@essexbirdnews.bsky.social @birdtrack.bsky.social Heybridge GP: 1 little stint on islands (found by @simonwood42.bsky.social ), 2 common sandpipers, 3 different groups of bearded tits heard in reedbeds, lesser whitethroat, yellow wagtail, 2 swifts over, 2 turnstones & 20 dunlin in high tide roost

@essexbirdnews.bsky.social @birdtrack.bsky.social a singing quail from this morning's walk to mundon wash sluice, I still haven't seen one of them! Also fledgling yellow wagtails, 12 little egrets & 1 greenshank in the low tide stream off the sluice. House martins over limebrook way was a surprise!

A video of the singing willow warbler. It was a blustery recording so there are wind sounds.

A little bit further along, there were 2 close counter singing blackcaps (video attached). Chiffchaffs & blackcaps were almost everywhere but only 1 willow warbler, sadly now lost as a breeding species here, but it's great to hear its (spring is truly here) song

@essexbirdnews.bsky.social @birdtrack.bsky.social Essex Wildlife trust #maldon wick: 2 singing nightingales (video of 1 attached). Whitethroats, yellowhammers & corn buntings singing from the hedgerows, green sandpiper in ditch, buzzard & raven (patch 1st & almost a garden ✔️) being mobbed by rooks!

@essexbirdnews.bsky.social @birdtrack.bsky.social Essex Wildlife trust Blue House Farm: 2 Little Ringed Plover: 4 whitethroat, 6 sedge warbler, 2 swallow, 2 raven, corn Bunting, 6 curlew, 1 brent goose, 1 yellow wagtail, c100 Mediterranean gulls, meadow pipits display flights & 1 less gadwall

A selection of bar-tailed godwit photos

@essexbirdnews.bsky.social @birdtrack.bsky.social #Heybridge GP sunrise walk: 3 otters! 3m reed warblers, 6m sedge warblers, 3m whitethroats, 5 little egrets, 40 brent geese, 200 summer plumage black-tailed godwit, 20 bar-tailed godwits, 2 turnstones, 5 curlew, 50 avocets, pair sparrowhawk

The singing male blackcap hidden in the brambles must have been a very impressive singer, as 2 females were on the branches enticed there by him. It's a sight I have rarely seen over 40 years of birdwatching!

@essexbirdnews.bsky.social @birdtrack.bsky.social #Essex Wildlife trust Shut Heath Wood: 2 mistle Thrush by car park, great numbers of blackcaps & chiffchaffs throughout the wood. Nothing out of the ordinary, the resident species (large & small) were singing & looking at nest holes.

@essexbirdnews.bsky.social @birdtrack.bsky.social #essexwildlifetrust #Abberton LBC: Bittern booming, 2 pairs marsh harriers, 3 spoonbills, 2 cattle Egrets, 3 GWE, 1 Black Swan, 1 swallow. Billets farm: 30+ Med gulls, 2 kestrels. LDLHC: 1 Peregrine, 4 white wagtails, singing willow warbler

@essexbirdnews.bsky.social @birdtrack.bsky.social #Maldon wick & fields south of limebrook way: 10 song thrushes singing, 12 yellowhammers, 10 corn buntings, 3 kestrels, 1 red kite, 15 fieldfares, 12 stock doves, 100+ black-headed & 30+ common gulls, c20 skylarks, cetti's warbler & 18 fallow deer

I did record one of the lesser spotted woodpecker calls on merlin.

Here are the photos of the Red-flanked Bluetail. Fortunately our paths crossed as I went for a little walk to see what else was around during one of its long disappearing acts.

I finished on Sunday by looking around the Broads area at St.Benet's Abbey with 2 roadside cattle Egrets, 48 white-fronted geese, 30+ distant whooper swans & bearded tits calling from the reedbeds by the ruins & 2 showed despite the wind. A last light stop to see 29 feeding cranes in a usual place.

@birdtrack.bsky.social @norfolkbirds.bsky.social great weekend with Army Ornithological Society in Norfolk. Additions of continental subspecies of Dipper & Black Redstart having seen siberian Chiffchaff before. 2 woodcocks flying over car, great Northern diver at Wells & island like scoter raft!

