Autumn 2023 and Winter 2023/4- Dolphin and Waterthrush!

Two seasons in one in this report though not as much of a bumper edition as it might have been due to relatively low numbers of passage and wintering birds during this period. Nevertheless we did enjoy a couple of stand-out rarities- a new mammal and a bird.

Autumn 2023 was relatively warm but wet. The key weather feature nationally was a succession of four powerful named storms from across the Atlantic from late September to mid-November. The resulting westerly winds were the opposite to those needed to push migrating European birds over the North Sea to Essex however they did bring an exceptional number of American land birds to the West Coast.

September was quiet locally. There was just a sprinkling of passage migrants noted, including a Little Ringed Plover at Heybridge Pits, a Wheatear and a Whinchat at Limbourne Creek and a party of three Sandwich Terns that spent a few days fishing off the Dump. Peak counts included five Common Sandpiper along the river and 20 Chiffchaff at Lofts Farm. Whimbrel and Sand Martin were also noted.

Amongst migrant moths, a Convolvulus Hawk-moth was photographed by Phil Kinsman in his garden near the centre of town.

There was more avian variety in October. It was generally a good autumn for Short-eared Owls in Essex and there were local sightings around both Northey island and Limbourne Creek. There was also an Osprey hanging around the estuary towards the end of the month, being seen around Lawling Creek and over Northey Island, where it was watched perched on a post. Two Goosander were seen enjoying the high water levels around at Beeleigh Weir.

Numbers of arriving winter thrushes were low compared to other years, though a good bird locally was the first year Ring Ouzel that Simon Wood found at Lofts Farm.

The star of October, was the Common Dolphin that was seen on the river by Maldon Prom on 26^th October. For three days it appeared on the high tide and spent time busily feeding, presumably on fish that had also come up with the tide. More details are in this post: https://wildlifeofmaldon.blogspot.com/2023/10/

Interestingly, as I write this at the end of February a pod of three Common Dolphins have been seen along the Thames. Historically, dolphins have been extremely rare off the Essex coast but it does now seem that there are currently a number moving around the southern North Sea. It is not normal behaviour for Common Dolphin to come close inshore and up river estuaries- they normally prefer deeper waters. Fortunately those seen around Essex have so far seemed healthy and no strandings have been reported.

Around bonfire night for the past few Novembers, Sarah Manning has led a fungi survey in Hazeleigh Wood. It was interesting to see how different species were found this year compared with last. For example Clouded Funnel were hard to find whereas in other surveys they have been perhaps the most obvious species. So far these surveys have recorded over 250 species- an indication of the amazing diversity to be found in old woodlands.

Although numbers of many birds remained low, there has been a reasonable show of typical Maldon winter birds to be seen on the patch towards the end of the year, such as Marsh Harrier, Peregrine, Kingfisher, Water Rail, Grey Wagtail, Bearded Tit, Stonechat and Red-breasted Merganser.

Heybridge Pits remains a good site for wintering Greenshank (of which there were at least four) and there was a Common Sandpiper along the river. There was a Red-throated Diver off Osea Causeway and sporadic records of Merlin.

Numbers of more significant wintering species vary year by year. There are a number of factors at play. Local ones include food supply and disturbance. This winter there have been fewer Coot and Tufted Duck at Lofts Farm. It has been suggested this has been due to changes in the weed cycle, with too much blanket weed inhibiting other types of weed that are better for the aquatic life that the birds feed on (there has also been an impact on fish populations).

More generally, two major factors are at play- general population declines and redistribution of wintering areas due to climate change. Examples of these are reflected in our own local experiences. WeBS counts have shown that Goldeneye, Bewick’s Swans, Scaup and Coot are all tending to migrate to the UK in smaller numbers. Around Maldon, we have lost our wintering Goldeneye and it is some years since we have seen Bewick’s Swans or Scaup. In the case of Goldeneye and Coot, studies appear to show that their overall European populations are stable, suggesting that lower numbers are mainly due to more birds wintering on the other side of the North Sea. However Scaup and Bewick’s Swans are also suffering from significant overall population declines. There is some interesting discussion of these points in a BTO press release: https://www.bto.org/press-releases/uk-winter-holidays-no-longer-needed-some-ducks

Other wintering species are holding their own or even increasing. It is always great to see the return of the regular Golden Plover flock that spends a lot of time off the end of the Prom (and no doubt the local Peregrines look forward to their return too!). Numbers seem the same this year as in previous years, with 500+ individuals. There have been good numbers of wintering Avocet (including a count of 510) and we have had a record local count of Shelduck (810). To put the significance of the Shelduck count into perspective, anything above 470 is currently seen as a nationally important number, and these were all recorded at our end of the estuary, between Maldon and Osea Island.

The most obvious wader around the Prom this winter has been Lapwing. It is likely that extra birds came over from the continent during one of the few cold snaps.

