01/04/2020

Working with Essex Wildlife Trust at Fingringhoe Wick nature reserve - leading guided birdwatching walks for ladies on alternate Wednesdays 10am-12noon and 1-3pm. For further details and bookings please contact the visitor centre on 01206 729678.

01/08/2020

With some easing of restrictions I have started to organise a few local guided walks (maximum 5 places), but all my illustrated talks and events remain cancelled until further notice. Apologies for any inconvenience caused. Stay well and stay safe.

22/09/2020

Tuesday 22nd September 10am – 12 noon The Naze
(£8 per person). Meet in the pay & display car park near the EWT visitor centre. TM264235. Drive through Walton and then follow Hall Lane and Naze Park Road to the end! The car park is on the right. The walk will be approximately 2 miles; and the ground is uneven in places.
Species we’ll be hoping to see include: flycatchers, warblers, wheatear, whinchat, yellow wagtail, maybe a rarity or two (eg red backed shrike or barred warbler).
Booking in advance is essential please

02/10/2020

Friday 2nd October 10am – 12 noon Landguard Point
(£8 per person). Meet in the car park by the View Point Café at the far end of View Point Road, Felixstowe IP11 3TW (where there are toilets). Part of the walk will be on the shingle beach. The site is a migration hotspot, but this can be very weather dependent.
Species we’ll be hoping to see include: purple sandpiper, wheatear, firecrest, common warblers, Mediterranean gull, ring ouzel, rarities; possible scoter, skuas and divers offshore.
Booking in advance is essential please

08/10/2020

Thursday 8th October 1.30 – 3.30 pm Fingringhoe Wick EWT
(£8 per person). Meet in the reserve car park. TM041195. CO5 7DN. Access is via South Green Road or Furneaux Lane (both quite narrow!) in Fingringhoe village. (As things stand, the visitor centre will not be open, but the toilets will.)
Species we’ll be hoping to see include: waders (eg black & bar tailed godwits, grey & golden plovers, avocet, knot, rarities possible), kingfisher, bullfinch, common buzzard, marsh harrier; scarcer species possible.
Booking in advance is essential please

08/10/2020

Thursday 8th October 10.15am – 12.15pm Fingringhoe Wick EWT
(£8 per person). Meet in the reserve car park. TM041195. CO5 7DN. Access is via South Green Road or Furneaux Lane (both quite narrow!) in Fingringhoe village. (As things stand, the site opens at 10am; the visitor centre will not be open, but the toilets will.)
Species we’ll be hoping to see include: waders (eg black & bar tailed godwits, grey & golden plovers, avocet, knot, rarities possible), kingfisher, bullfinch, common buzzard, marsh harrier; scarcer species possible.
Booking in advance is essential please

09/10/2020

Friday 9th October 10am – 12 noon Colne Point EWT
(£8 per person). Meet in the reserve car park at the far end of Lee Wick Lane, St Osyth. TM108125. Follow the lane through the farm, past the sewage works (where it becomes a rough surface) and over the seawall to the small car park area.
Species we’ll be hoping to see include: waders, corn bunting, rock pipit, marsh harrier, stonechat, black redstart or something rarer such as Dartford warbler (in 2019) possible.
Booking in advance is essential please

15/10/2020

Thursday 15th October 10am – 12 noon The Naze
(£8 per person). Meet in the pay & display car park near the EWT visitor centre in Old Hall Lane, Walton on the Naze, CO14 8LE. TM264235. Drive through Walton and then follow Hall Lane, Naze Park Road and Old Hall Lane to the end! The car park is on the right.
It’s migration time so it’s hard to predict, and almost anything could turn up, but species we’ll be hoping to see include: brent geese, sanderling, firecrest, brambling, warblers, thrushes, skuas. Rarities such as yellow browed or pallas’s warbler, wryneck, red backed shrike, ring ouzel possible!
Booking in advance is essential please

21/10/2020

Wednesday 21st October 10am – 12 noon Cudmore Grove Country Park
(£8 per person). Meet in the pay & display car park at the end of Broman’s Lane, East Mersea, CO5 8UE (there are toilets). (Take the B1025 to Mersea Island, cross the Strood and bear left towards East Mersea for approx. 3 miles).
Species we’ll be hoping to see include: little egret, black tailed godwit, teal, wigeon, brent geese, turnstone, avocet, red breasted merganser, stonechat, marsh harrier; also spoonbill, ring ouzel, gannet and eider at this time in recent years.
Booking in advance is essential please

30/10/2020

Friday 30th October 10am – 12 noon Abberton Reservoir
(£8 per person). Meet at the north (reserve) end of Layer de la Haye Causeway (there’s plenty of parking along the causeway) – B1026 - Church Road/Wigborough Road. We’ll probably birdwatch from the two causeways, depending on the latest bird news.
Species we’ll be hoping to see include: ducks (eg gadwall, shoveler, pintail, goosander – rarer species possible with long tailed duck and ring necked duck in recent years), waders, great white egret, marsh harrier, peregrine, kingfisher possible.
Booking in advance is essential please