The working week so far - 15th-20th October 2018
It’s been another long but fruitful week at RSPB Rainham
Marshes with some quality early morning escapes reaping rewards with a mixture
of misty starts, glorious sunrises and grey gloominess.
Tuesday was especially glorious and I picked up seventy
species from a three hour engagement session with my scope on the river wall
which was quite pleasing. The Lady
Daphne Thames barge was cruising up and down under sail and Harbour Seals and
Porpoises were seen on the mirror like Thames.
Dragons and Damsels were still on the wing and I counted six
species of butterfly too including three richly coloured Clouded Yellows and
this slightly worn female, found by Jerry H, that was definitely white above in
flight making it of the scarce ‘helice’ form.
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| Common Darter |
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| ‘helice’ Clouded Yellow |
There was even time on the way home to stop in and look for
the Beluga off Gravesend and amazingly I saw it almost immediately surfacing
under half way across, blowing a little puff of spray into the air before that
pinky white curve of a back took it back under.
I was lucky to get six cracking views in just a couple of minutes before
continuing with the shopping!
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| No whale image but some arty river, turbine, cobweb combo |
The Cattle Egret has performed well every day and I saw it
on each of my early visits and then subsequently from the centre window during the
day. Pat Hart got some superb footage of it feeding on the cows on Friday
afternoon.
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| Cattle Egret - Tony O'Brien |
Wednesday the 17th was miserable and grey with
drizzle and low cloud which meant it was actually good for small bird passage
and my circuit produced 17 Blackbird, 155 Redwing, 19 Song Thrush, 7 Water
Pipit, 36 Meadow Pipit, 3 Rock Pipit, 4 Pied Wagtail, Brambling 39 Chaffinch, 6
Siskin, 21 Greenfinch, 140 Linnet, 58 Goldfinch, 4 Chiffchaff, 3m Blackcap, a
very late Reed Warbler, 13 Cetti’s Warbler and at least 12 Stonechat.
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| Grey Heron |
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| Mono Marsh Harrier |
Most of
the small stuff was heading west and the thrushes were literally dropping out
of the sky into cover. It felt Ouzelly
but I could not find one. My site year tick came in the shape of a solitary
Coal Tit that moved through the bushes outside the centre window. October seems
to be the best time here to connect with this almost annual species which is surprisingly
rare in the immediate area.
Our staff and volunteer BBQ was held that evening and it was
great to watch the mists fill up the marsh and spread and rise eerily towards
us while the moon and Jupiter shone behind us over the building. The marsh itself was fairly quite although Lapwing
and Redshank were obviously roosting on the Purfleet Scrape and Pipistrelle Bats
zoomed around under the balcony.
Thursday and Friday was again glorious and a Ring Ouzel was
indeed found along the river wall with some Blackbirds. This fine male very
quickly went to ground and was not seen again. Stonechats were everywhere with
at least a dozen on the circuit and Water Pipits had returned to the newly profiled
areas in front of the Butts and Ken B Hide where Grey, White and Pied Wagtails
also scurried around.
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| Stonechat - Tony O'Brien |
The clear blue skies made for difficult skywatching but ten
minutes with Tony O’Brien at the end of the ramp resulted in a fantastic
Peregrine and Common Buzzard session. Both
birds were youngsters, as was the Marsh Harrier seen shortly afterwards.
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| Common Buzzard -Tony O'Brien |
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| Marsh Harrier -Tony O'Brien |
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| Peregrine -Tony O'Brien |
Jackdaws were on the move on Friday with 306 counted heading
west in the first few hours which is most unusual here and a smaller number
were seen today heading in the same direction. I wonder where they have come
from? Similar movements were recorded across the London area over the last two
days. Even the Barn Owl came out to play one evening and started hunting along
the river wall.
It started chilly this morning but my Kids Birdwatching Club
should have been undertaken in shorts and a t-shirt by the end as the
temperature soared. With such clement
weather again, it made seeing the smaller passerines heading over high a real
problem but the ears were working and Siskin and Redpoll were both picked up
with other finches on the move. Eighteen
Avocet were in the bay and seemed to have a colour ringed individual with them
but a better view will be required and just over 100 Black-tailed Godwit and a
couple of Curlew loitered on the last of the tidal mud.
The Skylift 3000 extreme haulage barge that has been
loitering off of Coldharbour Point all week was finally towed back down river
although it did not seem to have rescued Submarine underneath it!
The Marsh Harriers and Buzzards were excellent once again
but I had to wait until quite late in the day to get a good view of the Cattle
Egret which had undergone some sort of miraculous cell division and become two
which was most pleasing and not wholly unexpected.
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| Marsh Harrier |
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| A BOC shot from Roy Woodward at the moment but will replace when I get the original! |
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| Two on one - David Dent |
A Bittern was found on Aveley Pool shortly after we passed by and showed well for an hour but promptly walked away before any of the other regulars could get there but at least we now know that it is back for the season hopefully.
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| Cormorant |
Duck numbers are
slowly climbing with about 40 Wigeon around now and 12 Pintail but Shoveler and
Teal are the predominate species still.
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| Jamie being as industrious as ever with his pie clearing endeavours! |
In the woodland the Ivy was covered in Honey Bees and Wasps
but there was no sign of the superb Hornet I saw earlier in the week. Just one
Hoverfly species was present – Eristalis tenax
but there were several nectaring Red Admirals and Migrant Hawkers and Common
Darters were using the Ivy as a perch to chase down any passing smaller flies.
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| Red Admiral |
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| Migrant Hawker |
My final look out of the window as the shutters rolled across
was of the two Cattle Egrets running along the back of Aveley Pool hot on the
hoofs of their favourite young cows...
Let’s see what tomorrow holds...
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