Barking Bay April 21st

Arrived at the site at dawn, a stunning morning, will never moan about the weather again after the April we have had so far.(Click on photos too enlarge)

Dawn in Barking Bay

Virtually the first bird heard as I walked down to the river was a Whimbrel London bound, a good start to the morning which then got even better.

Paul had a female Ring Ouzel a couple of days ago so checked out the area, eventually located it after missing it first time round, views were good although distant.

If I keep my head down he wont see me

Cuckoo,easy to mistake for a Falcon at distance

Distant Ring Ouzel

I then decided to walk down to the river again, as I did a large Raptor came round the corner low and landed on a bush, quite distantly, initial thought was a Falconers bird, but was amazed to see a Short Eared Owl glaring back at me looking through the bins.

The eyes have it

I remember them being on site as a wintering bird 20 or so years ago, sometimes in numbers, this bird was very likely on its way back to its breeding grounds up north. Unfortunately it had not escaped the notice of the local mob, the Crows and Magpies, for the next 10 minutes they relentlessly pursued it, each time it climbed effortlessly above them and they gave up. As soon as it came down low again the pursuit was repeated.

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Additional species seen were 2 Wheatear, at least 8 Common Whitethroats, single Sedge Warbler, a calling Cuckoo and 3 summer plumed Dunlin. A good start to the Easter Holiday.

Weekend highlights April 16th and 17th

A really good weekend with great weather, certainly seems the warmest April that I can remember, and, hardly a sniff of any rain. Many migrants seem to have arrived earlier, I also expect this is weather related.

Barking Outfall and Bay 16th

Outfall

Reed Warbler have started to appear in numbers with 6 singing birds, also a single Common Tern working the Outfall, 4 Oystercatchers still disputing territory and nesting rights on the large jetty.

The 1st Sedge Warbler was a site tick, in the past it has been a hard bird to nail on site, additionally, despite tripping up over Wheatears just about every where I go, I have managed to miss them here so far.

Checking out the Gull colony showed at least 7 Herring Gulls already incubating, was not aware that they were earlier breeders than Lesser Black Backed, the Lessers are still bringing in moss and grass. The usual pandemonium occurred when they saw me, when the 1st alarm call went up, they all piped up, incredible noise from over 150 Gulls. Bearing in mind I am over a 100 metres away on the river wall, they are quite aggressive, I was even mock dived and the majority have not even laid eggs yet.

Bay

4 Summer plumed Dunlin were present in the Bay and pairs of Shelduck seemed to be everywhere investigating rabbit holes. The Bay and Crossness seems to always hold good numbers of Oystercatchers with 4 pairs seen including one pair already incubating.

Virtually the 1st birds seen were a group of 7 Wheatears, 1 adult male and the remaining were immature and female types.

On the Butterfly front, Small Whites were out in force with a minimum of 40 seen,1 Green Veined White and 2 Small Tortoiseshells were also noted. I have seen more Small Tortoiseshells in April than the whole of 2010 combined, hopefully they have recovered from the last few lean years, again, much of this has got to be down to the weather. (Click on photo's too enlarge)

Common Tern jetty, just coming to life

The Common Tern Jetty that housed 22 pairs in 2010 is starting to take off with around 25 birds already present, some have got in early and claimed a spot. The usual noisy Tern colony is starting to take shape, one by one the resting Black Headed Gulls are being made unwelcome and eased off.

The Valley 17th

An excellent morning made even better with 3 additions to the patch list, firstly a Cuckoo seen and heard for most of the morning, presumably it is the same one moving around.

Little Ringed Plover

Little Egret

Chiffchaff

A single Little Ringed Plover was seen in the viewing area, they do not breed on site but come to the viewing area occasionally to feed.

Red Kite with some inner  moult

Best of the lot though was a Red Kite picked up going south west, around 12.10pm, having spoken to Shaun, he also had one later in the afternoon. His bird had no wing moult, the one I saw did. All in all a very good day, other highlights were Grasshopper Warbler, Swallow, 3 Sand Martins, 10 Common Whitethroats, 4 Lesser Whitethroats and a pair of Ring Necked Parakeets nest site prospecting.

Small Tortoiseshell

Brimstones

Green Hairstreak

Also had a good morning with Butterflies, as follows, 3 Green Hairstreaks, 14 Small Whites, 2 Small Tortoiseshells, 2 Peococks, 12 OrangeTips, 9 Speckled Woods, 1st Holly Blue of the year and 6 Brimstones

An afternoon in the Valley - April 15th

Finished work early so headed for the Ingrebourne Valley to try and catch up with a few more migrants, even in the afternoon, many recently arrived birds were singing well, numbers are starting to build.( Click on photo's too enlarge)

Male Lapwing viewing area

Common Whitethroat

Met up with Les Harrison and Dick Jefferies and we took the viewing area –black bridge – top paddock route, the paddock came up trumps with 5 Wheatear, some were quite posy, interesting to note even in the adults how much variation there is in plumage details. Top bird goes to a very distant Hobby sitting in the paddock on the fence line, quite an early bird, last year the first recorded was April 24th.

Les and Dick

Very, very distant Hobby

Speckled Wood

Wheatears

2 Lesser Whitethroats were also year ticks, other species of note seen or heard were -

Reed Warbler 5, Common Whitethroat 8, Willow Warbler 4 and 2 Common Buzzards.

