SUNNY SHOP LANE

Plenty of sunshine on Friday 29th made it a warm walk along the seawall to the north of Shop Lane at East Mersea. Various insects enjoyed the sunny weather including the first four-spotted chaser dragonfly of the year to be seen. It was flying around the dyke pictured above, then rested every so often on the tops of reed stalks or on the edge of the bank.
Other insects seen along the seawall included a couple of painted ladies, common blue and small heath butterflies.

The tide was coming in along the Pyefleet Channel and very little of interest other than lots of black-headed gulls and a few shelduck. A couple of cormorants and a common tern were seen along the Channel.

On the Reeveshall pool there were 14 shelduck, 2 gadwall, 2 redshank, pair of lapwing, mute swan, 4 mallard, greylag geese, and a pair of little grebes. A male marsh harrier flew over Reeveshall and then crossed over the Pyefleet as it headed to Langenhoe, where a female harrier was also noted. No sign of any hobbies - Martin Cock seeing one on Langenhoe on Wednesday.

In Shop Lane a blackcap and chiffchaff sang while a young great spotted woodpecker, recently fledged, flew across the road and landed briefly on a telegraph pole. Two corn buntings were still perched up on bushes along the East Mersea road.

PLENTY OF BUGS

This elephant hawkmoth is one of the most colourful moths that turns up regularly at the moth trap in late spring and early summer. It was found on Thursday morning along with a small catch of about 20 other species. Some of the other moths noted were light emerald, cream-spot tiger, white ermine, cinnabar, yellow belle, common carpet, ingrailed clay, lychnis, rustic shoulder knot, heart and club, common swift and blood vein.


The bright colour of this green silver lines moth doesn't seem like normal moth colours but it blends in well beside green leaves. This is an annual visitor to the moth trap in the spring in small numbers and is always a colourful addition to a trapping session.
The strikingly marked cream-spot tiger moth was seen during the day flying around some bushes before dropping into the long grass.


Another insect that blends well with the colour of leaves is the green hairstreak butterfly and this one with it's faded streak of white dots on the wing, was found alongside a path in the park. Not as many sightings as last year of green hairstreaks and this one will probably be the last of the year.


Painted ladies continue to outnumber all the other butterflies with a dozen flying westards across the park in mid afternoon. Up to 30 appeared to have stopped off at the park and were seen flying around or sunning themselves in all parts of the park. Other butterflies seen included an orange tip, small copper, small heath, speckled wood, holly blue and green-veined white.

A few more dragonflies were out enjoying the sun with three black-tailed skimmers noted for the first time this year. This one below seems to be a freshly emerged female that was seen fluttering weakly across the long grass.

OUT IN THE OPEN

As expected, the blue tit chicks were ready to leave the safety of the park toilet building and emerged into the open on Wednesday 27th on a wet and windy morning. Once they got outside, the parents soon found them and continued to find food for them.

It seemed as if there were four chicks inside the store room who all seemed to have fluttered around and perched on anything they could grab onto. Only the constant chirping from them indicated where they were hiding.

At the other end of the size scale, the mute swans were giving their week old cygnet a rest on the bank alongside the borrowdyke on Thursday morning. Dad kept watch while mum and junior snoozed.

Unexpected bird of the day was a fulmar gliding above the park beach as the strong wind blew it eastwards. It is several years since a fulmr has been seen from the park and luckily this one came close enough during the high tide, did a short loop doubling back on itself before continuing on its way.

Also along the dyke 4 tufted duck flew back to the pond and a little grebe was also seen. Three reed warblers sang from two sections of reeds while on the nearby saltmarsh, 2 reed buntings were singing. A water vole was watched swimming along the side of the dyke and then nibbling on some reed stems.

Several little terns flew past the Point during the morning as did a few common terns. On the mudflats a small group of 13 ringed plovers were feeding at low tide.

There was the usual selection of birds on the muddy pools with 11 lapwing chicks still present and also 3 adults still incubating. Also a pair of gadwall, 2 male shovelers, 10 shelduck, 20 mallard and 2 redshank were feeding or resting. On the pond a male pochard was briefly present in the early evening, alongside the usual 3 pairs of tufted duck.

In the park a nightingale surprisingly flew out of a bush and landed nearby on the path near the park entrance to pick up an insect. It briefly cocked its tail and then flew back up to a bush, flashing the orange tail as it went.

The warm evening sunshine was ideal for common lizards and this one above was one of two individuals seen basking on fenceposts at the park.

