27th July - 4th August: A little recap...
Late on Friday 27th July, Pat Hart and Bill Stallard found a
moutling juvenile Marsh Sandpiper while doing the trail lock up in the extremely
uncomfortable heat and humidity.
This dainty little Tringa was feeding actively on Aveley
Pool at RSPB Rainham Marshes with two Greenshank and was only the second record for the reserve with
the first being an amazing 55 years ago in August 1963. It was also the first London recording area
record since 1984 and was therefore bound to attract some attention in local
birding circles.
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| Marsh Sand dozing with two Greenshank - Alan Shearman |
I opened at a little before seven on Saturday morning with
the knowledge that the bird was thankfully still present but it annoyingly flew
off just before the first visitors arrived and headed towards the Thames.
A tense two hours followed during which time this strange
wet stuff fell momentarily from the sky. We consulted Google and found out that
it was called ‘rain’. No one in living memory could remember what it was and
some people even came back into the centre appearing ‘wet’.
No sooner had got our head around these alien concepts than
it had passed us by and as if by magic the sandpiper was back on the pools
where it stayed for the rest of the day generating some much needed footfall
and ornithological good will.
It was good to get the marsh back on the map for a rare bird
and with Aveley pool looking so good, let’s hope that this will be the first of
several good autumnal passage birds.
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| Marsh Sandpiper - David Morrison |
Part Hart got some nice footage on the first evening...
And so after the excitement of the Marsh Sandpiper twitch
during normal hours, the second shift for the day started as it became time for
the annual Big Wild Sleepout. All the
guests turned up so wonderfully promptly that we were able to head out onto the
reserve in very good time and (with pizza in hand) the party of about 30 of us
wended our way through the amazingly verdant southern trail towards the RDZ and
Brick Building.
The wind had been picking up all day but we tried not to
worry about putting up tents until we needed to and were content wandering
through the whooshing green reeds that were attempting to swamp the path but at
least the temperature had dropped from the almost unbroken barrage of heat over
recent weeks.
We made good time even with stops to watch Marsh Harriers
and Little Egrets and thus began the task of erecting the tents for the night.
Pat Hart may have been the hero for finding the Marsh
Sandpiper but unfortunately he was not so lucky with his little pop up tent
which decided that it did not like the spot he had chosen and careened off into
the distance in a serious of bounding loops before becoming attached to a
bramble patch way off towards the Butts Hide in quite possibly the only
completely inaccessible spot on the whole marsh.
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| Pat's tent becoming one with nature... |
He watched it forlornly and was thus resigned and consigned
to sleeping in the big hide for the evening while his tent became a shelter for
other wildlife...
Banging in tent pegs was slightly problematical with the
drought leaving the ground set like a concrete foundation but with teamwork and
a few spare pegs we managed to help get everyone set up in plenty of time for
dinner, a cuppa and a moment or two to chill out.
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| Caroline may have brought along some pizza... |
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| as did Robyn, while Phil had not even got a tent let alone a pizza... |
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| ...and then there was Alistair with his gormet main course |
We all reconvened at 8pm and Jules and Alistair took most of
the families off for some nocturnal pond dipping while Pat and Ken took the
remainder around to Aveley Pools. It was all a bit windy but everyone enjoyed
themselves and was welcoming of another brew upon their return.
Thankfully the cloud was holding off and while the Collins
and Archers set up the moth traps in the lee of the Brick Building, I popped
the scope onto the orb of Jupiter with at least three of its moons on show
before a five minute window allowed us to zoom in on the mighty Jupiter, even
further away at 746 million miles distant!
It is currently tilted so that you can see onto the rings
which is just mind boggling when you think about it. I am always in awe of her majesty but no one
else had ever seen it before and for many it would become the highlight of the
evening. Unfortunately it was all too brief and thin cloud veil was enough to
remove this might celestial body from view.
Lapwings called in the dark and we were even lucky enough to
hear the Marsh Sandpiper with the two Greenshank flying around above us. It was nice to
put that learned call from Lesvos into good use! Greylags could be heard out on the marsh with the odd croak of a Grey Heron.
At 1014pm precisely the International Space Station sped
into view from the west, glowing brightly as it shot over our heads 254 miles
up at 17,130mph! These figures are
almost as amazing as Saturn and we were treated to a second showing after it
had popped around the globe at 1151pm.
