Rainham RSPB

September 20th


My idea was to head over there early as the forecast had showed sunny skies, what I didn’t realise that this was promised later in the morning, I had in mind to try and get a few shots of the 2 Spotted Redshank that have been frequenting the pool by the northern board walk. Needless to say early on it was grey skies and full cloud and… I couldn’t find the Spot Reds, Sod’ Law.


Previous to this I walked my usual circuit along the sea wall, this was pretty productive with 44 Ringed Plover seen, 32 on the Kent side and there were 12 in Aveley Bay, the Bay also held 2 Black Tailed Godwits and 4 Yellow Legged Gulls. As I entered the Reserve I had another 2 Blackwits flying upriver and shortly after a calling Golden Plover overhead. It was quite obvious there was also some Meadow Pipit movement, all going west and I ended up with 50 odd by the time I reached the shooting butts reed bed.

High tide waste - so much plastic

Found in the porch in the morning, around 40mm long, would welcome any thoughts on it's ID

2 Bearded Tits were heard calling here and despite a 20 minute vigil I never even saw one, the walk from here to the Pools was pretty uneventful despite a good look, not even a Peregrine on any of the pylons. It seems that since the Tiercel was killed in a collision with a fence the female has disappeared, hopefully she will reappear in the winter period.

As I said above no Spotted Redshank on the Pools, I later heard that they had been seen, but there were now 5 Pintail showing, winter is coming.
Cetti’s as usual were everywhere and I noticed they have now cut rides into the reeds, looks good for a Spotted Crake and I would imagine a good place to get some good Water Rail shots, I intend to try it next week.

Best birds of the day however went to 2 1st summer Hobbies bombing round the Cordite area and very approachable, one in particular was trying to pick off small birds flying from tree to tree, most likely Chiffchaffs, I counted at least 7 contact calling.

I am hoping that the Hobbies will stay into next week and we have some early morning sunshine, the poor photos I took don’t really do them justice, they are quite stunning close up.

Cliffe RSPB

September 19th



Prior to visiting a peregrine site I firstly dropped into Cliffe to see if any waders were on show, the time was around 8.00am.High tide was forecast later in the morning so I was not expecting many of the ‘ Thames’ roosting waders, Black Tailed Godwit, Avocet etc…
As it turned out it wasn’t a bad morning with a good assortment of waders and I stayed longer than I intended, the highlight in waders I expect would be a single Spotted Redshank and 10 Ruff.

 The Spotted Redshank was on the main pool where most roost and the Ruff were on the end Pool viewed from the raised mound.
Other waders included 6 Greenshank, 100 +Lapwing, 4 Green Sandpiper, 5 Snipe, 2 Curlew, Grey Plover, Bar Tailed Godwit and 200 odd Black Tailed Godwits.
As I stayed until 10.30am I saw the Blackwits piling in to roost, unusually, although it is still early I didn’t see any Avocet.

Other birds of interest seen were 2 Common Buzzards, a Marsh Harrier, around 70 Wigeon and a female Sparrowhawk.
A very distant Falcon bunching a Starling flock up could well have been a Merlin as it looked a little on the small side, too far to id though.
Hirundines were well represented with a flock of 80 odd, the majority being House Martins with just a few Sand Martins mixed in.
No photos unfortunately, nearly all were out of camera range.

Red Backed Shrike again.....

Out with the Lark this morning and yes, back to West Canvey Marsh, with a sunny morning forecast, and it was, I headed back down for another go at the Shrike.

It eventually showed straight from roost in the dense set of bushes around 7.20am and then fed on various insects for the next hour, mostly craneflies and beetles. During this time I fired off quite a few shots, experimented and changed settings, from A Priority to Manual, back again, changed the white balance, up the ISO, down the ISO, shutter speed and so on. In the end I gave myself a bloody headache, I blame this on Shaun as I was quite happy shooting on A Priority and then he said try Manual.

Saying that I can’t think of a better target bird to practice on, (other than peregrine), it really is a terrific looking bird and no doubt the closest I have ever seen one. The adults we saw in Bulgaria in 2012 were pretty approachable but this bird really takes the biscuit.

Hunting

During the morning period the Warbler also made a very brief appearance, likely a Reed but the way it carried itself, banana profilish, did show some characteristics of Blyth’s, an interesting bird.
Also met Nik and another 2 chaps, apologies as I can’t remember your names, brain was still overloaded from the camera, no more memory left so to speak.

From here I pressed on to Two Tree Island to see what was present in the roost, on the walk out a single Whinchat was seen along with some species of escaped Parakeet buzzing around.
Although it is still quite early in the winter period the scrape still held a good number of waders, the most significant counts being 47 Greenshank and around 400 Black Tailed Godwits, these fluctuated in numbers though as many headed up the Creek to another roost presumably. Other waders present were Grey Plover, Avocet, Bar Tailed Godwit, Ringed Plover, Dunlin, Redshank and Snipe, a good mixture and another good morning.

