Waders Galore at East Mersea

16th December 2017

After a successful morning at Abberton Reservoir, time to move on to east Mersea to catch the receding tide and hopefully a wader fest. The borrowdyke was very busy with a few Brent Geese amongst the numerous Shoveler and Wigeon and a lone Little Egret was fishing on one of the beach high tide pools.

But waders were the name of the game today and first up were a number of Curlew on the grazing meadows, which due to the lack of rain are only just showing any sign of flooding.

Most of the action today was on the shore where we judged the receding tide just right, and as we arrived the first strips of mud were beginning to appear. Birds were flying in all the time like this Oystercatcher and the ever-trusting Turnstones.

The most numerous species by far was the Dunlin which were scurrying around in little groups..........

.................and sometimes joined by a couple of Sanderling.

This a particularly good beach for Grey Plover and today they looked resplendent in the afternoon sunshine alongside their diminutive Ringed relations.

Redshank are always present in good numbers but are often difficult to approach, but today they seemed to be quite relaxed and allowed some close-ups to be taken

But the showy birds today were the Ringed Plovers which were present in larger than normal numbers and also seemed quite happy to pose for some photos.

So we came for a wader fest and that is precisely what we got. Don't you just love it when a plan comes together?

A Mid-December Trip to Abberton Reservoir

16th December 2017

The last visit of the year to Abberton to see if the cold weather had brought in any more winter wildfowl. Not vast amounts around from the Layer Breton causeway, but there was some flight action amongst the swans and Greylag Geese.

There were also two female Smew under the trees to the east of the causeway, but sadly just too far for any decent shots even in the beautiful light. Luckily, by way of compensation, there was a pair of Goldeneye diving reasonably close-in which provided some reasonable shots.

Look at this one eyeing up a potential threat overhead.

At the Layer de la Haye causeway the large flock of 40+ Goosanders was still present, but unlike our last visit were keeping well out on the reservoir instead of periodically swimming in close to feed right inside the sluice. However to finish off the morning the long-staying Slavonian Grebe was performing well just off the concrete bank and fishing well as you can see.

Well, that was a good start to the day and now off to Mersea on the receding tide for hopefully a wader fest.

Watch This Space!!!!