Tales From An Essex Birder

Having been back at uni in Liverpool for close to a week, it was decided that some birding was certainly in order. Thus me and Marc decided on a trip to WWT Martin Mere due to its good public transport links as well as the reserve having hosted both a Purple Heron and a Spotted Crake the day prior.  The arranged meeting time was 10am at Liverpool central station, however an impromptu night out and the losing of my phone resulted in me waking up at quarter to 11 and turning up an hour and a half late still pissed. Safe to say this was not my finest start to a birding trip and poor Marc had been waiting for me all that time! After apologising loads, we eventually got going. 2 trains and a couple of hours later we eventually arrived at the reserve. In broke student style we walked through a footpath at the back and hopped a fence - managing to get in without paying the entrance fee! A stop in the first hide revealed a decent amount of action with large numbers of finches taking advant...

I've been thoroughly enjoying having some free time recently before work starts again at university - as a result I've been able to spend some decent time in the field. With the shared car available for half a day and news that the Stone-curlews were still present at Coalhouse Fort scrape, I thought I'd try my luck with these long-staying birds. It was also an excuse to visit a site that I had never birded before. I'd been intending to make the short journey for months but had kept putting it off for one reason or another - Stone-curlew is certainly a great species to see in my native county of Essex and having only seen the species once before at Cavenham Heath a couple of years back, it would have been rude not to. Upon arrival, I was greeted with a light north-westerly breeze as I walked along the sea wall. There were high numbers of Linnets constantly passing over my head and a pair of Great-Crested Grebes elegantly graced the River Thames. A Marsh Harrier briefl...

 And....... breathe. After an incredible weekend in the field, I am now faced with the tricky task of writing about it in a way that can truly capture all the excitement. This could be a long one so buckle in... Day 1 - 09/09/22 6AM. My alarm goes off and I uncharacteristically jump out of bed before loading the car and setting off swiftly - my aim being to maximise the amount of time that I spend at the birdwatching Mecca that is Spurn. After 5 hours of driving I was finally greeted by the sight of Kilnsea Wetlands on the approach road to Spurn in addition to the myriad of birders that was only going to multiply over the weekend. After parking up and setting up my tent with relative ease, I set off on my first walk with the hope of connecting with my first rarity of the weekend - a juvenile Citrine Wagtail that had been lingering around the Riverside Hotel.  A Tree Sparrow feeding in the Observatory garden on the walk there was a good sign. And It appeared that my good run o...