READY TO LEAVE

The blue tit chicks that have been reared inside the park toilet building, appeared to be on the verge of leaving the nest on Tuesday 26th. They have spent the first 2 weeks of their life in the warm and secure store room surrounded by old rags and the whiff in the air of bleach and disinfectant. No flies on this family then!
The picture below shows the inside of the store room with the nest hidden on top of the cream coloured bowl. Entry for the parents has been through a small hole in the exterior timber cladding.



The blue tits first got this site ready for the nest about 2 months ago and the scalding calls have been a frequent sound whenever I've had to enter the store room which is often several times a day. The adults have also had to contend with the daily flow of human visitors into the building every day, leading to more scalding calls from them.

I've allowed the tits to raise their family with as little disturbance as possible over the last fortnight. The noises from the chicks have been getting louder in recent days and the sight of a nearly fledged chick on the store-room floor indicated that the youngsters are ready to leave. I don't know how many chicks hatched out or have fledged, although the first photo above shows at least 3 young nearly ready for the big bad world outside!

After lots of rain in the morning, the day ended with clear blue skies and the tide was well out in the early evening as shown in the picture above. There weren't many birds on the mud except for a scattering of gulls and oystercatchers.
On the southernmost edge of the mudflats a group of 30 brent geese gathered, which seemed an unusual place for them, but maybe it was just a brief staging post. A short while later a small group of them were seen heading east past Colne Point out of the estuary and probably on their way back to the continent. Most brent flocks left for their breeding grounds in Siberia two months ago.

Making the return journey onto the Island this evening from the east were a couple of hundred swifts. There was a continuous flow of them crossing the river Colne, flying over the mudflats, then passing over the country park as they headed west in small groups.

Along the park cliff there were at least ten holes recently excavated by the sand martins. Many of the birds were flying over the nearby grazing fields and the park pond, along with several swallows.

The pair of mute swans were escorting their lone cygnet along the park dyke. The cygnet is about a week old and is the sole survivor of the brood which apparently only had one other sibling hatch out but has since been lost.

Also in the dyke were a pair of tufted duck, little grebes, coots and a pair of singing reed warblers. Two male reed buntings were seen along the the top of the seawall earlier in the day. In the pools on the grazing fields, there are still 11 lapwing chicks, with no apparent losses and still 2 other birds still incubating. A pair of redshank, pair of gadwall and 30 mallard also present.

At the park pond 3 male pochard and a female were noted along with 2 pairs of tufted ducks. There seems to be 3 pairs of coots with youngsters in various corners of the pond. No sign of the nice male fox that trotted round the nearside of the pond in the middle of yesterday morning.
Just before the sun set, there was a nice view of a barn owl hunting the grass field behind the pond and then flying back to Bromans Farm with a tiny mammal in its talons.

On the park a kestrel sat by the car park at dusk being mobbed by a pied wagtail, the male sparrowhawk returned to the clifftop trees for the night and the nightingale sang briefly by the park entrance. Two song thrushes were also singing loudly at the end of the day, one by the entrance and the other by the pond. During the day a pair of Mediterranean gulls flew over the car park calling. Only a couple of painted ladies were seen during the day.

Yesterday an adder was seen basking in its usual spot in the park.

MASS INFLUX

The beach at Cudmore Grove Country Park was nearly deserted during the morning of Sunday 24th. The picture above shows an empty beach with no-one enjoying the sunshine, sand and sea. The beach didn't stay deserted for long as the fine weather soon brought the mass influx to the park by lunchtime and through the afternoon.

The small group of nesting sand martins would've noticed the numbers of visitors to the beach. The birds spend more time hawking insects over the fields when there are too many people on the beach.

There were a number of painted lady butterflies around the park, especially in the evening as they basked in the sun. At least a dozen were seen around the park with all being very territorial, whilst basking. A few others were seen during the day passing over the park.

It appears as if this painted lady influx into the country is taking place in huge numbers with many reports both on the coast and inland of masses moving north-west through the country. An observation made on Sunday along the south side of the Blackwater river not far from Mersea, estimated between 700 - 800 heading north-west in a 3 hour period.
There was also a recent report of huge numbers of painted ladies amassing on the Dutch coast, ready to make the crossing to England. There have been reports of migrant clouded yellows and hummingbird hawkmoths in Essex in recent days too.

Other butterflies seen at the park included a brimstone butterfly which is the first for nearly 12 years here. Also a small heath, small copper small white and several speckled woods, also a mother shipton moth.

