9 APRIL 2026 – FINGRINGHOE WICK NATURE RESERVE and ABBERTON RESERVOIR, ESSEX

It was an 8.15 a.m. start from my house, and we were heading for Fingringhoe Reserve, then on the Abberton Reservoir - mainly for Spring migrants.

However, because we’d heard that a pair of Peregrine Falcons had been seen around the steeple at St. Michael’s Church, Bishop’s Stortford of late (with photographs being put online) we thought we’d have a go at seeing them - but the birds didn’t seem to be present at the time; although Mike had  a Swallow flyover here (his first for the year), so it wasn’t so much of a dip out for him. So, on to Fingringhoe, with hopefully better luck with Nightingales.

When we arrived at the car park at Fingringhoe, Nightingales were already in full song, with at least 3-4 males singing heartily from the dense vegetation of Hawthorn; Blackthorn; Brambles, and others, but none were keen to show themselves. There was also a very brief snatch of song from a Willow Warbler, and there were a few Chiffchaffs getting in on the act too.

We traipsed around the maze of bushes - never really straying far from the car park - with no more than a glimpse of one of the singing males (though at one point Mike claimed views of one male chasing another across the stony pathway behind us). But by the end of the morning we would have heard at least 12 different males singing. and possibly more.

We found ourselves splitting up briefly, when I encountered a gentleman who told me he was the recorder for reptiles on the reserve, and told me that despite there being very little activity of Adders in recent days, he’d seen a male that morning atop a bank nearby, and I went back to tell John and Mike, with the consequence that we went off to find it. We’d already looked at ‘Adder Alley’ - which was known as a good place to see these magnificent snakes - but we’d not been successful. 

We might have found the said bank, but the Adder couldn’t be found at that location, and it was a good half an hour later, whilst we three were searching in an interesting grass and sandy open area, when Mike found an adult male, basking in dappled sunlight along the track we’d walked down earlier! It was a beautifully marked individual - black zig-zagging mark the entire length of it's spine - and was approaching two feet in length. It possessed a somewhat menacing almost bejewelled ruby-red eye, and was continually tasting the air with its forked tongue. Of course, once found it didn’t stay static for very long, and soon it was working its way through the leaf litter, coursing this way and that before finally, making its way up the bank before disappearing out of view.

But a little way along, I found another male (a different individual, that was broader in the body than the first), and as we all watched, we could just about make out the form of a brown adder (a likely female) immediately behind it, although ‘she’ soon slithered out of sight. And although we tried, we didn’t find any others.  I saw the ‘recorder’ I’d met earlier again and he soon went off to find the adders for himself.

Given that it was a rather warm, sunny day, we struggled getting butterflies, with only a few Small Whites (and maybe a Green-veined too, though it was difficult to tell with flight views); a few Peacocks and a Brimstone.

On the way to Abberton, we called in at Fingringhoe Gravel Pit where we saw a huge flock of around 80 or so Sand Martins; a lone Swallow; a couple of Redshanks; two Oystercatchers, and three Buzzards overhead.

At Layer de la Haye there was very little activity on view and we didn’t see any of the Cattle Egrets, that we understood were breeding here, although we did get prolonged views of European Spoonbills - including three males in full breeding plumage - as they flew in and out of the nesting area, amongst the nests of Grey Herons.

There was little activity elsewhere too, and although migrants were coming in, it seemed that it had slowed in recent days, with the consequence that a visit to Gwen’s hide revealed little but a male Common Whitethroat; a male Reed Bunting, and the sound  of a singing male Sedge Warbler, somewhere in the scrub around the hide. We also saw two lovely Mediterranean Gulls in in flight that were in full summer plumage, and which John originally picked up on call. Disappointingly, there were Willow Warblers singing, although one was seen by others earlier in the day. But I did see my first Speckled Wood butterfly of the year. I held back awhile to get some quite close shots of Rooks feeding in the grass for what I assumed were grubs; but their crops were huge consequently, giving the birds the unenviable ‘tag’ of being the ugliest of all the crows species we have in the UK - though they are undeniably interesting, nonetheless.

On the way back to John’s car - following a coffee at the café - we picked up a flock of around 20 Sand Martins, and a single Swallow, before leaving for home.

ADDER (M)

ADDER (M)

ADDER (M - head, top right)

CORMORANT COLONY

EURASIAN SPOONBILL (M)

YELLOW WAGTAIL (M)

ROOK

SPECKLED WOOD BUTTERFLY