Seymour Birdies Diary: An Absolute Wader Fest on Mersea Point

2nd February 2018

Time for a mid-Winter visit to Mersea Island starting at Cudmore Grove. Today the high tide was at 1.30pm but was 5.7m high so we had to arrive early before The Strood was flooded. We made our way down the eastern path and peered over the hedge at the pond. Dougal the Ranger had strimmed the edge of the reed bed and the shallow water there was attracting a Water Rail which obliged by putting in an appearance.

The grazing field was now quite flooded due to the recent rain, although the floods themselves were totally devoid of birds. In fact the only birds present on the field were a flock of roosting Curlew, a pair of Shelduck having a nap, and a flock of grazing Wigeon.

Although it was still an hour to high tide, the mud was already covered and therefore it was decided to go straight to The Point in the hope of some wader movement.. As we dropped down on to The Point, a Rock Pipit was scavenging amongst the tide wrack.

We eventually reached the far end of The Point and initially all seemed quiet, but not for long. Due to the exceptionally high tide, the waders on the usual high tide roost by The Golf House had been flooded out and decided to relocate to The Point, even though we were already standing there. So from no birds one minute, we were suddenly presented with 300-400 waders just 15 yards away. How good is that?

The vast majority of the flock were Dunlin, the first time I have ever seen them on The Point itself. There were also about 30 Turnstone and a couple each of Knot and Sanderling. The flock was fairly restless and kept on flying around, but always returned to the same 20-yard stretch of shingle. This gave some great opportunities for some flight shots.

Eventually they settled, and were apparently quite happy with our rather close presence.

The Turnstone were also quite restless at first and were flying with the Dunlin whenever they got spooked for no apparent reason.

However, they too eventually settled down, waiting for the high tide to come in and then recede revealing acres of mud.

There were only a couple of Knot but although they never appeared at the same time, it was possible to tell them apart as one was ringed and had an orange flag on its left leg.

There were also a couple of Sanderling, very few considering the usual numbers on The Point at this time of the year.

The only other wader seen was a fly-by Grey Plover.

Well, that was quite an exhausting but most enjoyable hour of photography, so now time to go and vist the Mediterranean Gulls at West Mersea. The adults spent most of their time in the air, providing a challenge as they shot past quite close.