Not much else on the Island's bird front different from recent days. Andy Field saw 2 hobbies on the nearby Langenhoe Marshes on Saturday, while Richard Brown and Richard Hull noted 4 on an earlier visit.

TIGER IN THE TRAP

The cream-spot tiger moth pictured above on Thursday 21st , is probably the most strikingly marked moths of the park. There have been a few more moth species in the trap in recent nights, now that the nights aren't so cold and the wind has been lighter lately.
The cream-spot is quite a scarce moth athough there are reasonable numbers around the grasslands of the Essex coast. The picture below show the vivid red markings on the underside of the moth.

Some of the other moths noted in recent nights have included pale tussock, sandy carpet, clouded silver, clouded border, figure of 80, nutmeg, ingrailed clay, maidens blush, muslin, marbled minor, scalloped hazel, lime-speck pug, white-point, common wainscot and shoulder-striped wainscot. The two trapping sesions on Wednesday and Thursday nights produced a combined tally of 32 species of macro moth, which doesn't sound too bad although only ones and twos of each species.

The poplar hawk is a common moth that looks like some loose peeling bark when it is at rest during the day. A couple of these large moths have been found in the trap on two of the recent mornings.


This tiny caterpillar only about 15mm in length, resting on a hawthorn leaf beside a path in the park, was spotted only because of its striking red / orange colour. This caterpillar is a yellow-tail moth, a reasonably common visitor to the moth-trap in July and August.

Insects seen at the park during the day include common blue, holly blue, several painted ladies, speckled wood, small white, orange-tip and peacock. A hairy dragonfly was seen just north of the park on Tuesday, hawking along a hedge. On Wednesday 3 adders and a common lizard were soaking up the sun at the park in their usual spot.

The nightingale is still singing loudly at times by the car park while its rival on the cliff-top is still present but less vocal. Common whitethroats seem to be in most corners of the park, lesser whitethroats are occasionally heard as is the blackcap and chiffchaff. Up to 20 sand martins are still flying around the cliff and the nearby fields. Two house martins were seen just north of the park on Tuesday and 2 swifts passing over the park has been a rare sight so far this spring.

The lapwing chicks are still flourishing on the grazing fields and despite the sight of the resident fox in the same field, none appear to have been predated with 10 chicks from 3 broods. Also on the pools are a couple of mallard broods, 3 redshank, greenshank occasionally, 20 shelduck, 2 pairs of gadwall and a pair of shoveler, along with the gulls, moorhens and others.

The sparrowhawk has been seen on a couple of occasions flying to the trees in the south-west corner of the park. The two kestrels were seen on Wednesday sitting on the oak tree with the nest-box, at the back of the grazing fields. The little owl could be heard calling from Bromans Farm on Wednesday evening.

Three corn buntings were seen perched up on bushes by the East Mersea road and the nearby Chapmans Lane on Thursday morning. A little owl perched on a telegraph pole on the East Mersea road by the Youth Camp lane at dusk on Tuesday.

SUNBATHING LADIES

Another windy seawall walk, this time beside the Strood Channel in the early evening of Monday 18th. The showers had stopped earlier in the day and the sun came out later on. Along both sides of the seawall at the moment are lots of clumps of the flowering hoary cress as in the picture above.

The high tide meant no mud was on show, not that there are many waders around the Island at the moment to look out for. Only a handful of oystercatchers could be seen on the saltmarshes along with various gulls. A pair of little terns crossed over the seawall and hunted along the borrowdyke, calling out excitedly as they flew along. Two little egrets and a grey heron were also looking for food along the ditches and dyke. A male marsh harrier was seen in the distance hunting over the Feldy fields on the mainland.

As on Friday evening the cuckoo crossed onto the Island from the Ray and perched on the overhead wires for several minutes calling out near the caravan site. In typical pose the long tail was tilted up and the wing-tips drooped down. Three male corn buntings jangled their songs from various points and skylarks and meadow pipits were also heard. Over the fields a few swallows and five house martins were seen while over the houses 10 swifts were noted.



Face to face with one of the 8 painted lady butterflies seen along a section of 200 metres of the seawall. This seems a good spring count in one locality of painted ladies here on the Island. The wind kept them down low but they were all trying to catch some of the evening sunshine while basking on the concrete seaward side. If one of the painted ladies flew over one of the others basking, they would both quickly spiral up into the air together.


Also keeping low down amongst the grass was a group of blue-tailed damselflies. These common damselflies were just a short distance from the water in the dyke and like the painted ladies, were enjoying the last of the day's sunshine.