Do you ever look down at the cat on your lap, or the dog spread out at your feet and wish you were one of them?As Spring gets into full swing, I am envious of the freedom of wildlife ; the corn bunting jangling on the hedge top,the hare lazily lolloping, just stretching its legs across the ploughed field. Out in the sunshine on Wallasea Island, in my spare time I emphasise in case the boss is reading, the cacophany of skylarks is almost deafening at times! But how quickly do we forget the hard winter? Would you have swapped places so readily then?I've just received the latest figures for bird counts on the developing marshland on the North of the island. Having been monitored now for 5 years since its first breach, it is proving its worth in providing a much needed place of food and shelter. Mud may look dull and flat to the uninitiated, but to a tired and hungry migrant bird it's as welcome as a service station on the M6, and the food is much fresher and better quality!!This Winter nearly 17,000 birds stopped at this avian version of Welcome Break to feed on the buffet of invertebrates now on offer in the developing mudflats.This included an exceptional cold weather count of over 6,700 Wigeon, whistling their way to us in December.The totals for some of the other ducks were also high, with 891 shelduck and 925 teal - attractive and easy-to-spot species for us Bad Birdwatchers. Low numbers of loafing (non-feeding) waders such as lapwing and golden plover were balanced by increases in some of the feeding waders such as dunlin, redshank and bar-tailed godwit, It was good to have 1-2 greenshank present throughout the winter, a relative rarity at this time in Essex.So if you, like me, are enjoying the sunshine and walking along the seawall thinking there's not much out there - take a better look, or better still join a Wallasea Wander and have the wildlife pointed out by someone who knows!Details of Wallasea Wanders coming up are on the events lists or give me a call for information.
(Oh, and my apologies for the tenuous link to Free Bird to those of a certain age, but here's a link to make up for it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np0solnL1XY)
I've gone wild on Wallasea!