Generally, December was mild, and there was no big freeze on the continent to push birds our way. Frustratingly, while much of the rest of the country was enjoying a Waxwing year, we failed to find any ourselves.

January, though, more than made up for that when Simon Wood found the country’s first major rarity of the year outside his living room window!!! A combination of his wildlife gardening skills, incredible luck that the bird should turn up at all, along with his ability to identify a totally unexpected bird from a fleeting view, resulted in Northern Waterthrush being added to the Essex list. Only the eighth British record, its an American warbler that normally migrates to Central America and the Caribbean for the winter. Its quite possible that it crossed the Atlantic during the storms of autumn 2023.

Simon put the news out and fortunately the bird was relocated at the creek by Hall Road, meaning that during its stay an estimated 2000 birders were able to enjoy watching it perform, including some who had travelled all the way from as far afield as Scotland and even Scandinavia to see it. More details on this blog post: https://wildlifeofmaldon.blogspot.com/2024/01/northern-waterthrush-heybridge-3rd-8th.html

Not surprisingly, with all those birders about, a few other interesting birds were spotted, including a Bittern and a Goldeneye at Heybridge Pits and two sightings of Waxwing, one of which was very close to Simon’s house but which none of us locals managed to catch up with!.

Probably the best numbers of finches and buntings seen were around the fields to the north of Lofts Farm. In the same area, a large Corn Bunting flock was seen- good news as numbers in some traditional sites, such as along Southey Creek, were lacking. There was a small flock of Lesser Redpoll at Hazeleigh Wood and a Siskin flock at Beeleigh, but numbers of winter finches were generally low.

There were some further signs of potential colonisers for our patch. A Raven was seen at Lofts Farm at the end of September and was seen/ heard again around there and South Wood on several dates till 19th November. Ring-necked Parakeet are gradually spreading east (there are quite a lot around Brentwood eg in Thorndon Woods) so it was not too surprising that one was seen by Daisy Meadow car park in Heybridge and the same, or maybe another, was then seen from Ironworks Meadow. These are the first records since 2013 (a pair bred in 2012 at the end of Fitch’s Crescent).

On the mammal front, on 20^th January, just 200 yards outside of our patch, a Chinese Water Deer was spotted near Ulting. Like Muntjac, these deer are descendants of animals that have escaped from collections . They have been spreading around the coast from their stronghold around the broads of Suffolk and Norfolk. This was the first record from our part of Essex.

The next bird to hit local social media was the Robin that established a territory inside Morrisons Supermarket. It was regularly reported singing from the beams above the salads. Initial attempts to move it outside failed as it just waited by the doors to fly back in. I gather it was eventually relocated some distance away.

After the excitement of the Waterthrush, the worry might be that the rest of the year will be an anti-climax. However a look at the estuary soon dispels this thought as you become entranced by the thousands of birds that are using our patch for their winter home.

A surprise was the sight of five Great White Egrets flying north over Heybridge- recognition of just how many of these larger cousins of the Little Egret can now be seen around the county.

On 20^th February, Simon and I finally got round to heading down the sea wall to Southey Creek to check out the local Brent Goose flock. Now that the National Trust has spent some work improving the Northey Island fields for them (including removing an overhead electricity cable), they are often out of view. Fortunately something spooked them as we were passing and they all flew up and landed on the river. From here it was possible to pick out an impressively chunky and well-marked Black Brant amongst the regular Dark-breasted birds. A few pairs of Black Brant are known to breed amongst the Dark-breasted in their Siberian breeding grounds and end up flying west to Europe to winter as opposed to the majority of Black Brant that migrate to winter on Pacific coasts.

With Spring now around the corner, moth trapping at Hazeleigh was recording plenty of the moths with appropriate names- Spring Usher, Spring Harbinger,  Early Moth and Early Grey, not to mention the March Moth (which is now regularly recorded in February).

On 15th February, Simon’s traps attracted a remarkable 1000-1250moths of 25+ species. Its always nice to look at the ‘by-catch’ too, such as this Minotaur Beetle.

A big hope for the spring is that the Black-headed Gulls will return to next at Heybridge Pits. The effects of last years abandonment of the colony following an avian flu outbreak was very visible when I was checking gulls out from the Prom. Out of an estimated 2-300 Black-headed Gulls I could only pick out two first year birds.

An extra worry for them this year is the very high water levels that are currently swamping the islands and spits that they normally nest on. February 2024 has been one of the wettest Februarys on record. The combination of high volumes of water flowing down the Chelmer plus spring tides has flooded Maldon Hythe on a number of occasions.

Finally, to end on a positive note, it was great news to hear that our local Ironworks Meadow Nature Reserve was declared winner of the Nature Conservation category of the Maldon District 2023 Conservation & Design Awards.