Beautiful Birds (and a Couple of Lighthouses!)

We have been out and about on the estuaries of the rivers Stour and Orwell. We went for a walk on Saturday in the vicinity of the (Roman-built) Saxon Shore fortification known as Walton Castle, which stood on the coast at what is now known as Felixstowe. You can read about the site here. You can only - possibly - see remains at a very low tide, which is why I was not able to take a photograph. I must wait patiently for the right time of the year ...

Then yesterday afternoon we turned our attention to the banks of the Stour. We had hoped to see waders in the form of winter migrants, but our path did not take us close enough to the water's edge for any decent pictures. However, I took a couple of record shots of Brent Geese in a scrubby field which you see below. These were a first for my 2013 bird-list, along with five Curlews that flew overhead. The Brent Geese in the photo above are small creatures. Adult birds have the distinctive white stripe on their necks. They will have been here on our coast since the autumn, and will probably leave Britain in about a month's time. You can find out more about them here - and what happened back in 1930.

We had actually been looking for the Stour Estuary RSPB Reserve, which we found later in the afternoon, but we ended up initially at the Wrabness Nature Reserve, run by the Essex Wildlife Trust.  

The Wrabness Reserve boasts a rich collection of fauna and flora, so perhaps we will head back there in butterfly and damselfly season. We heard fabulous birdsong, but only caught sight few of the songsters, such as a Blackbird and a Blue tit.

We drove on to Harwich, a town I had never visited before. By this time the light was fading, but we were able to see three lighthouses. I particularly liked the one known (appropriately) as the High Light (here). You can see Constable's painting of the Low Light (as it was in his day) here. 

Islands and Islets (2): Mersea Island - and its Brent and Brant Geese

We had checked the tide timetable before driving over the Strood to Mersea Island ...

The weather was bitter and blustery and it was hard to steady the camera ...

... I was determined, however, to try to capture these geese.

I suspect these are all Brent (rather than Brant) Geese ...

They were foraging in the tidal mud.

The one at the back looks as if it has a white collar that goes (almost?) all the way round.

West Mersea is an extraordinary place, with an unusual mix of wild, windswept coastal regions and small settled communities. We even noticed a Tesco! You can read about the history of the island here.

I checked the geese against the goose photos on the Mersea Wildlife blog, and am pretty sure that they are probably Dark-bellied Brent Geese (and not Black Brant Geese). It's a shame my record shots are just that due to the adverse weather conditions, but I was struck by the white collar on the goose at the back of the top photo. We must go back and explore the island further in better weather conditions.   

I was intrigued to learn that the Reverend Sabine Baring Gould (who wrote the words of 'Onward Christian Soldiers') spent a decade on the island as Rector of East Mersea. His book, Mehalah - A Story of the Salt Marshes, a best-selling Gothic Victorian tale, was based upon some of his island experiences. One of his other works was a biography of the eccentric Cornish clergyman, the Reverend Stephen Hawker of Morwenstow, who wrote ballads and kept an eye out for mermaids and shipwrecks from his cliffside hut.