HUNGRY TIT CHICKS

A pair of blue tits have chosen a nest-hole with a fine sea-view, using an old sand martin's hole in the country park cliff. The parents seemed to have got used to lots of folk walking along the beach and were busy on Thursday 2nd flying back and forwards to the nearby clifftop bushes bringing back caterpillars.

Also busy gathering food for their chicks was a pair of great tits nesting in a hole beside the gutter on the park bungalow.

The firecrest was singing again from the trees beside the park overflow car park on Thursday morning. The leaves have been swaying about so much that the bird hasn't been glimpsed since it was first heard on Sunday. It was also heard on Monday and Tuesday mornings.

A male reed bunting sang briefly from a bush-top near the car park on Thursday, a yellow wagtail flew over and a pair of Mediterranean gulls flew over the park. Offshore four common terns were noted in the afternoon.

In the grazing fields two nearly fledged lapwing chicks were sheltering from the strong breeze behind a tussock of rushes. A male shoveler was on the main pool in the fields.

On Monday at the park the firecrest was heard but not seen and the male reed bunting was singing in the park again. On the saltmarsh pools by the Point two pairs of avocet, a common tern and a little egret were seen, while nearby the swan family seemed to have six cygnets having lost one already.

On the fields a nesting lapwing was seen trying to distract some inquisitive cows away from the nest by dragging a seemingly broken wing along the ground. It seemed to work. Three shovelers and four Canada geese were present in the fields.

The rain on Tuesday morning was so torrential that this family of great tit chicks were seen clinging to the cedar tree in the Firs Chase garden, sheltering underneath the squirrel nut feeder. The tits stayed motionless for several minutes waiting for the rain to ease off.

The red squirrels soon discovered the nut feeder had been topped up a couple of days earlier with lots of hazel-nuts. This squirrel spent half an hour early on Wednesday morning at the feeder. Although the feeder has been visited almost daily, this is the first squirrel sighting for a fortnight.

Having had its fill of nuts, the squirrel scampered higher up the tree to sit on this limb for a few minutes.

Moth trapping continues to produce few moths at the park with the recent cold northerly winds. This large female fox moth was a nice surprise as it's become harder to see in recent years. Very few are being recorded in Essex now with one of the last ones recorded in the county being here at the park two years ago.