100 Passed

Its official, this April is the wettest for a 100 hundred years (or since records began) so we were lucky as we set out for Fobbing marsh on the 30/4/12 in the sunshine. In the trees and bushes at the back of the Pegasus Club in Corringham we heard and then saw a cuckoo. This declining summer visitor also happened to be the 100^th species on my 2012 list. Cuckoos have had a lot of publicity recently with the BTO fitting radio transmitters to a number of individuals, in order to find out where they spend the winter and what migration routes they take. The BTO have also given the recently returned birds names such as Clement, Martin and Lyster.  I thought our local one should be called Wayne!

Moving on, we heard the calls of a chiffchaff and a green woodpecker that obligingly flew past and there were a number of male orange tips on the wing, enjoying the rare sunshine. As we crossed a stile, making our way to the Iron Latch footpath our progress slowed, in fact we almost stopped. Not far to the left of us, lying down, was a bull, complete with ring through the nose!  Needless to say, as we nervously crossed the field, we spent more time keeping an eye on the bull than looking for birds. Safely across the next stile and into more open parts of the marsh, we could hear a distant skylark and a few whitethroats were flitting around the patches of scrub. We were pleased to see a brown hare quietly sitting in the longer grass. I do wonder how they survive on this mainly overgrazed land.

Further on we reached what I think is the remains of an old WW2 gun emplacement. These low concrete structures, year after year, seem to attract wheatears passing through on migration and this time was no exception. There were three handsome males and two females busy feeding on the ground with occasional sorties on to the top of the bunker.

On retracing our steps we found that the bull had moved and was now lying just the other side of the stile, looking straight at us, so we decided on a detour via the ‘Vineyards’!  That diversion proved to be rewarding as we did see two male brimstones.

So, with the wheatear and whitethroat added to my bird list, I am now up to 102!