34
Meadow Pipits, a Curlew, Reed Bunting, and a solitary
Wheatear were all seen. One member sighted six Herons
standing at intervals along a hedgerow on the other side
of the River in Suffolk. A Cormorant added further interest
to the meeting in that it was seen capturing and swallowing
a flat fish.
The Botanists of the party recorded Corn Marigold -
Chrysanthemum segetum - not a very common plant nowadays,
also Dittander - Lepidium latifolium.
At the end of the meeting 33 birds had been recorded (35 in
1979). This was a meeting in which very few waders were
to be seen; the reason for this is not clear.
Mike Parker.
WALTON-ON-THE-NAZE IN AUTUMN. 11th OCTOBER 1981.
The autumn visit to the Naze neatly complemented the spring
visit which was made almost exactly six months earlier.
With similar sunny (though cooler and windier) weather, the
birds were clearly changing - the winter birds were starting
to arrive while the summer ones were almost gone.
'Almost gone' is particularly apt since we had scarcely
arrived at the car park when a lone Swift was seen flying
due south. Swifts usually leave in early August - for
instance, I thought that I had seen my last on on August
11th 198l - and the October record is not rare. The latest
sighting ever recorded was for a Swift in Derbyshire on
December 21st l888l The Sand Martins seen in April had
left but both Swallows and House Martins were still present.
Most of the birds seen on the northern slopes of the Naze
were almost certainly resident - for instance the Wood
Pigeons and Collared Doves, the Finches, Thrushes, Meadow
Pipits and Skylarks. Even so, there were several flocks of
Linnets which may not all have been local that gathered to
feed on or near the salt marsh. And the Gulls and Waders
along the shore were even more probably 'foreigners'. Most
spectacular were the numbers of Little Stint, a tiny wader
usually seen on passage. They were feeding very actively