Eleven of the group met at this Essex Wildlife Trust reserve on the River Colne. After several windy days we were met beautiful sunny day with an almost cloudless sky. This reserve has a mix of habitats including woodland, scrub, marsh and a relatively new intertidal area where the river wall was breached to allow […]
Nineteen members of the group managed to negotiate the closures of the M20 for our trip to this excellent Reserve. Established as a Local Nature Reserve in 1970, three years later the ‘Friends of Rye Harbour’ group was formed, over the years these members have played a major role in funding and giving voluntary […]
Autumn has arrived and a merry band of seven well prepared group members met at Rainham Marshes on a very wet Sunday morning. It seemed as if the house sparrows were feeling in a similar mood – as we gathered in the shelter of the visitor centre, they were gathering under the bird house feeder […]
Stodmarsh in May – my favourite reserve at the best time of year – what could be better? A merry band of seven met up and, despite the chilly weather, Stodmarsh once again delivered some great birds, although in some cases with tantalisingly brief views. We started off in the wooded section and proceeded around the […]
Myself and nine others met in the pre dawn twilight outside Cliffe church. As we made our way down Pond Hill we were greeted by the pre-dawn songsters: wren, blackbird & robin which were soon joined by song thrush with its repeated phrases. A cuckoo called but was not seen in gloom and we continued […]
It is never easy to leave a comfortable bed at 4 o’clock in the morning to go on a dawn chorus walk, but myself and nine others stealed ourselves and were rewarded with a memorable start to the day. This year’s dawn chorus took place 3 weeks later in the season than that from last […]
This week our group met for the first of our Tuesday morning walks. It was at Grain Coastal Park and it was a beautiful sunny day if not a little cold with a brisk easterly wind blowing. Sally and Malcolm were keen to show those of us who had met, some of the early […]
The old favourite strikes again. Today we realised that all the media speculation about autumn being on its way was probably right, as huge numbers of black-tailed godwit were already gathering in post-breeding flocks. Many juvenile birds were found including pied wagtail, shelduck, lapwing, coot (over 100), reed bunting, little grebe, starling, mute swan, greylag […]