January 11th
With sub zero temperatures, -5 no less showing in the car, I headed to the Sewage Works early a.m, hopefully to catch up with some cold weather movement.
Not surprisingly lots more activity, both Common Buzzards seen together and then a male and female Sparrowhawk seen independently.
Quite a surprise was seeing around 15 Chiffchaff, feeding on the round tanks, exactly the same as the Pied/Grey Wagtails do. No doubt the cold bringing this on, had a good look through them for a Sibe but nothing doing.
En route to the Thames provided another flock of Chiffchaff, another 15+ birds, around half a mile from the 1st flock so different birds. I again went through these for a good while, again negative but there was so much activity here and elsewhere, saying 30+ was very likely a good bit lower than the true figure.
10 Chiffies!
It was high tide, Redshank were present, but most had gone to roost, 2 Common Sandpipers were seen and then nailed a Wigeon in amongst the hordes of Gadwall, Teal and Shoveler.
Wigeon for some reason are hard here so a good result, I was hoping for a Snipe, recalling the cold spell of 2012 when Snipe were everywhere, even a Jack.
Also recorded my 1st calling Oystercatcher down river, very early, the earliest I have had one before is the end of Feb so would presume this is cold weather movement.
Moving on I headed back, just before I came to the Nature Reserve gate, surprise of the day turned up, remarkably it turned out to be a wintering Common Whitethroat. I have never seen this before, or even heard about it at this time of year, as you can imagine a bit of a shock.
Tried to turn it into something else more exotic, as you do, but very happy with this little chap.
Moving back onto the Sewage works finally produced a Black Redstart, I know there are up to 3 on Beckton, just took a little while to find one.
A good morning.
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