Brian had a free afternoon today, so we decided to visit Wallasea Island. It's situated on the eastern side of Essex. The reserve has saltmarsh, mudflats, marshland, lagoons, ditches, and sea, which is bordered to the north by the River Crouch and to the south by the River Roach.
Three million tonnes of earth from the Crossrail project was bought by boat to the reserve to raise the land above sea level, creating the area now known as Jubilee Marsh.
We took the trail out towards Caroline's hide but turned east to the viewing mound hoping to connect with the Pallid Harrier that had been spending time on the reserve in recent days. The tide was out and there were very few waders present on the lagoons. I was amazed by the sheer number of Little Egrets on site. There were well over a hundred seen! A Peregrine was sitting among the grass at the back of Fitzroy Lagoon and a second bird was seen from the viewing mound. We spent a couple of hours scanning the eastern section of the reserve watching Buzzards, Kestrels, Marsh Harriers, and a female Hen Harrier that looked like it was in heavy moult. Then around 4pm, the juvenile Pallid Harrier appeared over Jubilee Marsh. It flew low along the fence line eventually crossing the path to hunt over Allfleets Marsh. We were treated to some stunning views as it slowly flew past us and headed back over the path.
On the walk back along the sea wall towards the car park the Pallid Harrier was spotted again. This time it was being harassed by a Sparrowhawk.
We didn't manage to find any Short-eared Owls on this trip but did find a male Merlin sitting among a ploughed field as we left the reserve.
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| Pallid Harrier |
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