The last ten days at RSPB Rainham Marshes have seen me make a couple of
escapes for freedom but to be honest they have not exactly resulted in the
natural history wonders that I was hoping for and so I have had, for the most
part to be content with what I can see from the window.
This did not include the Cattle Egret and Spoonbill present
on the 14th July and I was
forced to make do with a selection of inverts from inside the glass panes that
make up my normal silent movie television screen viewing conditions.
Seven female presumed Hybomitra ciureai were rescued from the glass
prison along with a couple of the green eyed Chrysops relictus. The latter is very keen on dining on human
blood but thankfully the Hybomitra are not so fervent!
 |
Hybomitra ciureai - the Levels Yellow Horned Horse Fly
|
 |
| Hybomitra ciureai |
 |
| Chrysops relictus |
Small and Essex Skipper abound at the moment around the
blooming Lavender and I have found a couple of Anthophora bimaculata amongst
the other bees and the season first Osmia spinulosa doing their super vibrating
dance on the Ragwort and Fleabane.
 |
| Essex Skipper |
 |
| Osmia spinulosa |
Peacocks have hatched in numbers and gaudy eyed beasts are flouncing all
around the trails.
 |
| Peacock |
I eventually got a good walk on Friday 19th when
the pesky invisible Spoonbill was almost enough to tempt me out but the two
Great White Egrets in front of the Butts Hide made a walk even more tempting. I even saw these two from the window but
wanted more and a Red Kite circling over the Dartford Warbler field sealed the
deal.
I went via the woodland and found three Volucella zonaria on
territory and both Volucella pellucens and Eristalis intricaria were also
patrolling at head height. The reedbed
as I came out of the woodland was full of hoverflies with countless Episyrphus
balteatus, Syrphus and Eupeodes resting up.
 |
| Volucella zonaria |
 |
| Episyrphus
balteatus |
Brown Hawkers are now on the wing but
in general dragonfly numbers still feel very low but I still have hopes of
Blue-eyed Hawker once again.
As I came out of the woodland the Red Kite came up from the
ground not far from me and gave the most amazing of views and from this range
could be seen to be an immaculately plumaged juvenile. It was crisp and bright and spent the next
twenty minutes circling around with occasionally attention from Carrion Crows
and a strangely agitated Grey Heron.
Once at Aveley Pool the Spoonbill decided to remove its
cloak of invisibility and was loafing on its ankles on the island. Not the most
engaging of views but at least it put its head up once!
Two male Ruff fed with about 30 Black-tailed Godwits and the
two young fledged Avocets were still with their parents. A scan of the large gulls produced two
pristine juvenile Yellow-legged Gulls but there were no Meds with the
Black-heads.
 |
| Spoonbill - Andy Tweed got a little closer than I did! |
Swifts and Sand Martins were drifting in from the west no
doubt ahead of the next wave of rain that I hoped to avoid. Down to the Butts Hide where I had the two Great White
Egrets all to myself as they stalked around just outside. They are always such
imposing birds with a certain regal stance and demeanour and I never tire of seeing
them but especially here. I twitched my first on the 17th July 2006
while in the middle of working on my aviary in my garden in Strood. It was found by Steve Hall who was out field
teaching at the time. We were not even open to the public for another five
months and this was still a huge Essex bird at the time. I reckon that these
were my 44th and 45th for the site since that time,
reflecting the amazing change in fortunes of this species.
 |
| Great White
Egrets |
 |
| Great White
Egrets - Andy Tweed |
|
They had a couple of good fly abouts showing off those
ridiculously long black legs and languid light before eventually heading off to
the north late morning.
There were 21 Little Egrets dotted about out front and a
couple of well grown Gadwall and Shoveler broods along with two of our fledged
Little Ringed Plover from our two broods this year.
The male Marsh Harrier was out hunting over Aveley and two
of his kids were playing over the now bone dry Target Pools. It feels like three young have been fledged
this season but whether this is two from one nest and one from the other we are
trying to discern.
There was plenty of flora alongside the paths with the Wild
Carrot being very popular with vast numbers of Red Soldier Beetles living up to
their alternative name of Bonking Beetle. I checked the Great Mullein for Crab Spiders
with no joy and tried once again to capture the ephemeral colour of the tiny
Vervain. It is the palest shade of lilac but never looks quite right on a picture.
Cinnabar moths were munching their way through the Ragwort and the sky blue
Chicory was offset but the swathes of yellow Ox Tongue flowers.
 |
| Wild
Carrot |
 |
| Cinnabar |
 |
| Great Willowherb |
 |
| Vervain |
 |
| Great Mullein |
 |
| Chicory and Ox Tongue |
Until last year I was only aware of Bristly Ox Tongue until
I had Hawkweed OT pointed out to me and we have plenty of both species
growing side by side on the marsh.
Following an online chat with Lee Gregory about some confusing plants in
Gwent, he suggested that the very prickly ones with Hawkweed like leaves may
well be hybrids. I was intrigued enough
to pay attention to ours and suspect that this may be the case here too.
 |
| Bristly Ox Tongue |
 |
| Hawkweed Ox Tongue |
 |
| Possible Hybrid Ox Tongue |
However, I am no botanist and will dangle this problematical
carrot in front of Enid when I see her next rather than upsetting the
botanising community further...
A brood of ten Shelducklings were with their parents in
Aveley Bay and a solitary Curlew was out on the mud where three fresh
chequerboard juvenile Great Black-backed Gulls were loafing in a siblings only
unit suggesting local breeding once again within our stretch of the Inner
Thames.
 |
| Shelducklings |
 |
| Mute Swans in the PD |
 |
| ...with a cute baby Moorhen |
I ambled back along the Victorian Seawall where Field Bindweed
crept its pink and white trumpets across the concrete and the Sea Beet is now
setting seed leaving little bundles of future plants for the next big tide to
pick up and disperse up and down the river.
 |
| Field Bindweed |
 |
| Cinquefoil |
The cloud was rolling in and the sky darkening and with a
rising wind it would not be long till rain arrived but even the wet afternoon
was not birdless with more Harrier views and a fine adult Med Gull that glided
past the window with the wind behind it.
My Saturday was not quite as I had hoped with cat related
knee dislocation traumas, washing machine installation incompetence (on three
occasions) and subsequent general irritability but was salvaged somewhat by
helping out with the Thames Chase Bioblitz at Broadfields on Sunday 21st.
The lack of interest from the visiting public in looking at
or for anything was disappointing and although we tried to engage with people
out on the trails, it was all about a bike or a dog and the strange compulsion
to jog.
 |
| Banded Demoiselle |
 |
| Gatekeeper |
 |
| Brimstone |
 |
| Tachina fera |
 |
| Chrysotoxum festivum |
 |
| Brown Argus |
 |
| Misumena vatia |
 |
| And Phil C in full fly mode... |
However, I had fun (yes, I enjoyed myself) and set to task
recording every single thing I could identify comfortably. Phil and Mel were working their way through
the more complicated flies and Yvonne was out grubbing for Ladybirds and
Shieldbugs leaving me with a total of at least 175 species during my search
which I am sure will increase further over the next few days as others send in
their sightings.
The week ahead is looking incredibly hot and I suspect that
insects will again come to the fore at work again so let’s hope for more
opportunities to nip out for a speculative look...
