Fingrinhoe Wick reserve visit cont.

Inside of the reserve there are woods, glade walks and pools;

The ponds are alive with nature, like this one - click on photo to enlarge

A nice dipping pond for the children to see the creepy crawlies.

Single Common Blue damselfly

Three Common Blue Damselflies.

Above & below a Brown Hawker laying eggs

Broad- bodied Chaser

Fingringhoe Wick E.W.T. Reserve

Fingringhoe Wick is a 48.6 hectare nature reserve in Fingringhoe in Essex. It is managed by the Essex Wildlife Trust, which runs a visitor centre on the site. It is part of the Colne Estuary Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Wednesday 4th July …. a very nice visit to Fingringhoe Wick. Although I have visited the centre before, I have never had a walk around the reserve, so for two hours, a pleasant stroll.

Welcome to the centre … Adult and juvenile Swallow on the visitors centre roof.

 Photo's of some of the views inside of the reserve.

One of the wooded areas 

The Jetty information board

Jetty posts

A view from the Jetty to the other side of the River Colne.


Next a few of the photo's taken of Dragonflies etc 

Greenfinch

One of my favourite birds is the Greenfinch. Some years ago in the early 1970's I remember they were quite common and used to eat the cherries of my neighbours tree, there were cherry pips everywhere even landing on the hearth where the pips had fallen down the chimney.  Then the Greenfinch populations declined during the late 1970s and early 1980s, but increased dramatically during the 1990s.  The recent  decline of the much-loved Greenfinch is caused by a widespread and severe outbreak of a disease called trichomonosis, that was first seen in finches in the UK in 2005. It has led to dramatic declines in Greenfinch populations across much of England since, but I'm led to believe they are on their way up again....I really hope so !

I took these photo's today in my garden. 
Click on photo to enlarge

Greenfinch & House sparrow

                                                           
                                                              Greenfinch & Goldfinch

                                                      I was here first....it's my feeder !

Nesting & Fledglings.

It's always sad when a nest fail's. This Blackbird nest was beautifully made with a lot of hard work, four eggs were laid, unfortunately a marauding Magpie found the nest and systematically robbed it, eating two of the eggs and carrying of the two remaining eggs minutes later. I never saw the female or the male Blackbird return to the nest again, that was three weeks ago. The nest was built in my Wisteria.

  Click on photo's to enlarge, note the use of modern day Blackbird technology with the use of plastic wrapping and nylon string. The plastic wrapping I suspect is for a bit of waterproofing ?

At this moment in time a Woodpigeon has nested in one of my garden trees and has been sitting there for ten days ( photo below ) It appears  there are no young yet. Also Collared Doves have taken an interest in my Wisteria...you never know.

House sparrows feeding time together.

Woodland Trust - Soken Wood

Information via The Woodland Trust website; 

Soken Wood (Tendring Millennium Wood) Malting Lane, Lower Kirby

(Kirby –Le –Soken).

In order to celebrate the Millennium Tendring District Council in partnership with the Woodland Trust purchased ten acres of arable land at Lower Kirby. The site was planted with a wide range of native broad leaf trees and formed part of the National 'Woods on your doorstep' campaign. In all 8000 trees have been planted on site. Of special interest are the 'prehistoric trees' planted in an arboretum area. These include Dawn Redwood, Tulip tree, Monkey puzzle and Ginko. The wood enjoys

spectacular views over Hamford Water NNR.

                                Easy access via Maltings Lane - open all year.

The welcome gate

Had a  hour walk around Soken Wood, ten minutes walk from my home, how fortunate I am. 

The time was 5:30 - 6:30 pm, still lovely warm and sunny.

     A couple of photos taken on the stroll.

plenty of these...Small White Butterfly

Meadow Brown

and on the home walking passed the allotments this nice Robin reminded me and others to Shut the gate

and to finish the walk off , a young Kestrel sitting on the flag pole.

Family bath time

23rd June 2018

( Click on the photo to enlarge )

House Sparrow family bath time 

 and joined by a friend 

Charlie the guard dog...do you mind that's my water dish !

Greenfinch

22nd June 2018

A couple of Greenfinches have been heard around my area and I have had sightings of at least three, one of which was juvenile. Manged to capture this photo of an adult male.
Hope they use my water feature.