Temmincks Stint

A Temmincks Stint was found this evening by Dick Jefferies in the Ingrebourne Valley, pretty sure a 1st for the site and long overdue, well done to him.I cant recall one as long as I have been covering the site, around 20 years, so a very welcome addition.

Click on photos to enlarge

The viewing area is drying up fast but should hopefully provide a good habitat for another couple of weeks, it looks excellent for a Wood Sandpiper etc..., well worth checking.

Hopefully the bird will stay and will be around for others in the morning.

Great Black Backed Gull

Barking Outfall probably hosts the largest Herring and Lesser Black Backed Gull colony in London, past counts have well exceeded 50 of each incubating, with Lesser being the predominant breeder. The colony is centred on a disused jetty and a number of free standing Victorian pillars.

Part of the Jetty structure ( click on photos too enlarge)

Last weekend, whilst watching the river, I was also keeping an eye on the colony, many are already incubating with others back and forth to terra firma to gather moss and grass. If anyone has visited a large Gull, or even a small Gull colony it is pandemonium, noise, fights and protecting your square of ‘turf’ is the norm.

As I was watching I also noticed an adult Great Black Backed Gull towards the very end of the jetty, all the others, naturally were giving him or her space, any that came to close were seen off. Definite territorial behavior so I made a mental note to keep an eye on him/her.

Photos show sections of jetty

I visited the site again this morning and amongst all the chaos I got a glimpse of a Great Black Backed Gull carrying some moss and disappearing around the back of the jetty. On this evidence it may be that they intend to breed, it certainly looks this way, this or another GBBG appeared shortly after and ‘layed ‘ up.

Great Black Backed Gull

In 2010, at Barking Bay, myself and Paul were both dived at by an adult GBBG calling and showing aggression, this bird came straight from another Jetty, possibly a breeding adult protecting eggs/young, or a fledged juvenile.

It would be good to record breeding for the London area, BWP gives there breeding range far away, higher up the east coast and the West Country if I remember correctly.

Photo’s were taken on May 4th,this morning I recorded 38 incubating Herring and 61 incubating Lesser Black Backed Gulls, as mentioned earlier, many are still building and I can only see, say 60% of the jetty and pillars.

The Valley

As I write this I am suffering, I have just returned from twitching the Nightingale at 5.30am that turned up on Friday next to St.Georges Hospital. The suffering is self inflicted and happens once a month up the Railway pub, I even pay to feel like this, the bike ride this morning should have made me feel better, it did not.

Greenshank, Green Sandpiper and Redshank in the viewing area

Whilst out on the bike this morning I decided to carry on and check the viewing area, I had in mind, after last nights rain, that a wader could have been pushed down. Although the viewing area looked great, there was not a single wader present, bit of a surprise, cant complain though as I have been very lucky with recent waders. The area looks so good, surely it is just a matter of time before a Wood Sandpiper etc… drops in. With the predicted heat wave coming, it is more likely to dry up completely, it is a pity that the water levels cannot be controlled to aid breeding birds like Lapwing, Redshank and possibly even Common Snipe.

Sedge Warbler

On Wednesday May 4th I had an afternoon of work and walked part of the Valley, clear blue skies and sunshine promised a good raptor. Still a little early for Honey Buzzard but with the recent warm weather, everything seemed to be early this year. Half way through the walk I did locate 2 soaring raptors, these turned out to be 2 Common Buzzards, very high but showing the variation in plumage, one light, the other dark. Even higher above them was a Sparrowhawk.

Light and dark phase Comon Buzzards

The viewing area produced a Greenshank, 2 Green Sandpipers, a pair of Redshank and 3 Little Egrets, I suspect as do others, that the Little Egrets are localized breeders and not birds just visiting from Rainham Marshes RSPB.

2 additions to the year list were added with Ringed Plover and Common Sandpiper seen on the Reservoir.

Green Hairstreak

Small Heath

I also recorded my highest count of Green Hairstreaks with 19 seen, again the weather is playing its part making it ideal for butterflies, it looks as if it will be a good year for them. 3 Small Heaths and a Cinnibar Moth were also seen, the Cinnibar usually come out around mid May.

Dragons were made up of one Hairy and a big emergence of Blue Tailed and Common Blue Damselflies.

Spotted Redshank - Dagenham Riverside

Monday May 2^nd

I decided to check the Riverside which is on a private estate after John Archer located a Spotted Redshank yesterday afternoon from the Kent side.

I was not very hopeful, having seen a couple at Rainham in the past, they never seem to stay long, this one was also going to be pushed off by the tide.

I located the bird in the same position that John had seen it which was a welcome surprise, it was also  into adult plumage and looked like a female, it certainly topped the birds seen previously at Rainham, to coin a phrase, it was a stunner.

Adult female (click on photos too enlarge)

Also present were 4 Bar Tailed Godwits, 6 Ringed Plovers and an Oystercatcher.

