Little Ringed Plover

Whilst surveying recently, one of the birds that I have come across is breeding Little Ringed Plover.

They do nest in some of the most unlikely positions and habitats that you could imagine, during the surveys nests/territories were marked as they are Schedule 1 to avoid disturbance, exclusion areas were then placed around them.

Below is a section of photos.

This adult was keeping an eye on some large Gulls nearby

Brooding chicks

A bit out of focus, 4 chicks, highly mobile as soon as they have hatched.

'Grounders'

This year so far to date, (fingers crossed) 4 juveniles have come down on fledging from the sites that I monitor and luckily all were spotted and rescued.

The first one, at Battersea Power Station, I think did not fledge but may have been blown off the nest site by those very strong winds and bad weather we had in early June. It was found by site staff and was then caught and returned to an elevated area especially designed for them up on the Power Station itself.

It was a lucky bird as it was not seen until the following morning after checking the cameras, it meant that it likely spent the night at ground level or it managed to get itself to an elevated position off the ground. Foxes obviously are present on site so it was a fortunate bird.

2 of the remaining 3 were located by the public, retrieved by the RSPCA and then taken to the South Essex Wildlife Hospital, I cannot praise them enough for the work that they do.

Both of these juveniles came from sites which  are not disclosed publicly, although I daresay that local people are well aware of them.

The last was a juvenile at Parliament, breeding there for the first time ever; the pair have fledged 3 juveniles of which one had grounded.

When I arrived I found the bird on a post where it had come to the attention of the local Crows and Magpies, I also suspected it may have been down for a couple of days unnoticed as it looked weak and underfed.

Catching it proved relatively easy compared to some, having a closer look confirmed first thoughts; it was weak, little fight or attitude in it at all.

I decided then to take it to the Wildlife Hospital where it was checked over, it was then fed and given a few days to recover.

All 3 of the juveniles, as you will see from the photo, were put in together in an aviary to recover as they all came in around the same time.

As all 3 obviously looked similar, each juvenile was given a coloured cable tie to make sure it went back to their respective site, this was then removed prior to release.

The release back went well and consequent visits to each site including Battersea have shown that the broods are complete, all are back with their parents and siblings.

Busy Bee

This is the first chance I have had to blog of late, surveys, watching briefs and Peregrine related monitoring of the sites I keep an eye on, has kept me very busy over the past few weeks or so.

It is a far cry from the hours I once put in for Steelfixing though, although that work was enjoyable and satisfying at times, it was hard graft; the bird work however is very rewarding and physically far less demanding.

The Falcon at Parliament - pity about the light

The Peregrines that I monitor this year(more on this on the next post) to date are having a good year again, my main monitoring sites all have chicks, one site has only produced a single eyass this year, but for size it is the biggest I have seen on social media.

Checking on Friday (13th) showed a chick over 3 weeks old, perhaps a day or 2 older, they would have to have laid relatively early for it to be this size already.

One of my other main sites, which produced only my 2nd clutch of 5 eggs to date and my first in London, have hatched 4 of the 5 successfully. These are on CCTV (not public) and have proved fascinating to watch, as much as you think you know, there is always something new to learn.

Thursday (19th) is ringing day for 2 of the sites, green rings with white numerals will again be going on as per last year.

In regard to surveys and watching briefs, I have been out on the North Kent Marshes mostly; it’s no secret that I love the wildness of the place and the birds that it attracts.

Highlights have been good numbers of migrants moving through, including 45 summer plumed Grey Plover in a single flock, also summer plumed Bar Tailed Godwit and Dunlin on a number of days. All are cracking looking birds which I rarely see in their breeding finery, usually associating them with the cold of the winter months.

On the Raptor front, female Merlin, Marsh Harrier, Common Buzzard and Hobby have been the highlights.

Local Listing

So far this year locally, the birding has been good in terms of spring migrants; Rainham in particular has delivered pretty well.
Of late, when I have had time, I have put in some early morning visits that have proved very productive.

