Essex Birding (1 Viewer)

[Essex Tern]

The Little Ringed Plover was still at Abberton today, along with a fair few Goldeneye still, a nice male Red Crested Pochard, a single female Goosander, and the usual residents.

Work is progressing on the enlargement with the diggers and trucks working near the Layer-de-la-haye causeway.

 

[lostinjapan]

Hi all

Had an interesting afternoon of birding in The Hythe/Old Heath area of Colchester.

Highlight was a young Red Kite that sailed low over my head in front of a rainstorm over Donlyland House and then drifted off towards Blackheath.

Spring migrants were in evidence too with 5 Chiffchaff, 5 Sand Martin and 2 Swallow.

Finally 2 other good species in the shape of 2 Jack Snipe briefly flushed out of some boggy willow carr and a brief burst of song from a Cetti's Warbler.

Will try and catch up with LRP in the next couple of days.

Good Birding

Sean

 

[Fozzybear]

Red Kite! Cool - really must keep my eyes open when I'm out. Great that there are some about Essex, have yet to see one. Also lovely to hear the Chiffchaffs, Swallows and Martins are starting to make a return. Have heard a couple of Chiffies here, am definitely going to have to keep my eyes on the sky I think!

 

[Mahsleb]

Hi all

Had an interesting afternoon of birding in The Hythe/Old Heath area of Colchester.

Highlight was a young Red Kite that sailed low over my head in front of a rainstorm over Donlyland House and then drifted off towards Blackheath.

Spring migrants were in evidence too with 5 Chiffchaff, 5 Sand Martin and 2 Swallow.

Finally 2 other good species in the shape of 2 Jack Snipe briefly flushed out of some boggy willow carr and a brief burst of song from a Cetti's Warbler.

Will try and catch up with LRP in the next couple of days.

Good Birding

Sean

Hi Sean

I live in Newtown can you tell me where you saw the Jack Snipe please?

cheers Tony

 

[Viv Connett]

Red Kite

Fantastic views about 1.45 this afternoon of a Red Kite flying very low backwards and forwards across the main Maldon to Colchester road. Picked it up first as we turned left from the turning from Birch over the woods on the left hand side and followed it until we ran out of places to stop - last seen heading for Tiptree.

Had a red wing tag but although it was very happy to play to its adoring public it wouldn't turn so that we could read the numbers.

 

[Original PaulE]

Fantastic views about 1.45 this afternoon of a Red Kite flying very low backwards and forwards across the main Maldon to Colchester road. Picked it up first as we turned left from the turning from Birch over the woods on the left hand side and followed it until we ran out of places to stop - last seen heading for Tiptree.

Had a red wing tag but although it was very happy to play to its adoring public it wouldn't turn so that we could read the numbers.

nice one viv

i think i've read on here that with red kites it's the tag colour that's important i think they have one on each wing. one tells you where, the other tells you what year the bird was born in

cheers

 

[Original PaulE]

hi viv

post 16 on this thread has more info

http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=164690&highlight=wing+tags

cheers

 

[Viv Connett]

Hi Paul thanks for that - so it was tagged in 2003!!

Didn't see a tag on the left wing so presumably that had been lost somewhere along the way

 

[Steve Arlow]

Alpine Swift seen well this afternoon at Chafford Hundred EWT, near Lakeside. The bird has been present 3 days. Also there 2+ Sand Martins and a Swallow.

 

[Fozzybear]

Will write more later (have a headache at the moment!) but yesterday afternoon saw a Black-necked Grebe and a pair of Goldeneye at Hanningfield Reservoir, from the Lyster hide. Both new to me. :t:

Edit - here's the post I've added to the ex-beeb forum...

Well yesterday was quite something, gorgeous weather forecast (and delivered!) so I took the bus to Hanningfield Reservoir and spent the day walking around the woods and looking out over the water from the hides. I even took my Aldi spotting scope for a first proper try (and it was excellent!).

The woods were full of Blackcaps and Robins singing, Chiffchaffs calling, Blue and Great Tits singing and diving in and out of nest boxes, Treecreepers climbing trunks and Green Woodpeckers yaffling. The trees were surrounded by the green leaves of bluebells, which will look amazing when they come into bloom - I'll have to make sure I return for that! Also saw my first Peacock and Brimstone butterflies of the year. The Wood Ants were working hard and I tried to take some photos of them only to find they'd crawled all over my shoes, socks and trousers! :eek!: :-O The grazing meadows held quite a lot of Greylag Geese, Shelducks and Mallards and a number of Fieldfares and Redwings were still around too, which was interesting to find.

Not so many birds on the water as on my previous visit but there were lots of Greylag and Canada Geese, Cormorants, Tufted Ducks, Great Crested Grebes (I saw six in one spot!), Black-headed Gulls, Coots, Mallards, Gadwalls and some Wigeon. Plus I saw a pair of Goldeneye for the first time and also a Black-necked Grebe!

