A Day on Mersea Island

18th October 2025

This is our first visit to Mersea Island of the forthcoming winter, and cunningly timed to coincide with high tide. Unfortunately, as is often the case these days, the weather forecast was totally wrong and instead of a bright sunny day we were met with wall-to-wall overcast conditions.

As we walked down to the sea wall from East Road we looked for winter thrushes in the field by the Golf House to no avail, but did see a male Green Woodpecker on a post at the end of the track.

Also a female Reed Bunting in the bushes.

But today was all change. Normally at the high tide roost most of the waders gather in the saltmarsh pools at the end of the track from East Lane, but today one pool was totally dry and the others totally devoid of birds. This time the rather small roost was located on top of and below the bank behind the pools and at this point in time most of the birds in the roost were Curlews with more birds arriving all the time.

When we first started coming to East Mersea there were always hundreds of Black-tailed Godwits on the flooded fields east of the hide and around The Point, but these days there are far less as seen today. It was also interesting to note that ALL the waders flying in to the roost were coming from the Pyefleet Channel direction as opposed to the mouth of the estuary.

There were also decent size flocks of Dunlin which on arrival disappeared into the long vegetation by the Curlews.

But today I was particularly surprised by the large numbers of Grey Plovers coming into roost, far more than I can ever recall before.

Now on to the Oyster Fishery in the hope there were some waders roosting around the small pool or the slipway. Drew a blank there but there were about six Rock Pipits which were more cooperative than usual.

There was also a small bird flitting around with them but keeping mainly out of sight and I only managed to grab just one shot in the gloom, a Black Redstart. It then disappeared for a while and the last time I saw it was on the roof of the fishery. Nice to have a catch-up with Andy Field and pleased he managed to re-find it and get some shots.

The tide is on its way out now so time for a visit to The Point to see if any waders take advantage of the newly exposed wet mud. In fact, very few today with just a handful of distant Redshanks and a couple of Oystercatchers.

A quick call in a very busy West Mersea produced just a couple of Turnstones.

And now for a quick pitstop at Aberton for a coffee before heading home. There were an amazing 30 Great White Egrets today with a couple fishing in the bay at the south-east end of the Layer Breton Causeway...................

................and it can be seen from this photo that one of the birds has a red colour ring above the knee on its left leg.

This is a close-up of the ring with the letters AJV clearly visible.

I contacted Alison Morgan from the RSPB who said the bird was ringed as a juvenile female on the 22nd April 2025 at RSPB Ham Wall. It was the biggest of a brood of three. Here is a photo of it when it was ringed.

Since then it has been reported from:

               Gypsy Lane, Broom, Beds                                            28/06/2025

               Pannel Vally, Icklesham,Whinchelsea, East Sussex     02/08/2025

               Abberton Reservoir, Essex                                            02/09/2025

              Bellhouse Closed Landfill Site, Essex                          06/10/2025

              Abberton Reservoir, Essex                                            18/10//2025

Thank you Alison for the information.

But the stars of the show today were the nine Pintails from the Layer de la Haye causeway and definitely the closest Pintails I have ever seen at Abbertion. Brilliant!!!

A Lesser Yellowlegs at Etton

15th October 2025

A Lesser Yellowlegs had been reported at the quarries at Etton for some time now, so time for a visit. Unfortunately as we were approaching the area on the A1 there had been no reports of the bird so it was decided to divert to the Egleton Reserve at Rutland Water.

Fairly quiet as you would expect as this time of year, particulaely with mild weather, but it was nice to see so many winter duck already arrived but many still to emerge from their eclipse plumage. Here is a trio of Wigeon.

There were also a couple of Curlews feeding on the mud, with this one being particularly close in front of the hide.

Just 20 years ago Great White Egrets were quite rare and would attract lots of birders. Now they have colonised the UK in numbers and can be seen virtually everywhere.

Nevertheless, still a fantastic bird to see.

And this is a female Gadwall having a bath.

And when they have a bath, they really have a bath.

They have to ensure that every feather is soaked before the preening can commence.

And as tradition has it, always followed by a stand-up in the water for a wing-flap to dry off the wings.

But the bonus today was an air display by a juvenile Marsh Harrier.

After a few laps of the marsh it settled for a rest.................

.......................and looked at me to see what all the fuss was about.

At that point it was reported that the Lesser Yellowlegs was still on Rectory Pit at Etton so a half hour drive to try our luck. The directions to the pit were very good, but once there you were confronted by an enormous pit with a multitude of islands, so just a matter of settling down and scanning and more scanning. I eventually found two waders, a Ringed Plover..............and a Lesser Yellowlegs.

The yellowlegs was a bit distant, estimated as about 150 yards, but the good news was that it was overcast otherwise the bird would have been into the sun. These are the shots I managed to get.

Don't you just love it when a plan comes together....................eventually!!!!