More Essex

Scarce Emerald (Lestes dryas) and getting down to the hard-grasses, looking at the diminutive anthers of Curved hard-grass (Parapholis incurva - left) next to Hard-grass (P. strigosa - right).

Following the Essex theme, last week provided the opportunity to look around a rarely visited south-east corner of the county.  The seawalls and borrow-dykes provide the habitat for some local botanical specialities; Slender Hare’-s-ear, Sea Barley, Stiff Saltmarsh-grass and Curved Hard-grass were all duly noted.  The saline borrow-dykes supported Spiral Tasselweed and the specialist lagoonal isopod Idotea chelipes, whilst the more brackish pools had Scarce Emerald Damselfly and Hairy Dragonfly.  The bird highlights included 5 Short-eared Owls and 6 Whimbrel, as well as breeding Redshanks and Shelduck.

A Little Sterner

Beauty and the beast: the problems for the Little Tern.

The two-day tour of the Essex coast was primarily to look at the fortunes of the Little Tern.  By the time we had finished, and understood the problems, we were all a little sterner.  Little Terns have not been doing well recently; in Essex or further afield in the south-east.  They suffer from disturbance by humans, competition from gulls and flooding from high tides.  And everything seems to like to eat them; from Foxes, Stoats and Hedgehogs, to Kestrels and owls.  Much of this comes down to an increasing lack of safe nesting sites on our over-crowded coastlines.

Whilst the beaches clearly have disturbance issues, the Essex coast has many small saltmarsh islands amongst its estuaries and creeks.  We found 3,500+ pairs of Black-headed Gull, 100+ pairs of Herring Gull, 56 pairs of Common Tern, 30+ pairs of Oystercatcher and 8 pairs of Ringed Plover.  More surprisingly, a total of 29 Mediterranean Gulls were noted, including at least 6 on nests.  Little Terns amounted to 41 nesting pairs, with 20 or so additional birds.

The islands perhaps provide an answer for the Little Terns.  Many of the nesting pairs are on areas of dumped dredging or shellfish remains.  The saltmarsh islands are not attractive nor very accessible to people or ground predators.  A partnership with harbourmasters and fishery interests might bring about the regular recharging of small areas of suitable nesting habitat for the terns.

Elsewhere in East Anglia, news is of mixed fortunes for Little Terns, with the usual problems of flooding out and predation.  However, up to 200 pairs near Winterton is excellent and North Norfolk may still have 400 active nests. A spell of calm weather might be helpful!

Red-breasted Devaluation

Geese in Essex - Red-breasted last winter and broods of Barnacles yesterday.

Just to remind you, here’s a photo of a Red-breasted Goose in Essex from last winter.  I saw it again yesterday, or did I? I certainly saw a Red-breasted Goose; holding territory on an Essex coastal marsh, with a female tucked away on a nest.  Last year this pair raised four young.

I was visiting an area of coastal marshland at the invitation of the landowner during a two-day tour of sites on the Essex coast.  The landowner is a farmer who ‘likes his birds’.  The most obvious thing about this well-managed land was that it was teeming with young birds; waders, geese and duck.  There were around 70 pairs of Avocets (many with well-grown young), 5 pair of Ringed Plover, 20 pairs of Little Terns, 1,000 pairs of Black-headed Gulls and many Redshank.  I saw broods of Gadwall, Tufted Duck and Shoveler.  The landowner operates a minimal disturbance policy and ‘discourages’ ground predators such as Foxes and Stoats. There were also many geese, including about 80 pairs of Barnacles and the pair of Red-breasted.  I saw around 20 broods of Barnacle Geese.  A fascinating site, but somewhat alarming if you want to think the Red-breasted Goose you are chasing is wild.