Blue House Farm Bird Reserve, North Fambridge Thursday is our new day off, so we took ourselves out of London on the Eastern Railway line towards Southend and then on the little single track branch line from Wickham to North Fambridge1 .
North Fambridge is a lovely quiet place with big skies, salt marsh estuary, boatyards, a good old pub and loads of wildlife. The flooded fields, dykes and river provide such special habitats for all kinds of birds that the main farm in the area, Blue House Farm, is now managed as an SSSI2 nature reserve by the Essex Wildlife Trust. The large flocks of thousands of geese still haven’t arrived from Siberia and Eastern Europe yet, the weather over there isn’t quite cold enough all along the path but Brent geese were chomping away on the sward and flying alongside the sea wall in several flocks of fifty or more, which is a cheery sight on a mild and bright, relatively wind free morning towards the end of November. Other types of geese included Greylags and Canadas, about 25 Barnacle geese, and a small group of six White Fronted geese. Will Marsh Harrier take a Wigeon? Back home at Wanstead Flats we are always pleased to catch a rare glimpse of a pair of Teal on the Alexandra Lake, but from the furthermost hide at Blue House Farm we watched a group of about 150 teal being frightened up into the air by a pair of Marsh Harriers hunting along the reed beds. These colourful small ducks can fly really well, twisting and turning almost like a murmuration of starlings. Then one of the Marsh Harriers started to make a move towards a solitary wigeon we’d been watching sitting on the river. The Marsh Harrier approached like an Osprey towards a fish near the surface, talons outstretched to within a couple of feet above the hapless wigeon, who wasn’t in the least bit bothered by the very real threat of impending carvery, the Harrier hovered for a second, eyeing up the prospect, then seemed to think better of it and withdrew. The wigeon still didn’t move towards cover though, and the Harrier came back for a second approach, but again decided that it dan’t want to attack a whole duck right at the moment and headed off back to the reed beds where it was presumably hunting for small songbirds or mammals.
Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogBlue House Farm North Fambridge The Crouch Valley LineSite of Special Scientific Interest
