CUCKOO CALLING

A cuckoo perched on wires near Feldy View calling several times from there, on Tuesday 30th.

At least nine whimbrel were seen along the Strood channel late on Tuesday morning. Also along the Strood channel were 19 avocets, 2 Mediterranean gulls, great crested grebe and four shelduck.

A pair of gadwall was resting on a Strood field on Tuesday with a third bird flying in to join them. Two marsh harriers and three buzzards were also seen, while two swallows, four sedge warblers and three reed warblers were noted too.

Three brown hares were seen at the back of one of the fields by the Strood on Tuesday.  Also on Tuesday Caroline White saw three brown hares in a field off Barrow Hill off the junction from the Strood.

An orange-tip butterfly was seen in Feldy View, also holly blue, peacock and small white.

Martin Cock walked from the Strood to the Hard on Tuesday and reported 10 sedge warblers singing, four reed warblers, two Cetti's warblers, whitethroat, two cuckoos, 12 linnets, three marsh harriers, 14 avocets, 20 whimbrel and a pair of gadwall.

A nightingale was reported singing by Jack Hoy in a woodland belt near the Maydays farm on Tuesday.

Andy Field took this photo of a sedge warbler at Cudmore Grove on Tuesday 30th.

A picture of a whitethroat taken by Andy Field at Cudmore Grove on Tuesday. Also seven reed warblers, lesser whitethroat, chiffchaffs, and Cetti's warblers, as well as a brief view of the nightingale flying across a gap between bushes in the Cudmore car park.

One whimbrel was pictured by Andy, three lapwing and two redshank in the grazing fields, five ringed plovers on the mud, two common terns over the Point.

The male kestrel pictured here by Andy at Cudmore Grove, appeared to be sitting on eggs in the kestrel box on Tuesday morning, before changing over with a female after a while.

This weevil Liparus coronatus was seen by Andy just north of the park, along the footpath between the horse paddocks on Tuesday.

Caroline heard two cuckoos calling and flying about at Cudmore Grove on Tuesday early evening.

The nightingale was still singing in the Cudmore Grove car park on Monday evening. Martin Cock saw a hobby in Shop Lane, also two buzzards, Mediterranean gull and three swallows. Two swifts were flying over Andy Field's house in High Street North.

Along the Strood on Monday, there were 19 avocets, whimbrel, redshank, Mediterranean gull, marsh harrier, buzzard, three swallows and a whitethroat.

On Sunday 28th Daniel Woollard had an enjoyable evening walk at Cudmore Grove and reported the usual number of warblers, seven swallows, sand martin, common/arctic tern offshore and a pair of lapwings chasing crows off the fields.

Caroline White walked from Cross Lane to Rewsalls and back across the fields, noting two chiffchaffs, two blackcaps, song thrush, three corn buntings and a cuckoo over Cross Lane. Two yellow wagtails at Waldegraves and two at Rewsalls, 3 Cetti's warblers at Rewsalls, 15 linnets, four blackcaps, eight whitethroats and a lesser whitethroat on Rewsalls Marsh.

Two swallows were flying around near the Dabchicks on Sunday morning.

At Cudmore Grove on Saturday 27th, Daniel Woollard reported the nightingale still singing in the car park, three swallows, five whitethroats, two lesser whitethroats, sedge warbler, two Mediterranean gulls and a yellow wagtail near the Golfhouse. A stoat or weasel was seen briefly in the back garden of the bungalow in the park.

Andy Field also walked the Cudmore circuit on Saturday and was able to add two or three reed warblers along the borrowdyke and seven ringed plovers at the Point.

On Friday 26th the nightingale was still singing in the Cudmore car park - heard by Daniel Woollard. 

In the early evening Caroline White saw 6 linnets and four skylarks by the Golfhouse, avocet pair, four brent geese and a whimbrel on the pools, four pairs tufted ducks on the dyke, four reed warblers and two sedge warblers also here. In the grazing fields two Greylag geese, six brent geese, four Canada geese, lapwing and five shelduck, while five ringed plovers on the beach.

In the main park there was nightingale, blackcap, whitethroat and chiffchaff, 3 whitethroats, blackcap alongside park track, lesser whitethroat, greenfinch, while on the pond were a pair of shoveler, pair of mute swans and calling Cetti's warbler. Also three sand martins, swallow and green woodpecker noted.

Andy Field walked from Shop Lane to the Golfhouse on Friday morning and saw Canada goose, six greylag geese, 30 brent geese, three black-tailed godwits, two whimbrel, two common terns, marsh harrier, red kite, buzzard, ten whitethroats, 8 lesser whitethroats and a Cetti's warbler.

First swifts were seen on the Island by Mark over Elmwood Drive on Friday.

A caterpillar of the brown-tail moth was photographed at Cudmore Grove by Caroline White on Thursday 25th.

Several of the brown-tail moth caterpillar webs were found in various places at the park by Caroline. Food for the cuckoos.

The nightingale was heard singing by Daniel Woollard early on Thursday morning, while in West Mersea the cuckoo was heard calling early in the morning at 5.15 from Whittaker Way by Ron Harvey.

At the boating lake on Thursday Martin Cock saw two Canada geese, whimbrel and two red-legged partridge in a nearby field, while later at East Mersea Point a grey plover and six dunlin, ringed plover and reed warbler along the dyke.

At Cudmore Grove on Wednesday 24th the nightingale was heard singing in the car park by Michael Thorley, while the barn owl was seen hunting the grazing fields early evening by Caroline White.