I have worked all over Christmas and New Year and had my first day
off today and as is the case with getting older, you find that the frequency of
funerals starts to increase.
And so today I headed north to Colchester to pay my last respects to
my Great Aunt Ivy who passed away just 27 days shy of her 100th
birthday. With a nice bright clear day I stopped at Abberton both on the way up
and back and spent a short while in the sunshine on the causeways and although
I did not find the Smew I did see some gloriously pink Goosanders fishing with
Cormorants and Great Crested Grebes around the Layer-de-le-Haye Causeway
outflow. Further out both gleaming Slavonian and dusky Black-necked Grebes
fished among low swimming Goldeneye while Wigeon grazed the banks under the
watchful gaze of two very full looking Peregrines who were perched up on the
shoreline. A great raft of Pochard was
loafing between the causeways and five Bewick’s Swans were similarly snoozing
in Wigborough Bay.
Soon it was time to head off to the second funeral of the day, this
one at Pitsea, for one of my original Boozy Birders, Michael Merrick, who sadly
passed on the 19th December.
I needed some air again before joining the crowd and the crematorium is
right on top of RSPB Bowers Marsh so a ten minute stroll at dusk was much
appreciated and I was joined by over a hundred Fieldfares, a distant Cetti’s
Warbler and a ghostly Barn Owl that came out of the cow shed and silently
drifted out across the marsh.
It was standing room only for Mike, with a good few birders amongst
the congregation and he got a fine send off as the last of the light left the
sky.
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