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In winter, peregrine falcons hunt coastal marshes and sea walls and sometimes Abberton Reservoir where they take teal.
Often goldcrests join mixed flocks of finches in woods and gardens.
Look for snipe in boggy places and wet coastal pastures and marshes.
Large flocks of knot can now be seen in estuaries and coastal beaches.
Popular visitor to garden feeding stations is the greenfinch (male on left)
Above: One of the most colourful ducks now to be seen at Abberton Reservoir and at other inland waters is the shoveler (drake right).
Early in November shoveler are arguably the most eyecatching, especially the colourful drakes. There are also plenty of tufted duck, mallard, teal, wigeon and gadwall. Lowered water levels have meant expanses of mud and vegetation which provide good feeding grounds for a variety of waders. These can include black-tailed godwits, redshank, dunlin, snipe, ringed plover, spotted redshank and grey plover. A chance too, to see some birds of prey. Ketrels, sparrowhawks and common buzzards are fairly regularly seen with an occasional peregrine falcon. At the end of October there was a significant influx of short-eared owls from Scandinavia and the Baltic and one was seen off the Layer Bretton Causeway.
Mistley is a must for those who want to watch a spectacular number of waders and ducks. From your car you can watch big flocks of black-tailed godwits, knot, dunlin and ringed plovers and there are often large flocks of golden plovers on the mud. Out on the Stour River channels are lots of mute swans for which Mistley is famed because of its maltings. Goldeneye, red-breasted mergansers can be spotted and almost always some cormorants join them to fish.
Cudmore Grove Country Park, East Mersea, is another hot spot for winter birders. At the end of October there was excitement when a glossy ibis and grey phalarope arrived. A jack snipe was also a welcome visitor. There are always flocks of dark-bellied brent geese, wigeon, godwits and golden plovers and sometimes good numbers of common snipe. Look out for little grebes (dabchick) in the dykes or red-breasted mergansers offshore and in the estuary. Birds of prey can include hen harrier, marsh harrier, short-eared owl with an occasional merlin and peregrine. Later in the winter small flocks of snow buntings forage along the shore which is an added attraction. If you want to know what’s currently at Cudmore, the ranger Doughal Urquhart, has a blog in which he shows images of birds and other wildlife observed.
A personal favourite wintertime venue is Essex Wildlife Trust’s Tollesbury Wick Reserve. Here there are 600 acres of rough pasture, borrowdykes, sea walls, wet flushes, pools and salt marshes. It’s famed for its flocks of brent geese, wigeon, golden plover and lapwing and also for its birds of prey; marsh and hen harriers, merlin, kestrel and the occasional peregrine. In the Blackwater Estuary and the South Channel there are flocks of wintering avocets as well as red-breasted mergansers and goldeneye. Little groups of eider duck are also frequent.
Good news that the newly-formed colony of spoonbills in Norfolk raised 15 young this year. Spoonbill sightings are on the increase and some are seen at Abberton and other water sites in Essex. Some of these birds could be from Holland but, of course, some of our natives disperse in winter.
Local gardeners will resume regular bird feeding which is very important with the return of cold weather. Very popular visitors are goldfinches and greenfinches. In the woods, mixed flocks of tits are often joined by goldcrests and treecreepers and little parties of long-tailed tits visit gardens for the feeders and in search of spiders and insects.
Above: Another duck seen at Abberton in growing numbers in November is the Gadwall.
Rare bird appears in West Bergholt 15/11/11
Every birder hopes that one day a rare bird will arrive in his or her garden even though the chance is a very long shot. But on the morning of November 15 my wife Linda and I were in luck. Linda spotted a strange pale starling-
Every year a few adult and young of this species are seen in Britain. The adults are pink and black beauties. My near neighbour, Philip Smith, joined us to watch this surprise, attractive visitor as it joined ordinary starlings on the lawn to feed on some bread we had put out earlier. Of course this is a once in a lifetime record so we are very pleased. It joins the Essex county records for the year.
