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EFC Centre at Wat Tyler Country ParkOur centre is available for visits on a pre-booked basis on Wednesdays between 10am - 4pm. The Club’s activities and displays are also usually open to the public on the first Saturday of the month 11am - 4pm.

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The weblog below is for naturalists to use to report interesting sightings, ask questions, report on field meetings and generally post pictures and any information or questions generally relevant in some way to the wildlife and geology of Essex. You will need to register and be logged-on to post to the forum, and you need to upload pictures first, for use in posts. Find out more


Wed 2nd July 2014 21:03 by Mary Smith
Birds everywhere
What wonderful stories and pictures you have put together, Graham!  I do like the Class 4D with badly behaved avocets. I usually see them feeding peacefully in the Thames estuary mud, and never a squabble.  Maybe breeding time, with youngsters about, is different. Just like teenagers!

I was out on Monday in Harold Wood, an area not noted for its birds, but near an abandoned and overgrown car park was a group of Tits who were 'whistling'(?) to each other, with long tails so presumably Long-tailed Tits.  They were playing acrobatics between a fence with scrub on one side and assorted youngish trees on the opposite side, with the birds whizzing to and fro and turning somersaults in the air as they went, all 'whistling' in high-pitched songs to each other.  I stood and watched for a few minutes before going on.

But birds squabble aplenty in our garden and nearby, though a bit quieter now.  These are the wretched bullies of 5E, but getting ready to leave school now.  Yes, I am seeing Ring-necked Parakeets filling suburbia, making a major nuisance of themselves. They show off to each other and scare away the smaller birds no end. I have an elderly aunt (97) who has a bird feeder and a bowl of water she can see from her favourite chair. She can give you a running commentary on the birds that visit, and the large green-blue Parakeets are her pet hate!! They make a dickens of a racket, which she can hear even though she is very deaf, and they scare away all the smaller birds. Any ideas as to how to keep them out of the food and drink for the smaller birds?

Meanwhile, I was disappointed to learn recently that 'my Robin' is probably at least 3, but it is so hard to tell one from another.  However many there are, they come to me whenever I am digging, or turning over earth as in digging out new potatoes, and they like to hunt in the turned-over soil. They fly back to the nest with beaks full of assorted invertebrates. But I only ever see one at a time, so why do folk say there are several?

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