Rainham RSPB

August 6th



As we are now getting into migrant time I paid a visit to the Reserve hoping to catch up with some waders starting as per usual on the sea wall.

I also had in the back of my head perhaps an early Wheatear along the concrete wall or path, the tide was still well out, it was only 6.45am so I gave Aveley Bay an hour.
During this hour I recorded 16 Common Terns all going out, additional to this there was also a group of 7 present up near Erith Yacht Club working the Bay.

Leopard Slug - 1st one I've seen at Rainham

On the wader front I had 3 Whimbrel, 5 Ringed Plover, 2 Dunlin, 5 Oystercatchers and 2 Green Sandpipers, not bad for a start so I headed into the Reserve. Met Howard and as we were chatting we both heard Grey Plover calling, thinking its more and likely in summer plumage I went back out to look for it.Despite a thorough search of the Bay mud and foreshore it must have buggered off, I even checked the Kent side.

Whimbrel

I was now feeing quite optimistic for more waders so I retraced my steps and headed back into the Reserve, on arriving at Aveley Pools there was no mud, water levels had risen, no chance of any waders. Hopefully they will be able to reduce the levels to make it more attractive for passage birds, to reinforce the fact it was not ideal, a summer plumage Black Tailed Godwit flew in, had a look and then flew straight back to the Thames.

Black Tailed Godwit

Painted Lady

Heading back to the centre showed a single Greenshank on the new scrape, sod’s law; this looked as if it could do with more water as it appeared to be drying up.
The same happens over Ingrebourne Valley, just when we thought it was starting to look very inviting for waders the river burst its banks and flooded all, you just can’t beat the unpredictable English weather.

Dungeness

A good morning 
August 4th


Myself, Lee and Paul decided on the trip a few days before for a bout of sea watching so we headed down there leaving home at 5.00am.Due to the bright weather and barely into August, expectations were not high for anything notable or numbers of birds moving through.
Parking ourselves up near the beached boats we eventually started watching at 6.40am, the early hour, as we have found in the past is usually more productive.

Right from the start we started to pick up birds, Gannets and Terns as usual were moving through in numbers with the latter, mostly Common Terns, seemingly everywhere, it was also apparent that there were a lot of Porpoises around.

Porpoises - plentiful

We then started to pick up Common Scoter flocks going through, mostly going west, and then picked up our first ‘ goodie’ a Fulmar going west also @ 6.58am.
From here on we had a steady flow of birds before it quietened down at 8.15am.

The undoubted highlight and best birds of the morning went to 2 Balearic Shearwaters heading west at 8.05am, these also afforded good views being not that far out and hugging the deep water line where it goes from light to dark blue.

Prior to these 2 crackers we also saw 5 Manx Shearwaters, 2 west at 7.09am and 3 east at 7.22am, these were a lot further out with the 7.22am birds found while we were watching a Bonxie giving a Gannet a hard time.

Other birds of note included

Arctic Skua – 1 east at 7.49am
Arctic Tern – 1 at 8.02am
Whimbrel – 3 birds seen
Kittiwake – 3 adults and a very confiding juvenile seen
Common Scoter – 120 seen, largest flock around 45
Little Gull – 1 east at 7.47am
Mediterranean Gull - a juvenile seen

Not that many Sandwich Terns seen with the total number only around 10 birds.

Juvenile Kittiwake

An excellent morning so after popping down to the Power Station we then headed back down past the lighthouse to the car.En route we also recoded 16 Painted Lady’s with 6 in the Lighthouse garden and 7 in the Birders garden, I expect the southerly/south westerly winds had helped these over.
We hung around here for a while searching the skies as an Osprey had been seen over Scotney,unfortunately this proved negative, we later heard that it had been seen going out to sea.




Ruddy Darter

Migrant Hawker

From here we decided on a visit to the Arc Pits, no waders on show from the side of the road but we did pick up a Black Necked Grebe and a distant Green Sandpiper. Deciding to try and get better views we then headed around to the hides to try and get better views, this proved very productive when Paul found 2 Garganey.
A handful of Golden Plover were seen amongst the Lapwing and 3 Little Ringed Plovers were buzzing around, the Golden Plovers were still in partial summer plumage unfortunately too far for a photo.
The last port of call for the day was the Tree Sparrow colony, this rounded of a very good and productive morning, Lee had got himself 10 Lifers so happy faces all round.

