MARSHES MUNTJAC

This muntjac deer was seen out for a stroll on the old marshes near the Coopers Beach holiday park during a sunny and hot mid morning on Tuesday 2nd. It was watched for about ten minutes having a graze in the back corner of the marsh and then a drink from a small ditch.

This buck muntjac deer appears to have recently shed its previous antlers and now shows the short stubs of the new growth.
The previous day a muntjac deer was also seen late morning strolling along the back of the country park's grazing fields.

The pair of stonechats was watched near Coopers Beach with the male perched beside the childrens playground.

The female stonechat was also perched up in the same area, catching insects in the air. When a magpie arrived on the scene, both birds became anxious and making the distinctive "chaking" calls like two stones being knocked together.

Also seen in the Coopers / Rewsalls marshes area were a pair of buzzards calling high up, a male marsh harrier high over the sea, two common terns, a pair of Mediterranean gulls flying past and a kestrel. Five shelduck, two little egrets, male reed bunting and a singing reed warbler were on the old marshes.

Two ringed plovers were seen on the Fen Farm beach on Tuesday, looking as if they thinking about nesting. A reed warbler was singing from a nearby reedbed, as was another on the east side of Coopers Beach.
There was an unwelcome sighting of a grey squirrel on the ground near some caravans at the back of Coopers Beach.

An osprey was seen being mobbed by crows by Martin Cock as it was flying east over his West Mersea house in the Coverts just after midday on Tuesday.
Two hobbies flew north-east over Andy Field's house in High Street North on Tuesday afternoon. At the end of the afternoon a hobby seen by Ian Black carrying prey towards the Firs Chase caravan site, was probably the same hobby seen twenty minutes earlier flying fast over the Firs Chase garden.

A little egret flew out of the borrowdyke near the Oyster Fishery in East Mersea and perched on this nearby bush on Monday 1st June. There were three other little egrets seen standing together in a nearby sheep field.
A Cetti's warbler was singing from the bushes by the Oyster Fishery, a pochard flew past while a buzzard was seen flying up into some trees. Earlier a Cetti's warbler was also heard singing for the first time in bushes near Fishponds Wood in Shop Lane.

On Reeveshall a male and a female marsh harrier were seen at separate times on Monday, while at least two lapwings were on the rough fallow field strip. In the Pyefleet were a pair of great crested grebes, one brent goose and forty mallard near Pewit Island at low tide.

Andy Field also visited Reeveshall on Monday morning and noted a singing corn bunting, three common buzzards and two common terns, 24 shelduck on Pewit Island and a pair of marsh harriers on Langenhoe. An unidentified deer was also seen briefly behind the reeds of Broad Fleet.

There was no sign of any birds, other than a black-headed gull, on the partially dried up saltmarsh pools near the East Mersea Point on Monday. There have been several pairs of avocets and a pair of common terns on the small island but they seemed to have gone.
A ringed plover was seen on the mud near the Point, two reed warblers were singing in the dyke reeds, two lapwings were in the fields and ten sand martins were in the air near the cliff and fields.

The male corn bunting seen and heard singing from an old thistle stalk near the Reeveshall seawall, photographed by Andy Field on Monday.

Along the Strood seawall on Sunday 31st, a distant hobby flew along the opposite seawall of Feldy Marsh, the regular male marsh harrier was hunting the Strood fields, two cuckoos were heard, five yellow wagtails, while over the houses and adjacent fields were 55+ swifts.
Four common terns were seen in the channel and also near the Hard and a little tern was seen near Packing Shed island.

In Mersea Avenue Ian Black noted 23 swifts overhead and a green woodpecker from his garden and later on Sunday two Mediterranean gulls by the Dabchicks and a red squirrel in the Lane.