The best birds so far for me at Rainham, other than the unfortunate deceased Razorbill, were probably the combination of Red breasted Merganser, Knot and Bar Tailed Godwit in Aveley Bay found by Paul.
The Mergs were likely the hardest of the trio to catch up with; I can probably count on one hand how many I have seen at Rainham over the years.
A good bird that I did not get to see was the Stone Curlew; however you can’t see them all so quite happy with proceedings so far.

The fact that last year I finished the year on 122 and this year am already up to 118, speaks for itself, hopefully a sign of some more good birds to come on the Reserve.

Ingrebourne Valley has also got off to a good start with 89 species, to date the best birds I suppose would rank as Greenshank, Mandarin Duck, Grasshopper Warbler and Bearded Tit for me.

Red Kite has eluded me, as it has at the other patches, the Valley has seen 5 of these cracking raptors go through this year.

The viewing area is looking good and as long as the river doesn’t burst its banks again, the mud that is showing may well attract more waders.

Grasshopper Warbler - Ingrebourne Valley

Barking is a relatively small patch that I cover but nonetheless still provides some good birds at the Outfall or on the Thames Water site.

The Barn Owls continue to hold on despite massive works and changes to the site which is great news, it just goes to show how site faithful they are.

One of the highlights recently other than the birding has been a regular Harbour Seal; I suspect it is there mainly due to the presence of the fish which feed at the Outfall. Whatever the reason it is a welcome sight to see one this far up the Thames.

The list goes well on 69 species for the year, surprisingly not one Hirundine has been seen but it is early days yet.

Rainham RSPB

A good week at Rainham started last Saturday with news of a Razorbill found by Jonathan Nasir on Aveley Pools, the bird had presumably flown from the Thames in bad weather. A local mega, many needed it for London including myself so a quick dash was made to see the bird late afternoon presuming that it would not stay.

A few of us got to see the bird, thanks to Howard for staying open, but sadly it died a day or two later, not sure as to the cause but possibly it could have been injured or died through starvation.

As much as you like to see local rarities, you don’t like to see them in these circumstances.

Razorbill

With a day off today (Thursday) I made a dawn visit to Rainham and decided to walk the river wall, it was high tide, other than the Razorbill visit, I had not visited the site since March 17th.

With many migrants now in I was hoping to bolster the year list which currently stood at 95.

First tick just after the centre in bramble was Common Whitethroat (96), scoping the Reserve then produced 16 Curlew at roost and, on their own 2 Whimbrel (97).

A good look through the islands on the scrape though failed to produce the hoped for Little Ringed Plover, if I remember correctly it took me a while to get one last year.

Moving on I then heard the Grasshopper Warbler (98) and not far from it, Reed Warbler (99) doing a bit of sub song in the early hours.

The Gropper I understand has been around for a couple of days.

All the time I was keeping an eye on the river and I then got on to a Ringed Plover (100) flyover calling, another bird that I had failed to connect with in the winter.

Staying with the river then produced 2 Sandwich Terns (101); these can be difficult, I didn’t get them last year at Rainham.

Record shot of the Sandwich Terns

A Short Eared Owl was seen briefly hunting before I arrived at the Serin mound, no Wheatears so far but on the grapevine a Whinchat was seen on the Reserve.

After a while I turned and headed back along the river wall after failing to find any Chats or better still, the recent Merlin, another bird missed so far.


Approaching the Salting’s then showed not one but two Short Eared Owls with one on the ground and another quartering, getting late for these so could prove interesting if there still being seen in May.

It is also possible that there may be 3 birds after I picked up another bird with prey coming from another direction very shortly after.

Another flyover wader then went over high calling and Greenshank (102) was seen heading onto the Reserve.

The other wader which I keep missing is Spotted Redshank, I understand it was seen later in the day on the Kent side, getting its colours as well.

