In Search of Adders at Fingringhoe Wick

24th March 2019

Its that time of year when Adders are starting to emerge from hibernation so time for a visit to Fingringhoe Wick to hopefully get some photos. As is customary breakfast was on the Layer Breton causeway at Abberton Reservoir followed by a quick scan to see what was around. Goldeneye numbers were well down now but a rather smart drake was diving fairly close to the bank.

There was also a Heron watching the annual Mute Swan event in the Abberton Gold Cup.

The excitement was obviously too much as it then indulged in a spot of sunbathing using its wings as sun reflectors.

But the most amazing event this morning was when an Egyptian Goose flew in but instead of circling and landing on water, it flew 50 feet up into a tree and landed on its nest which had presumably been built on an old crows nest. I have seen them on Osprey platforms at Rutland but never realised that they nested in trees.

Now on to Fingringhoe and a quick visit to Robbie's Hide at high tide. The pair of Oystercatchers that seem to live on the jetty were fairly active and one of them provided a few photos as it flew in and landed on the post in front of the hide.

Although the tide was now fully in there was still some wader movement as they flew out of the river and on to Geedon's Marsh to roost. The waders were predominantly Redshank, but there were also some mixed flocks of Dunlin and Knot.

But then on to the target species for today and luckily there were two Adders on show, one fairly small one at about 15 inches and another larger specimen and about two feet. They can grow up to 30 inches.

Well, that was very successful and we left them in peace to enjoy the sun.