoo flew away from a nearby hedge carrying a blue egg in its bill, one it had presumably just stolen from a dunnock nest so that it could place one of its own in that nest. A couple of hours earlier, this female had been heard doing its "bubbling" call, while over on Reeveshall a male cuckoo was calling.

This common seal was loafing on the opposite side of the Pyefleet channel, while a second common seal appeared in the same area of the channel as the tide came back in.

Two brown hares were seen in the fields keeping a low profile at first before getting to their feet to run off.

Very few butterflies seen during the walk, maybe the breeze a bit too strong for them. This small heath is the first one of the year here, and it was keeping low down inside the seawall away from the breeze. An orange-tip, large white and small white were the other ones noted. No sign of any of the painted ladies seen the week before.

 It's nice to see sections of the seawall still covered in the flowering cow parsley, rather than taken over by the invasive Alexanders.

One field edge at Maydays farm has a colourful strip of borage in flower and buzzing with a few bees too.