Moving on, still no Wheatear, I got onto 4 Common Terns on the river which bought the year list nicely up to 103, thinking that was it for the day I made my way to the Centre for a cuppa.

En route and shortly before I met Howard a Ring Necked Parakeet went over calling so finally finished on 104.

A very good enjoyable morning walk, good numbers of Common Whitethroat and Sedge Warbler are in but rather unusually I didn’t pick up any Hirundines.

Early layers, 5 eggs and Parliament

There are 2 pairs that I keep an extra eye on when it comes to early laying, both Falcons this year laid there 1st egg on the 15th.In direct comparison to 2015, one was 4 days earlier with the 2nd 4 days later, with a relatively mild winter I had thought that both, given previous year’s form would both be earlier than the 15th.

However, the 15th is 2 weeks earlier than the standard March 28th-April 2nd so the early date can be expected given that London is south and boast’s warmer temperatures in the City, 2 degrees warmer I am told.

As I write this entry on March 25th many pairs have caught up in laying, of the 10 pairs that I monitor, 8 have laid and are incubating, some not fully so likely the early stages of laying.


5 Eggs


It has taken me so long to write this blog entry that one of the 1st layers on the 15th has caught me up and laid 5 eggs no less. A remarkable clutch which, if all hatch, will keep the adults, especially the Tiercel rushed off his feet to provide food. The pressure will then increase when juveniles are near and full grown, each one will demand whole prey for itself, both adults are going to be extremely busy birds.

It is my first clutch of 5 eggs in London in 17 years of monitoring some of London’s Peregrines, the only other 5 I had was a site in Kent, now gone sadly.

Her laying times for each egg have been outstanding and consistent and seem to buck the trend of later eggs taking longer – see below.

1st egg - March 15th

2nd egg – 53 hours 21 minutes later

3rd egg – 53 hours 26 minutes later

4th egg – 53 hours 14 minutes later

5th egg – 55 hours 10 minutes later

The Tiercel in particular, given his smaller size is already struggling to cover all 5 while she feeds or has a preen, here and there an egg pops out but relief from the Falcon is never too long so hopefully all will hatch.


Parliament


It is early days yet, but the Parliament pair are holding to territory on their wintering site and may possibly attempt to breed at Parliament for the 1st time.

Falcon laying up

The alternative is that they just may summer on Parliament, however this may be unlikely as they have been seen copulating.

I have been watching them for the last few months and if you recall from past blog entries on the Parliament Peregrine Diary, their breeding site has always been upriver. However this is now in the process of demolition so the pair have now returned to their ‘home’ site.

Hopefully it will be good news come the end of the Easter holiday.

A confiding Wren checking me out

Magpies building a nest 

Photos below are from an earlier visit in the week, as you can see Egyptian Geese at Parliament and even investigating potential chimney nest sites across the road – remarkable.

Rainham RSPB

March 17th





My usual circuit on a grand sunny morning at last also produced a good mornings birding, I added 3 year ticks to the list.

With spring now in sight it is just good to be out, thoughts are now turning to Wheatear, Sand Martin and Little Ringed Plover as the early arrivals, none seen but Rainham I expect will turn up one or the other very shortly.

All ticks were encountered on the river wall with Corn Bunting being the first followed by a flyover Grey Wagtail and then 2 Chiffchaff’s in the bramble.

I was also hoping for Rock or Water Pipit as these are now on the turn into summer plumage and appear very smart, especially the Water’s.

On walking round the Reserve, displaying Redshank and Lapwing seemed to be everywhere whilst overhead produced 2 Marsh Harriers, a Peregrine and a Common Buzzard.

Displaying Redshank - everywhere

Having met Russ earlier, he had then found a Jack Snipe from the new scrape hide, slightly distant and well camouflaged, it still gave good views. My previous effort was a bird in flight earlier in the year so this was very welcome.

Well camouflaged Jack Snipe

A bit more visible avoiding the Moorhen

For my next visit, hopefully some spring migrants.