Trip reports

Bird Walk at The Naze, Walton, Sunday 11th November.

Sunday, 2 December 2007

Just seven persons took part in this walk on a cool, windy November day accompanied by frequent attempts at light showers which fortunately did not materialise into anything more significant. The selection of the Naze as the venue was determined on the news of substantial movements of rarer seabirds along the east coast over a period of several days in response to the strong northerly winds which have dominated recently. Unfortunately that movement did not actually take place during our two hour walk and the only seabird of any note was a Guillemot flying north just offshore.

However the walk got off to a great start with a Little Owl coming to rest on a cliff face just opposite to us and this delightful small owl gave us excellent scope views for several minutes as it watched us intensely. We moved on along the clifftop and were very aware of a large number of people of all ages taking part in an orienteering event which covered the whole of the Naze and was not helpful in any search for smaller birds, of which very few were seen. Apart from gulls, a mixture of Black-headed and mostly juveniles of the larger species, there was little indication of movement over the sea. We did see two small groups of passing Brent Geese and more distantly a few fast moving ducks heading south with a tail wind.

On reaching the pools at the northern end there was a little more activity and the very high tide was actually breaching the foreshore and spilling into the larger pool. There were several waders here including Turnstones, Redshank and Dunlin, and small passerines included two Pied Wagtails and at least one Rock Pipit. At the furthest end a scan of the saltmarsh revealed a large number of loafing gulls, a flock of Oystercatchers, and one each of Little Egret and Curlew. Behind the seawall a Kestrel hovered in search of a meal, a single Reed Bunting dived into cover along the borrowdyke and two large flocks of Wood Pigeons were seen, one lot in mass flight and the others adorning the tops of the bushes along the back of a field.

The return walk again failed to find any real movement over the sea so it was frustrating to learn later that a wellknown Essex birder who we had spoken to during the walk had (it has to be said, after our departure) sightings of several Little Auks, a small flock of Common Scoter, one Velvet Scoter, and a few Gannets and Red-throated Divers. Still we got plenty of fresh air to blow away the cobwebs.