Canvey Point

August 2nd

5.45am to 8.15am



I know its early days yet for sea watching and it was simply too sunny but regardless, it’s good to be out and I enjoy sea watching despite numerous blanks in picking the wrong time to go. I will try not to talk about the weather but know I will fail miserably, checking the forecast the night before showed cloudy conditions and showers.

Too sunny

Nonetheless I always enjoy visits to the Point visit although expectations were not too high for a ‘good seabird’ with the wall to wall sunshine.
During the course of the morning around 7 large ships went upriver and they were surprisingly light on Terns following, the total for Commic’s was probably around 40.Only 2 Sandwich Terns were seen close by and this included checking the roost at the Marina, not surprised really as it is was still early, with the tide not yet high, the mud held just 6 Turnstones.

An early morning Greenshank

2 Mediterranean Gulls were seen, a juvenile and a 1st winter both going up river, again even in sunnier conditions I would have expected many more around given the recent numbers in Southend.
Best birds of the morning go to 2 Black Terns heading upriver at 6.17am and a Little Tern seen going out at 7.55am.The Blacks in particular were not following a Ship but were on their own around a 1/3 of the way out flying pretty strongly up river.
Before the tide started to cover the mud the pick of the birds feeding on it were 3 Greenshanks, 4 summer plumed Black Tailed Godwits and 6 Ringed Plover. I did have 5 distant waders heading over towards the Creek, in shape and flight they looked good for Golden Plover.

Turnstone

Sandwich Tern

A good morning, off to Dungeness on Sunday for some sea watching, an early Pom wouldn’t go a miss.

Adult Red Kite and juveniles

Came across an adult Red Kite and 2 juveniles on Tuesday, as you can see the weather was not great hence the poor photos.

Adult

One of the juveniles - pale edge to the coverts

The 2 juveniles contesting  the same spot.

Joined by the usual Crow

Adult arriving

Bearded Tits - Ingrebourne Valley

A big thanks goes to Les Harrison for finding these little gems, they represent a 25 year blocker for me, so many times I have gone for them but they always seem to be roaming small flocks or singles that disappear as fast as they show up.
There were 3 birds, adult male and female and additionally a juvenile so given the habitat in the Valley it is possible that they could have bred locally.

Unusual to see them high up in Willow though.

Spoonbills - Rainham RSPB

A couple of distant photos of the 2 birds today at Rainham.

Canvey and Vange

Canvey Point

July 21st


I decided on a brief visit to the Point as it turned out rather cloudy early a.m at a Peregrine site, photos were never going to be decent so I headed for the Point and arrived at 9.00am.
Harry was already there and although there was not a lot of movement as yet being too early in the year, we did get a few ‘good’ birds.
Best of the lot was a Little Tern seen @9.58am but we also had 5 Whimbrel, 5 Mediterranean Gulls, a single Sandwich Tern and 184 Curlew Kent to Essex. Photos below are basically just record shots.

1st winter Mediterranean Gull

A rather distant Little Tern

There were also 2 Dark Bellied Brent Geese seen distantly which must be summering over towards Two Tree Island.
Heaps of Commic Terns were following the dredging ship out in the deep water channel and they must have numbered 70 odd birds+ 2 or 3 Med Gulls.
A good visit so I left around 10.30am and headed for Vange Marshes, I was on a bit of a tight schedule so decided on a quick dash to the Reserve via home.



Vange Marshes

On the walk out there it seemed that the grass was alive with Small/Essex Skippers, Marbled Whites and Meadow Browns. Marbled White is still a rarity in the Ingrebourne Valley and as yet I have still not seen one there.
It seemed I had timed it spot on as there were a good number of Waders present with high tide more or less near its peak. Birds recorded were as follows

Curlew 11
Greenshank 3
Black Tailed Godwit 25
Common Sandpiper 2
Spotted Redshank 6
Redshank 12
Bearded Tit – 1 or 2 birds pinging
Green Sandpiper 2
Avocet 17
Ringed Plover 8

A very impressive list of waders, adding to that good numbers of Lapwing, just a pity that they are all so distant. I was also told of a Little Gull that was present but could not locate it but very pleased with just the waders alone, all in all a very good morning.

A good selection of Waders