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The Wivenhoe Society welcomed local twitcher, Alex Bass, to the Nottage on Wednesday evening, for a talk entitled The River Colne - Source to the Sea. Seeing as though this is going to be my outdoor swimming stretch of choice, I thought it useful to attend and take in the sights and sounds of the estuary.

Essentially the evening was a ramble from river source to Point Clear, punctuated perfectly with the changing wildlife along the way. At thirty-five miles in length, and with two tributaries feeding in, the Colne covers a lot of ground as it wanders through these parts ahead of the sea.

Starting in Halstead, we were guided along to take in the life of Samuel Courtald, the Colne Valley Railway and the kidnapping of Thames water voles to be re-introduced into the more serene surroundings of the North Essex estuary.

My twitching skills are currently on par with my technical skills in being able to set up a digital TV network following a house move. The former came of no surprise; the latter was a bit of an Oh Lordy moment.

But that’s why you need to find reliable acquaintances and entrust in their knowledge. I now not only have multi-platform, multi-channel throughout the cottage, but also I challenge anyone to identify an Essex Mud Black Tailed Godwit [steady] quicker than me upon hearing the call.

The evening was very much an interactive experience. “Does anyone know the name of this beautiful bird?” was a familiar cry. I shuffled nervously in my seat, shamed to offer my suggestion of “is it a pigeon?”

This is all to change hopefully over the changing of the coming seasons. I was enthused to hear Alex talk about the stretch of the estuary from Wivenhoe to Alresford Creek as “the most beautiful, perfect spot in the whole of the Essex.”

This also happens to be my new running route / swimming pool. Add in some twitching action, and I think I’m going to settle into these parts just fine.

A short interval break, and then Alex continued his trail towards Brightlingsea. We saw a picture of the old bike shed at Alresford Creek, the lone survivor from the old drawbridge days and the place where the gate man locked up his bike.

Now then - where can an estuary swimmer store a bicycle ahead of a dip after cycling along the Wivenhoe Trail, I pondered? Perfect, and not without some historical degree of symmetry.

The oyster smacks of Colne Point concluded the Colne exploration, but for me, this is just the start. This was the ideal introduction to the estuary, and should hopefully serve as a starting point for what I have to explore over the coming months.

If you are interested in professional twitching tours, Alex runs regular sessions around the North Essex estuary. The migrating birds mean that the winter months are a wonderful time to take in many rare breeds.

Time to dig out those binoculars and, um, twitch.