The viewing area produced a single Green Sandpiper, Common Snipe, 3 Little Egret, Teal and a pair of Gadwall.

Butterflies seen were Small Tortoiseshell , OrangeTip, Peocock , 9 Small Whites, 2 Green Veined Whites and 14 Speckled Woods.

Out and about in Kent

I recently had a chance to visit a wood in Kent specifically targeting one bird, Goshawk, exceptionally elusive, but I knew they were there having seen them last year.

This year I managed just 2 sightings of a male early morning moving through the wood hunting, the dawn light in the wood was not enough to get a photo of it unfortunately. As the weather warmed up I thought I had picked the perfect day, little wind and unbroken sunshine, I eagerly watched the forest canopy from a distance, waiting for them to appear. During the course of the next 3 hours had a minimum of 5 Common Buzzards, the same amount of Sparrowhawks, a single Kestrel but no Goshawks. I took many photo’s of Sparrowhawk up very,very high and again noted how much variation there can be in wing shape ,size of bird, (especially females) and tail shape. When you have 2 female Sparrowhawks interacting together, differences become apparent, I also must admit I thought that one was possibly a male Goshawk.

All female Sparrowhawks (click on photo's to enlarge)

The trouble and confusion between the 2 species, male Gos and female Spar comes from a number of issues, one of the main reasons, we just don’t get enough Goshawk sightings to get the id and jizz characteristics imprinted into our memory. Seen well, Goshawks are unmistakable, unfortunately most sighting always seem to be at distance. The male that I saw going through the wood and landing briefly was pretty close, even in bad light, there was no mistaking the wing shape, strong supercillium, larger size and a much ‘fiercer’ look.

Common Buzzard with some moult

Goshawk country

Despite the non appearance of any Goshawks going up thermaling over the wood, it was a great day with many interesting sightings from within the canopy.

Orange Underwing

Cock of the Forest

Peocock Butterfly

Treecreepers and Nuthatches were abundant with 2 Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers heard calling from different sections of the wood. Overhead in the Pine canopy Siskin and Lesser Redpolls were frequently seen and heard, calling Goldcrests and CoalTits seemed to be everywhere.

2nd year male Marsh Harrier seen at another site in Kent

I also took some photo’s of some tracks, I have a vague idea of what made them, but would welcome any thoughts on there id.

Deer?

Very small Deer?

Barking Gulls April 3rd

Barking Outfall has for the last 10 or 15 years or so hosted a very large Herring and Lesser Black Backed Gull colony. I suspect that in the last 5 years or so it has grown to be the largest colony of both species in London, at breeding time it is a spectacular and impressive sight.

The colony looking south.(Click on photo's too enlarge)

I visited the colony this morning, watching from around 100 metres away, even at this range, looking through binoculars they became aggressive and I was mobbed for my troubles. It appears none are on eggs as yet, but many are paired up and occupying there nest spot.

Part of the colony

Eastern end

I did a random count of the pairs/singles present on the large jetty and also surrounding structures, reaching a very impressive 67 pairs of Lesser Black Backed and 46 of Herring, these were of the ‘ static’ pairs, there were many other singles milling around and absent on other parts of the Thames Water site. The figure will be far higher and more accurate when I can count incubating birds.

Red colour ringed Herring Gull, left leg, anyone got any idea where this would be from?

Barking Outfall

Pair of Oystercatchers still present at low tide, with Teal now down to 27 pair. The Creek held a calling Cetti’s Warbler along with 2 Blackcap singing in a nearby copse.

As I was driving out of the Thames Water site I had a 1st year male/female Black Redstart fly across the road, a welcome addition to the list, this has to be a migrant passing through to London, as far as I am aware they have never bred here, but have wintered.

Barking Bay

Wheatears at last – 2 found on the open area of land adjacent to the green sward. Other additions for the year came in the shape of Green Sandpiper, Little Grebe, Chiffchaff and 2 Common Tern up and down off Crossness.

Wheatears

Shelduck were everywhere pairing up and prospecting Rabbit holes and Skylark numbered at least 6 singing birds.

Unusual sight of 3 Song Thrushes in low grass, flushed and then flew high together west, possible migrants.

Pair of Shelduck

Grey Heron

Ingrebourne Valley April 2nd

Out at dawn in search of migrants, a lovely bright morning with the Valley really starting to come to life, makes you feel better to see summer coming. I definitely was not feeling better due to the monthly birders drink the night before, legs and head were on auto pilot and driving me forward into the wilderness.

The viewing area at dawn

As you can imagine many species are now singing well, 10 Chiffchaffs were recorded on a round robin route taking in the viewing area, Berwick Ponds and Reservoir and returning back through the horse paddocks. Blackcaps were also on the up with 8 heard singing.

Cetti's Warbler

Male Reed Bunting going for it.

Only a single Willow Warbler was heard but top migrant will go to an early Sedge Warbler heard singing off and on just beyond the green bridge. Easily my earliest by about a week.

Waders were represented by 3 Green Sandpipers and a Common Snipe in the viewing area early a.m, and then later 2 Redshank flyovers, still no sign of a Little Ringed Plover but I understand from mates that they have been seen. No Swallows as yet but 2 Sand Martins were over Berwick.

Very distant Green Sandpiper

Teal are still hanging on with 18 pair, mostly in the viewing area.