A Second Visit to The New Intertidal Area at Fingringhoe Wick

21st September 2016

After a successful morning photographing the Lesser Yellowlegs at Hythe Lagoon, time to move just 2.5 miles down the River Colne to Fingringhoe Wick to have another look at the new intertidal area. First stop was the scrape to see whether any Greenshanks or Spotted Redshanks had arrived yet, despite it being still two hours before high tide. In the event there were already five Greenshank and a single Spotted Redshank present, with more Greenshank flying in during the five minutes I was there.

The Spotted Redshank was indeed a stunning bird.

Now on to the Intertidal Area and there was already some flying action with both Lapwings,Teal, Dunlin and Grey Plover changing their positions as the tide raced in.

The Knot, Dunlin and Ringed Plovers were building up nicely, but for some reason always selected low spits which would inevitably be covered after a while necessitating a move to a more substantial island.

With each small island starting off as species-specific gathering , it was inevitable that the larger gatherings would contain a mixture of species including Black and Bar-tailed Godwits, Dunlin, Knot, Grey Plover, Avocet and even the odd Turnstone.

But by far the biggest surprise today was when a juvenile/female Red-breasted Merganser popped up just eight yards outside the hide, so close that at first I couldn't even get it all in.

It swam around for a bit until making this rather odd gesture before taking off and disappearing back on to the River Colne. How amazing is that?