The quality and numbers of waders that have graced this section of the Thames over the bank holiday weekend has been very impressive, the numbers of Bar Tailed Godwits on passage is the highest I can remember for London.

Little Stints - Barking Bay

Sunday May 1st

As is usual these days I popped into the Bay after a dawn start at Battersea Power Station.After yesterdays wader fest by John and others across the Thames, I was hoping that some may have lingered and I could catch up with a few.

Bar Tailed Godwits (click on photos too enlarge)

Greenshank

Anyone who birds on this side of the Thames will know that you are always facing glare from the sun, today was no different with a strong easterly making it even harder to get a decent photo, I am saying this now as the photos below are poor. What I need is an anti-glare image stabilized telescope.

Little Stints

On arrival I walked the shoreline looking for waders, located Whimbrel, Curlew, 9 Bar Tailed Godwits, 3 Ringed Plovers, a single Dunlin, 2 Common Sandpipers and 4 Greenshank. An excellent assortment of birds, the male Bar Tails really are striking.

Little Stint, Ringed Plover and Dunlin

 The 2 Little Stints were glued to 3 Ring Plovers and the Dunlin, had a few doubts at first, it all goes through your head, the last Little Stint that I saw was a few years back, the length of bill seemed longer than I remembered. Paul and Bradders turned up and were lucky enough to see them before the tide sent them on there way, hopefully they will be relocated, Rainham has got to be favourite.

Big day in Barking Bay

April 29th

Met Paul at 5.30am after looking at the weather forecast the night before, overcast with a North Easterly wind, usually good conditions for some up stream movement along the Thames and so it proved with good numbers of Bar Tailed Godwit seen.( Naff photo's, click too enlarge)

Distant Bar Tailed Godwit

A flock of 10 defecting to Kent

We initially had 10 birds on arrival on the edge of the mud, but after a while these moved over to John at Crossness and they remained there until the tide pushed them off. Further to this a group of 8 dropped in at 7.00am on the Essex side with another 2 dropping in at 7.20am.A minimum of 20 birds were present but there could have been more owing to all the coming and going of birds, hard to keep an accurate count.

1st winter/summer Mediterranean Gull

Oystercatchers

Mediterranean Gull

Partial albino Black Headed Gull

A 1st winter Mediterranean Gull was found by Paul, a welcome addition to the year list, and we located the singing Corn Bunting, presumably the same bird as last weekend.

Bar Tailed Godwits

Also seen was a single Whimbrel and a Greenshank, the Greenshank feeding on the mud on the Thames, quite an unusual sight.

Other species

Ringed Plover – 2 on the mud

Oystercatcher – a minmum of 4

Wheatear – 3 scrub

Swallow – 3 over

Sand Martin – 5 over

Dunlin – 1

Common Sandpiper – 1

Hawkins sp - note lack of feathering to crown

A very good morning, I understand that there has been a large movement of Black Tailed Godwits along the Thames, hopefully it will spill over on Saturday to the Valley.

The Valley and Barking Bay

The Valley - Sunday April 24th

Walked over to the Ingrebourne at dawn looking and listening for Tawny Owls, again no luck, very hard to understand why they are so elusive and hard to find. Elsewhere at other sites, especially the London sites, they are on show much more, adults as well as young. One possible reason may well be that there is simply so much more habitat and thick cover available that they cant be located due to this, probably a good thing in the long run. Of the whole Valley, I would say that 40% of it is totally wild and out of bounds to the public , one day I suspect it will be turned into a Nature Reserve.

Common Tern ( click on photo's too enlarge)

Yellowhammer

Back to the walk, as I headed down past St.Georges Hospital, a male Ring Ouzel flew up from the path. Landed briefly in a low tree and then disappeared towards Deadmans Wood, never to be seen again. The light was not good as it was only 5.45am, so could not get a ‘ lock ‘ on it with the camera.

A good addition to the site list and way overdue, for some reason they never hang around in the Valley, as with previous Ring Ouzels this performed true to form and disappeared.

Additional sightings of note from the course of the morning were 14 House Martins, Grasshopper Warbler, 3 Yellowhammer, Common Tern, Common Snipe, 6 Lesser Whitethroats and god knows how many Common Whitethroats, certainly 40+.

The viewing area

The viewing area is looking good and drying up just right to pull in a rarer wader, If I remember correctly Les Harrisons Pectoral Sandpiper was the best one.

Barking Bay – Monday April 25th

Tried to locate Pauls spring Whinchat seen the afternoon before, and also hoped I might get lucky with the recently seen Corn bunting. No luck with either but was compensated by a calling Greenshank mid river looking for some mud at high tide, and best of all a calling Tree Pipit over head.

Kestrel

Cuckoo

I was unable to relocate the Tree Pipit despite seeing the area in which it landed, the little bugger just vanished in thick cover.

Ringed Plover

A Cuckoo was also present along with a single Lesser Whitethroat. Wheatear numbers have multiplied with groups of 7 and 4 seen in different areas at the same time.3 Swallows were also seen along with a showy Ringed Plover.