By now the moon had risen but alas with none of the eclipse
glow that we all missed on the cloudy Friday evening but it shed enough light
to illuminate the marsh and campsite in a soft white glow.
With that it was time to call it a night in preparation for
an early rise which seemed to come about all too soon. We broke camp by just after 7am with rain in
the air and amazingly managed to have enough to time for some extra pond
dipping in the Woodland zone on the way back before the weather finally let out
its breath and a light persistent rain settled in for the duration of the day.
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| 0530 dawn - prior to me shouting wakey wakey at 0630 |
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| Young Rosie and an Oak Eggar moth on her dad's hand... |
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| Phil seemed to sleep ok... |
Pat rediscovered the Marsh Sandpiper in Aveley Bay on his
very early walk with a couple of the guests which pleased them and the first
early birders who saw it before it departed as the rain came in before dropping
into our reserve at Cliffe further down river during the late afternoon.
With breakfast served and sorted we bid farewell to our BWSO
guests ready to welcome those eager to look for the now already missing
sandpiper.
Job done...
For one reason or another it has been a tough following week. The steady increase in temperature has made
excursions out onto the reserve almost unpleasant and the continuing drought
has left the marsh looking more like the African veldt than a lush
wetland.
It has however given the team the opportunity to get out
there and top the vegetation with the tractor.
Just how they have been enduring several hours in the cab with a malfunctioning
air conditioning system is beyond me but they have kept stoically at it. The
dry conditions have allowed them to mow areas and islands that are normally
either unreachable or only doable with the hand held brushcutters later in the
season. All we need now is some good
heavy, steady rain...
There same selection of waders as last week remained on
Aveley Pool with the Black-tailed Godwits peaking at about sixty and singles of
Wood Sandpiper and Knot being the most notable newbies.
I headed out to do some trail pruning of my own early on Friday
morning and was delighted to find a Pied Flycatcher in the Cordite sycamores
along with a couple of Willow Warblers, Chiffchaffs and both 'throats. A pair of coupled Southern Hawkers still
managed expert circuits and I saw both Blue-eyed and Migrant Hawker on the
inside although it was already too warm by 0730 for them to settle for a
picture.
Back at the centre the bees were fantastic on the Echinops
with six or possible seven species of Bumblebee clambering over the lilac
spheroids with the odd waving leg to see off any other bee that intruded on
their reverie.
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| male Bombus lucorum |
I found three Wasp Spiders in the car park. They were my
first this year and although I know others have been seen, I reckon it is a
poor year for the species that I suspect was hit by the late cold and snow in
the early spring.
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| Spider perfection... |
My long stint at work finished that day and I have spent the
weekend trying to recuperate and recentre.
It has not been easy in the exhausting heat with a heavy head and so a dash to the coast yesterday
evening was required to find a sea breeze and to try out the camera on
my shiny new Galaxy S9+.
I chose Reculver Towers and it was thankfully quiet. The Saxon church stood proudly amongst its
Roman fort ruins and it always amazes me that it has survived so long on its
precarious mini coastal cliff. The phone
camera is seemingly at least as good as the S7 and if anything has greater
depth of field and clarity. It will take some playing with but the knowledge
that I will always have a good camera with me is secure...
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| All the above taken with the S9+ |
Sand Martins skittered around the short sward, so close at
times that you could hear the snap of the bill (like you can with Spot Flys)
and see the little crescents on the backs of the juveniles.
House Sparrows and Starlings foraged and just off shore a
scaly juvenile Med Gull loafed with some Black-heads before heading off over the
inland wheat fields that were enveloped in dust from a combine harvester.
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| Grey Heron |
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Grey Heron & Little Egrets
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| Med Gull |
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| Med Gull & Black-heads |
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| Linnets |
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| Cormorant |
I spent some time playing with the super slo-mo (to which it
rather bizarrely adds music...) and the little waves before checking out some Little
Egrets and Grey Herons in a solitary fir.
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| Phone close up is good too... |
The sea-breeze was deceiving and the heat was still in the
air so it was time for fish ‘n’ chips from Beltinge with a cliff top view
across the mouth of the Swale, over Herne Bay pierhead, to Shellness, Warden
Point and Southend beyond...
