A weekend away visiting friends up near Colchester in Essex and I did manage to get in a little birding as this morning we took a walk around the Essex Wildlife Trust reserve of Fingringhoe Wick. Having visited the reserve several times in the past I knew what to expect, but this time we had a dog with us so we were somewhat limited with regard to where we could go, something I don't have a problem with and wish more nature reserves would do this. On the "dog walk" we didn't see much in the way of birds but there were loads of butterflies, including good numbers of Gatekeepers, a single Brown Argus, a Small Copper and a Common Blue plus a few Red Admiral, Peacock and Large Whites.
Returning to the visitor centre we dropped the ladies (and dog) off at the café whilst us chaps popped down to the new inter-tidal area (which was still under construction when I was at the site a year earlier). The tide was rising so there was a fair bit of wader movement with good numbers of Redshank, Black-tailed Godwit and Bar-tailed Godwit. I managed to pick out a single Knot and one Greenshank, plus a solitary Ringed Plover. A few Common Terns, including some juvenile birds, were also present and a Little Tern was unexpected.
All in in all we had a very enjoyable hour or so at the reserve, and a welcome bit of birding during a weekend away from the usual patch!
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