@essexbirdnews.bsky.social @birdtrack.bsky.social Heybridge GP: 25 bar-tailed godwits, 200 knot, 2 greenshank in the high roost of the usual waders & wildfowl. 2 drake goldeneyes were in the river by the end of the prom. 2 rock pipits along the seawall, 6 linnets in scrub 1/2

Wishing you all a happy new year & best wishes for 2026! For a 2nd time my UK 🇬🇧 bird year list is 215 species with 5 UK lifers (purple heron, red-footed falcon, black stork, Zitting Cisticola & Bonaparte's gull). I missed a few too! 307 in total, depending on ignoring new lumping taxonomy.

A frosty birdwatching walk along #Maldon wick & through the fields south of limebrook way. Highlights were treecreeper, siskin, green sandpiper, grey wagtail, singing song thrushes & cetti's warblers, buzzard & kestrel. Red-legged partridge heard @essexbirdnews.bsky.social @birdtrack.bsky.social

A video of the bearded tits so turn up the volume! My closest encounter with them so far!

@essexbirdnews.bsky.social @birdtrack.bsky.social EWT Blue House Farm: merlin hunting (flying up to dive down on) skylark over (still bone dry) round marsh & c12 bearded tits in ditch by hide; rock pipit & 20 brent geese on seawall with singing corn bunting at eastern end; grey wagtail over carpark

@essexbirdnews.bsky.social @birdtrack.bsky.social #Maldon wick: plenty of chiffchaffs, 2pr of yellowhammers, 1 grey wagtail, yellow wagtails & meadow pipits on the fields, pr of buzzards, 2 kestrels, 1 snipe in the limebrook. I'm sure it's a barn Owl feather I found, can anyone confirm it?

@essexbirdnews.bsky.social @birdtrack.bsky.social 22 little egrets in low tide pool, Maldon so 30+ from beeleigh weir. Also 4-5 common sandpiper, 1 water rail, 2 kingfisher, 2 grey wagtail, 30+ linnet, 20+ stock dove, 1 hobby, 6 mute Swan (3ad 3 cygnets), blackcaps, song thrushes, goldcrests

@suffolkbirdgroup.bsky.social @birdtrack.bsky.social a morning double twitch (2 UK lifers) on 24/08/25. Warblerswick for the Zitting Cisticolas, several displaying song flights from the male & another preening seen in the reeds. RSPB Boyton for the juvenile Black Stork feeding in the borrowdyke.

@essexbirdnews.bsky.social @btobirds.bsky.social interesting willow warbler singing variation with a chiffchaff break in the middle. A hybrid song from a hybrid bird? Also hobby, 2 red legged partridges, 8 yellowhammers, skylarks but only 1 corn bunting & no swallows on the farmland

@essexbirdnews.bsky.social rainy walk to mundon wash sluice via northey Island causeway: purring turtle dove! This used to be a regular territory, 2 bearded tits in limbourne Creek, min 3 whimbrel, 3 greenshank, 1 common sandpiper, 1 common gull. Fledgling whitethroats, sedge & reed warblers.

@essexbirdnews.bsky.social LBC, Abberton Reservoir: 2 eclipse garganey with mallards, 100+ mute Swan including a brood of 8 cygnets with 1 white "polish" one, Ruddy Shelduck, Kingfisher, 2 great white egret, 2 common & 3 green sandpipers. Pair of spotted flycatchers at a nesting site.

I spoke too soon, as I working next to the bridge the great white egret walked underneath. The moorhens there must be nervous as they have chicks the egret could easily eat. Who would have thought of the recent birds seen there when I regularly passed this way as a teenage birder in the mid 80s!

@essexbirdnews.bsky.social @birdtrack.bsky.social a salsifying kind of morning. A home patch walk: 2 singing nightingales, lesser whitethroat, plenty of yellowhammer, corn & reed bunting, yellow wagtail, 4 singing reed warblers & 1 silent cuckoo flying nearby them, 3 mistle Thrush & noisy buzzard!

@essexbirdnews.bsky.social @birdtrack.bsky.social bank Holiday walk at @rspb.bsky.social old hall marsh: 2 barn owl, 2 Marsh Harrier, 2 kestrel, 2 bearded Tit, 5 whimbrel on Tollesbury channel saltmarsh with juv GBB gull, 5 little ringed Plover. Oystercatcher, avocet, redshank & lapwing chicks seen.