Seymour Birdies Diary: A Late Winter Visit to Fingringhoe Wick

8th March 2022

We are now in early March so probably the last visit to the intertidal zone this winter and lets hope there are still a few waders left. The ducks were represented by just Teal and Shelduck, although there was also a large flock of Wigeon on the River Colne which stayed there during high tide.

There were at least 50 Shelduck which had obviously be feeding at low tide and were now just sleeping and loafing about.

Some had already paired up and were displaying and flying round in twos.

There were still large numbers of Brent Geese as they do not leave for their northern breeding grounds until April-early June.

A few Black-headed Gulls were making the most of the large expanses of mud until it was covered by the incoming tide and they then had to retreat. Most of the gulls here were still in full winter plumage whereas others elsewhere have already got their chocolate caps.

There were a few Cormorants digesting their catches on the still exposed mud banks although this one coming in to land looked as though it had landed on the other ones head.

Little Egrets don't seem to be as numerous as they once were and this individual was the only bird present.

During my stay I was treated to two birds of prey, a female Marsh Harrier and a juvenile Peregrine Falcon. Unfortunately the harrier kept its distance so I was only able to grab a couple of shots.

The Peregrine typically flew through at a huge rate of knots and seemed to have something trailing, either a dis-lodged tail feather or something stuck to its talon.

The Oystercatchers were also in breeding mood with lots of displaying, piping and flying around.

This one was practising the art of levitation.

Amazingly, although I could hear Curlews calling on the river, only one ventured into the intertidal zone and stayed until it was forced out by the rising tide.

About a 100 or so Avocets were feeding on the river and then flew in and settled down for the high tide roost on the far side of the lagoon.

All that is except this one, which insisted on swimming all the way.

All estuaries have their key species and the River Colne is Redshank Central. When the tide starts to flood the intertidal area they are the first to feed on the mud before it disappears and can sometimes come quite close.

However, eventually they are are forced to move to higher ground and fly off.

But today as I was scanning the few remaining birds I came across these two birds feeding next to each other just outside the hide. This is an ideal opportunity to compare the Spotted Redshank on the left with a Redshank on the right. As can be seen the Spotted Redshank is a greyer colour in its winter plumage, has a longer finer bill and a distinctive eye-stripe. Here are a series of close-ups as it walked past the hide.