A section of the roosting Greenshank

Acro

Photos not great, click on photos too enlarge.
Possibly too brown on the upperparts for Blyth's

Rainham RSPB

A good morning - Friday



I decided on an early morning visit after seeing the overnight rain and knowing that it was an early morning high tide, with luck I might pick up a wader or 2 at roost.
Checking the new scrape first in front of the visitor centre produced no fewer than 11 Greenshank, a single Ringed Plover and best of all a Knot. Wigeon numbers are already increasing and I recorded 26 round the reserve on my walk after.

Record shot of the Knot roosting with Greenshank

I was keeping an eye out for Spotted Redshank knowing that a couple have been seen earlier in the week as I headed off round the Reserve.
The Cordite held 3 Chiffchaff, a Willow Warbler and a female Blackcap, given the weather I was hoping that a goodie might have dropped in, it was grey and abysmal, winter is coming.

Arriving at the Pools and I immediately found a single Spotted Redshank quickly followed by another on the main pools, both birds were feeding intently, scanning round produced 2 Pintail, another Ringed Plover and around 7 Snipe. From here I moved on noting a Peregrine on the pylons and for comparison there were also 2 Hobbies hawking for Dragons.
As I walked round the corner there was yet another Spotted Redshank, I understand it has been in this pool for a day or 2, this gave great views, can’t remember when I last had 3 Spotted Redshank here, they are usually a hard bird to come by, even at Rainham.

Not great light....

After taking a few photos I carried on eventually going out onto Aveley Bay, the tide by now was dropping fast.
Scoping the Bay and the mud I came across the Knot again, it was feeding with 3 Black Tailed Godwits, no doubt these were the birds seen earlier at roost. Across the river showed a Ringed Plover flock numbering 34 birds, with the other 2 seen as well this made it a good number in the area.

Now I have a bit more time I will try and get over a bit more, a good visit.

Red Backed Shrike - West Canvey Marsh

With a free day I decided to pop down to the Marsh and see if I could hopefully catch up with the Shrike, in truth I was expecting a long walk as I thought it would be in some desolate stretch of distant marshland.

Pulling up in the car park I was told, and then shown by a chap (thanks if you happen to read this) where the bird was, he then went one better and refound it.

It was on the fencing as you look towards the open hide which serves the Fleet around 100 metres from the car park, and as per usual with Shrikes, very approachable. Over the next 1 hour or so I got off a good few shots, did a lot of experimenting with the settings and managed a few half decent shots considering the weather was crap. There was another chap present with a big boy Jono lens, he will have some stunners despite the lack of sun, it was showing down to 20 feet.

Adult or juvenile they are cracking looking birds, if it stays, and the sun shines I will return.

From here I moved on to Two Tree Island, I was toying with the idea of watching the river at Canvey Point even though the North Westerly winds were more suited to Shellness/ Reculver. The tide however was miles out, it will be interesting to see what went past the 2 venues above.

At Two Tree a good count of 137 Golden Plover was had on mud opposite the causeway, I also had a Sanderling on the edge there; these were the highlights amongst the many other waders present.
To top the morning off I had a Hobby over south.

Berry Head Tubenoses - Brixham

Myself and Christine at last managed to squeeze in a long weekend staying at a Bed and Breakfast overlooking the harbour, our last visit being 2005 staying at the same B&B.
Nothing much has changed at Brixham other than there seemed to be more people, it’s still very picturesque and the restaurants as before are still as good, I can recommend Crab Quay House for seafood.
Of course I had to go out birding, this took place on Saturday and Sunday morning from 6.00am to 8.30am as I was not going to omit the breakfast.

I was hoping for some favourable winds for a spot of sea watching but on both days I had more or less northerlies, these were naff but I persevered for a while. On the Saturday I had 7 Manx Shearwaters amongst the hordes of passing Gannets and the Sunday produced just 4 Kittiwakes of note.

Too bright and winds coming from behind me, not ideal

Rather than flog a dead horse I searched the bushes for migrants, Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler and Wheatear were seen but little else. On Sunday morning I searched for Cirl Bunting having seen them here before on past occasions, this proved negative so not sure if they are still in the area.
On both days I tried the new lens, there were 3 Fulmars that seemed tied to a section of cliff and one was easily identifiable in the fact that it only had one leg, or it was hiding it very well. These proved excellent for the camera and a pleasure to watch, they also kept me entertained when it was quiet, which was most of the time. I have not got the convertor yet so still shooting at 300mm.

Left leg missing

Of course it is hard to go anywhere these days without seeing my favourite and a bird that I am involved with in London, Peregrine. An adult Falcon and juvenile Tiercel appeared as I was walking back near Brixham, the juvenile shadowing her every move, being used to urban birds I had a good look at her. There seemed no noticeable difference other than she seemed darker on the breast, the under wing panel of secondary’s and greater coverts was also darkish. I expect this could be down to incubating on darker sand on the cliffs or just a natural occurrence. Even in London, and I expect elsewhere there is a lot of variation in them so hardly surprising to see slight colour differences.

Adult Falcon - rather dark underneath

Juvenile Tiercel

Whatever it was I enjoyed watching them, she thermaled with the Herring Gulls whilst the juvenile stayed slightly lower, they ignored both peregrines and she ignored them, obviously all used to seeing each other regularly.

Good to watch, not used to seeing them like this, there’s usually always a building in the way.