The fishing lodge at the far side of the reserve was good as the visitors feed the birds so I got really close to the Greylags, Coots, Mallards, Chaffinches, Mute Swans, plus a Black Swan and a Tufted Duck. All in all a really good day, saw two new species (including what seems to be a fairly rare UK visitor) and even managed to get some cheap bird seed from the shop... and even more a bonus the seed is grown on the Essex Wildlife Trust farm near Colchester, so it's grown on a wildlife friendly farm and has only travelled 20-30 miles! :t: Carrying my backpack full of kit and six kilos of seed the half mile to the bus stop pushed my feet a bit after walking something like 8+ miles through the day but I'm used to that.

 

[Fozzybear]

Very cool shots of the Alpine Swift Steve!

 

[purple highflyer]

Hi Fozzy,

Very cool shots of the grebe too !

PH

 

[Fozzybear]

Thanks PH, very fortunate that I hung around the centre's window for a bit or I'd have missed them!

 

[Steve Arlow]

Black-winged Stilt present outside the visitor centre at Rainham Marshes RSPB pretty much all day today.

 

[westley byford]

hi, im new to birding and from the shoeburyness/southend area, could anyone recomend a good place to shoot some pictures of birds, ive been to gunners park and but its hard to get decent pictures over htere due to dog walkers etc, and tomorrow im off to hockley woods so hoping to get some pics over there...

wes

 

[Steve Arlow]

You're best bet is probably Two Tree Island. Gunners Park is full of dog walkers so the best time to visit there is early morning, before 8am, once spring is in full tilt. Hockley Woods has good selection of woodland birds, by Essex Standards, but has even more dog walkers than at Gunners Park, especially at weekends. As such the photography there can be frustrating. Most areas in Southend are difficult for bird photography due to the overall level of the populance and the disturbance at the best areas.

Two Tree is good as there are hides there where there are actually birds, again early mornings are best.

In winter the end of Southend Pier can provide photographic opportunities for close up Turnstone and Purple Sandpipers as well as many Mediterranean Gulls and often Great Northern Divers. In autumn, from early September it can be good for passage terns and MedGulls.

Elsewhere it can be pot luck as most birds are difficult to approach and to get close to.

For Southend Bird sightings visit Southend Ornithological Groups website http://applerow.co.uk/default.asp

And for Southend bird photos visit Birdersplayground website http://www.birdersplayground.co.uk and navigate to the yearly photo pages and local rarities photo pages.

 

[Fozzybear]

I was going to suggest Two Tree too, but thought I'd let a local make suggestions first. Leigh-on-sea seems pretty good, I was there early winter and it was good for getting 'reasonably' close to Brent Geese and Black-tailed Godwits.

Further afield there are places like Rainham Marshes (although I've not been myself - it's a bit of a trail on public transport from Chelmsford when there are other places for me to go), and if you look northwards then Warley Place, Hanningfield Reservoir (at the fishing lodge I got very close to greylag geese, black swan, tufted duck and other waterbirds) and Maldon, particularly Heybridge lake and around Promenade Park are also pretty good for getting quite close.


In other news a male Grey Wagtail had been seen in the carpark of the Essex Record Office in Chelmsford and I saw him at the sluice nearby, where a pair had nested last year. Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs were singing from the trees in the area too, first Blackcaps I've heard 'in' Chelmsford this year, first ones I heard were the ones at Hanningfield Reservoir on Tuesday.

 

[TomW]

If you are in Shoeburyness area try Wakering stairs and along the sea wall to Haven Point.
If you get the tide right the birds will come to you, or walk out along the Broomway.
It is an army restricted area and is usually only open at weekends, so check first that no red flags are up.
Tom

 

[Phil Carter]

Had a Kite sp. over the tip in Colchester from Warren Lane yesterday. Unfortunately, was driving and couldn't stop for a better look.

Phil

 

[Steve Arlow]

In relation to Wakering Stairs as it is MOD photography is not allowed, signs are posted.

Wakering Stairs can have a good selection of migrants along the last couple hundred yards stretch of road or at the far western end of the sea wall. Watching waders here is very much tide related and best times are couple hours either side of High Tide. At Low tide there is at least 2.5 miles worth of exposed mud out to the tideline and very little will be seen. High tide will see large roosts of Oystercatchers and Grey Plovers on the Saltmarsh to the west of the slipway.

Paglesham Lagoon in winter can hold hundreds of waterfowl, Pintail, Shoveler, Goldeneye, Red-breasted Mergansers, Pochards, Tufted Ducks etc whilst Bewicks and the odd Whooper Swan can appear. Late summer here is also good as duck return in numbers and there can be a fair number of waders along the river Roach.