A productive visit to Cudmore Grove Country Park on a very hot Tuesday 23rd, provided views of a nice variety of wildlife. A pair of
common terns was being kept busy looking after three chicks on the island on the saltmarsh pool near the East Mersea Golfhouse.
One of the adult
common terns with three chicks.
Also on this small island were half a dozen nesting pairs of
black-headed gulls and another nest on the nearby pool.
A pair of
Mediterranean gulls passed overhead calling.
A pair of
ringed plovers was looking after their chick on the beach close to the blockhouse fort near the Point.
The
ringed plover chick was feeding on the mud near the blockhouse fort and is quite well grown but not fledged yet.
The
ringed plover family will not be pleased with this new fencing being put up by the archaeologists on their section of beach and with machinery driving back and forth for the next few weeks.
On the beach round the back of the Point was a ringed plover still sitting on a nest, cordoned off from walkers. A second cordoned off nest with two eggs seemed abandoned. Four other adult ringed plovers and a fledged juvenile were seen in the area of the Point.
Thirty redshank were feeding on the mud, fifteen curlew flew over to feed on the mudflats and at least thirty oystercatchers were on the mudflats. Two great crested grebes were feeding in the river Colne.
A
reed bunting was singing on the sea-blite bushes at the Point.
Along the park borrowdyke were five
tufted ducks. Two
Canada geese were in the fields and two
shelduck on the saltmarsh.
A
mallard with her eleven ducklings were seen on the dyke.
A handful of
Black-tailed Skimmers were patrolling their territories along the park dyke.
One Small Red-eyed Damselfly was sitting on vegetation on the dyke.
A water vole was seen swimming across the dyke.
A
lesser whitethroat was feeding in bushes near the Golfhouse, while a
song thrush was singing in the area too. Other warblers heard during the walk were two
sedge warblers, three
reed warblers and four
whitethroats.
A juvenile
great spotted woodpecker was in trees in the country park, with a second bird seen near the bus turning circle. A
kestrel near the pond and four
swifts flying west were also watched.
A
cuckoo landed on top of an alder tree behind the park pond, spending several minutes surveying the scene.
A
Large Skipper was feeding on lime flowers.
Small Skipper also on lime flowers.
One of the very fragrant lime trees covered in blossom was buzzing with insects.
Clumps of
Greater Knapweed were busy with several
Small Skippers and the high-pitched buzzing of lots of
Green-eyed Flower Bees.
The park cliff was also busy with bee activity such as this
Green-eyed Flower Bee at its hole.
A couple of
Bee Wolves were seen along the park cliff.
A Hummingbird Hawkmoth was darting back and forwards along one part of the cliff.
An
ichneumon wasp busy at the cliff.
One of the species of
Colletes Mining Bee amongst the vegetation at the Point.
Several
Leafcutter Bees were flying about the Virginia Creeper by the Golfhouse, with some bees carrying away small cut-out leaf sections.
Dryad's Saddle bracket fungi on a stump near the Golfhouse.
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