SHORELARK SURPRISE

Quick walk around the East Mersea Point on Wednesday 3rd, provided an unexpected view of a shorelark on the beach. The bird was feeding right at the eastern tip on the top of the shingle, calling every so often when it looked up. The colourful yellow and black markings on the face stood out in the morning sunshine. The bird was watched for a few minutes and while I distracted myself by making a couple of phonecalls, the birds disappeared and wasn't found again.
I believe there has been only one other shorelark in Essex so far this winter and that was almost a month ago at Walton on the Naze. The last shorelark here at the Point was seen for just one day last December.

A female stonechat was doing lots of flycatching off the tops of the bushes at the Point. A rock pipit was seen flying over the saltmarsh calling as it went. A late swallow passed over the grazing fields, as one did the previous day too.

There was much panic amongst the waders and wildfowl on the fields which was caused by a hunting peregrine. The bird was seen to stoop several times until a second peregrine appeared on the scene and started to harass it. The two birds tussled as the smaller male repeatedly tried to mob the bigger female accompanied by loud calls. Both birds passed overhead as they headed east over the Colne and when they reached the other side, the mobbing started again as they flew into Brightlingsea Creek.

Martin Cock saw the lapland bunting again at Maydays Farm on Tuesday, while Adrian Amos enjoyed a brambling at his feeder in his West Mersea garden along East Road on Wednesday.



This distinctive cloven-hoof footprint of a muntjac deer was discovered on the beach near the Point. The trail of prints seemed to follow some of the paths amongst the saltmarsh bushes which is an odd location for a deer. Two muntjac were seen last week near the park pond, so not that far away from this location of footprints.


Not only are many leaves turning to a nice mix of autumnal colours but many have already fallen to the ground, such as this path at the park, carpeted in yellow maple leaves.

In the trees around the park there are still several goldcrests feeding with the tits. Two siskin and a couple of redpolls flew over the park calling during the morning. A redwing was also heard near the pond.

This feathered thorn moth was one of three in the trap on Thursday morning after a breezy night for moth activity. The moth is a widespread moth although not as many this autumn in the traps as this time last year.

This dark chestnut is the first record for the year and usually is noted a couple of times in the late autumn here at the park.

The commonest moth at the moment is the aptly named November moth with five individuals being noted. Other moths seen were a large wainscot and a setaceous hebrew character.

SHORELARK SURPRISE

These two images of the shorelark were taken by Sean Nixon, who was lucky enough to visit East Mersea and kindly passed these photos to me to display. He told me that he had to lie down on the snow to get these photos and at one point the bird came too close to photograph!

There was still plenty of snow lying around on Sunday 19th and with sub-zero temperatures overnight, there was plenty of ice that stayed around for most of the day. The search for some snow buntings on the beach at the Point proved fruitless. However the reward for slogging across the park and along the snowy seawall was stumbling into a shorelark on the beach, in the area pictured above.

Having glanced at a couple of skylarks feeding along the strandline where the previous high tide touched the snow, I noticed another small lark-like bird drop down onto the beach about 30m away, that looked like a shorelark. Although it spent most of the time facing away and into the chilly easterly breeze, occasionally it would turn round to show the distinctive black markings on the yellow face. There weren't any of the classic black horns on display on its head but it was still a well-marked bird.

The bird worked its way slowly along the tideline, picking at any seeds it could find. At one point it flew close-by and dropped down only about 15m from me, providing good views as it continued to feed on the beach. At times a couple of skylarks, appearing a bit dumpier, joined the shorelark to feed. Martin Cock managed to dash up to the Point to see the bird while Ruth Dence also enjoyed seeing the bird and then Sean Nixon arrived on the scene not knowing it had just been found but armed with his camera and long lens he managed to take a good photo which he posted on the birding website's photo gallery (scroll down to find shorelark photo) at -
http://www.surfbirds.com/cgi-bin/gallery/display.cgi?gallery=gallery12;


This shorelark may be the bird reported from the nearby Colne Point about 3 weeks ago. It is the first shorelark on the Island for several years with the last one at the Point staying for about a month between early December 2002 and early January 2003.

Other birds seen at the Point included 12 skylarks with another 9 heading south off the Island, also 3 rock pipits and 8 reed buntings. Offshore there were 3 female eiders in the river, 8 red-breasted mergansers and a common seal.

As the tide came in, half of the 1000 golden plovers that were gathered on the mud, flew to roost on the snowy grazing fields pictured above. As with the previous day 200 wigeon, 30 black-tailed godwits and a dozen snipe were seen feeding. The male stonechat was seen alongside the borrowdyke.

Despite the picturesque scene in the pictures above and below, there were few visitors to the park during the day. In the snow there were all sorts of footprints to follow especially lots of rabbit tracks. A fox was seen walking along a ditchline by the pond in mid morning, as one or two birds called anxiously above it.

Martin Cock saw 3 jack snipe beside the East Mersea road as he drove to the park around mid-day. Two of them landed in a roadside ditch near Bocking Hall farm and the third bird with its distinctive short bill, dropped into the ditch between the shop and the pub.

The sun set at 15.45 leaving behind this warm peachy glow to the sky and on the mudflats below. As the tide was heading out, there were masses of different kinds of waders arriving to feed as the light faded. However the peace for them was shattered when a female merlin went racing across the mud sending the big flocks of knot and golden plover in different directions. The merlin had its sights set on a turnstone which managed to escape the high speed chase and the stoops from above. The merlin gave up and raced over the seawall and headed low inland over the grazing fields.