SS15 wildlife watching: Trip away from SS15 - EWT Blue House Farm, North Fambridge, Essex

Today, I had my first visit to EWT Blue House Farm since my last on 20th January 2023. However, this last visit was restricted to the seawall boundary due to the permissive footpath across the centre of the reserve to the hides being closed for habitat management work. My last visit with full access to the reserve was as far back as 25th February 2022.

EWT Blue House Farm is a 242.8 hectare nature reserve and farm in North Fambridge on the north bank of the River Crouch between Burnham-on-Crouch and South Woodham Ferrers in Essex. It is managed by the Essex Wildlife Trust.

Most of EWT Blue House Farm was originally saltmarsh until sea walls were constructed to capture land from the sea. It was then used as grazing pasture for cows and sheep and this practice continues today. Some of the higher, drier fields were used for crops but have now reverted to grassland. The site includes marshland, ponds, creeks and ditches, reedbeds and a 20 hectare field is flooded during the winter to provide feeding grounds for large numbers of wildfowl and wading birds.

The wildlife of EWT Blue House Farm is internationally important, particularly over-wintering birds (most notably around 2000 Dark-bellied Brent Geese) but also breeding Skylarks, Meadow Pipits, Yellow Wagtails and Avocets and passage waders plus Water Voles, Brown Hares, butterflies, insects and coastal plants.

EWT Blue House Farm is a working farm, managed by maintaining high water levels and balancing livestock farming with wildlife conservation.

Access is only available via a permissive footpath through the farm, which has 3 bird hides along it, or along the sea wall.

The main purpose of my visit was to hopefully see the adult female and juvenile Montagu's Harriers which had been recorded on a daily basis since 1st August 2023. This is now an exceptionally rare species in the UK and one that I have only seen on 4 occasions, my last record being in 2015 at RSPB Blacktoft Sands in East Yorkshire.

Having arrived at North Fambridge railway station, I walked for about a mile down to the entrance to EWT Blue House Farm. A check of my BirdGuides subscription confirmed that at least one of the Montagu's Harriers had been seen at 10 a.m. which was encouraging news.

I took the long walk along the seawall to the eastern end of the reserve where most of the sightings had been reported since 1st August 2023, arriving at about 11 a.m. En-route, I joined 2 other birders who I had previously met on the Big County Birdwatch walk at RSPB Bowers Marsh on 7th May 2023 (see here).

As we arrived at the eastern end, 2 other birders said that they had had distant views of a single Montagu's Harrier over farmland on the south side of the River Crouch rather than over EWT Blue House Farm.

Despite much repeated scanning by all of us and other birders who turned up, there were no further sightings of any Montagu's Harriers and I finally left the reserve somewhat disappointed at around 4 p.m.

On my long walk back, I bumped into and had a chat with another birder, Dave Cornwell, who it turned out lives very close to me and is familiar with my St. Nicholas Church local patch site.

Another check of my BirdGuides subscription when I got home showed a further sighting of a Montagu's Harrier at 5:45 p.m.!

Despite failing to see any Montagu's Harriers, I did have a successful visit with the following highlights: Common Buzzard (at least 5 soaring birds), Kestrel (at least 3), Sparrowhawk (2), Marsh Harrier (1), Yellow Wagtail (8), Common Whitethroat (5), Reed Warbler (1), Swallow (1), Black-tailed Godwit (c.50), Greenshank (2), Whimbrel (1), Curlew (1), Oystercatcher (4), Lapwing (c.35), Sandwich Tern (1), Little Egret (2), Grey Heron (6), Cormorant (1), Gadwall (4), Shelduck (3), Canada Goose (c.100), Corn Bunting (1), Goldfinch (a flock of c.20)

In addition, I recorded the following butterfly and dragonfly species: Meadow Brown (at least 50), Common Blue (at least 15 males), Small Heath (1), Red Admiral (3), Peacock (1), Large Skipper (1), darter species (Ruddy Darter and/or Common Darter) (at least 10 males)