Mistley at High Tide

20th November 2024

Time for our first visit of the winter to Mistley and as usual stop for a breakfast break at The Quay. As I sipped my tea I was wondering what joys we would behold on the other side of the magic fence - Goldeneye, Pintail, Red-breasted Mergansers, seals and a handful of waders as had been seen on previous visits? Well no, in fact not a single duck and just a single wader in the shape of a Curlew, so enjoy.

Now on to The Walls and a rather smart Shelduck was out on the mud....................

.......................when another one flew in.

There was a significant movement of Shelducks up-river today and although these are just singles and a flock of three, there were several flocks of 20+ birds.

A couple of drake Wigeon were working their way up the outflow, gradually getting nearer to the beach. Don't normally see them that close here.

And another surprise guest to this beach was a Brent Goose which are common on the coast in Essex, but are not seen so often here so far inland.

Apart from the Black-tailed Godwits the Redshank is by far the commonest bird on the Stour, but at Mistley the Redshanks are present all day whereas the godwits tend to fly in at high tide.

Always nice to see a couple of Oystercatchers and Turnstones which are less common this far up the estuary.

When we first started coming to Mistley the Black-tailed Godwits would get pushed in on the incoming tide by The Walls but on our more recent visits the vast majority fly upriver straight to the main roost area by the bridge. These were a few stargglers which hadn't read the new arrangements

Well another great day at Mistley but a bit worrying to report that in terms of sheer number of waders this was our worst day here since our first visit in 2015. Even more worrying is that this is also reflected at other local sites such as Fingringhoe Wick and East Mersea. Let's hope it improves.