Rainham Marshes

It's been a fair while since I have posted, indeed it's a fair while since we have done any birding, for a number of reasons that I won't go into here!

Anyway last weekend saw us head down to London to look after and run the Tap Room at our sons brewer in Bemondsey (see the link on the home page) As we had to pick up the keys on Thursday as he was going away that left us a free day on the Friday, so we toddled off to RSPB Rainham.

The weather was glorious, unlike the Saturday on the Beer Mile!

Also this was the first outing since my camera and 500mm lens were both repaired, it was actually pretty quiet out on the reserve and the reported Pectoral Sandpiper from earlier in the week was no longer about, just plenty of Collared Dove and Hous Sparrows to start with, although this Little Grebe showed nicely a little further along the circular walk:

We had been told that the Bearded Tits, or should I call then Bearded Reedlings now, had been showing near the Rifle Butts, we bumped into a chap who had seen them a few minutes earlier, but no promises! Then a kind South African gentleman took us to where he had seen them and within a couple of minutes there they were:

We stayed for about thirty minutes watching their antics, taking time for a coffee of course. I have quite a few photos that I will add to my Flickr albums shortly.

So we walked on to the large hide overlooking the pools, there wasn't a great deal about apart from the Teal;

We had a late lunch there before continuing around the reserve, watching the Lapwing;

and admiring the Marsh Frogs;

So back to the centre where some Starling and Collared Dove showed well and a final cuppa before heading back to Bow.

Not a huge list but well worthwhile:

Bearded Tit

Black-headed Gull

Blue Tit

Buzzard

Carrion Crow

Collared Dove

Cormorant

Goldfinch

Great Tit

Greater Canada Goose

Grey Heron

Greylag Goose

House Sparrow

Jay

Kestrel

Lapwing

Little Egret

Little Grebe

Long-tailed Tit

Magpie

Mallard

Moorhen

Mute Swan

Pheasant

Shelduck

Shoveler

Starling

Teal

Woodpigeon

RSPB Rainham Marshes, a stroll!

My blog post are like buses, non for ages then 6 come at once!

After a great and boozy weekend with our lad in London we returned making a small detour to drop into Rainham Marshes. It was a bit cold and windy but at least it was dry.

There was allegedly a solitary Brambling about by the feeders at the visitor centre, but of course no sign of it when we headed out onto the reserve. Our initial goal was to stop at the first hide only a couple of minutes from the centre and have coffee. From here there were the usual wintering ducks, Wigeon, Teal and some distant Shelduck. There were also large numbers of Lapwing both on the ground and in the air. Watching Lapwing is always enjoyable and a real treat.

As we had a 3 hour drive home we couldn't afford to linger to long so set out to do the circular walk around the reserve, only really stopping for any time in the large hide about half way around to have lunch.

The walk was very productive with 41 species seen over the couple of hours we were there, not great numbers but still not bad. Photography proved to be difficult as everything was keeping its distance, but here are a few just to prove that we were there!
Stonechat:

 Lapwing

 Wigeon

 Teal

 Wigeon

 Gadwall

 Pintail, plus spot the Snipe!

So a good couple of hours, the full list being:

Blackbird

Black-headed Gull

Blue Tit

Carrion Crow

Chaffinch

Collared Dove

Coot

Cormorant

Curlew

Dunlin

Dunnock

Fieldfare

Gadwall

Goldfinch

Great Tit

Canada Goose

Greenfinch

Greylag Goose

Herring Gull

House Sparrow

Kingfisher

Lapwing

Linnet

Little Egret

Little Grebe

Long-tailed Tit

Magpie

Mallard

Moorhen

Pied Wagtail

Pintail

Reed Bunting

Shelduck

Shoveler

Snipe

Starling

Stonechat

Teal

Tufted Duck

Wigeon

Woodpigeon

Rainham Marshes RSPB

After a great night out with our Son for his birthday we called in at Rainham, as we usually do on our way back to the Black Country time permitting. We spent about three hours doing the circular walk around the reserve.

As you might expect at this time of year it's very quiet all the birds have done their bit, the youngsters have fledged and the parents are recovering and hiding away as much as possible, getting ready to migrate or stocking up for the winter. Yes, only 139 days to Christmas as I write this!

Anyway I think the must abundant species on the reserve at the moment are Goldfinch, Starling and Coot! There were large flocks of Goldfinch and Starling zooming around the reserve, so they are the exception to what I have just said! I have just realised despite the large numbers I never got around to taking any snaps of them!

Upon further scanning there were quite a large number of Lapwings about including what looked like a fair amount of juveniles, so breeding for them on the reserve must have gone well.

Other birds showing well were Grey Heron and Little Egret:

So with birds apart from Coots and this Little Grebe

not posing these Marsh Frogs obliged:

Then of course there were plenty of Butterflies about, these two posed in front of the hide,
Comma:

 Peacock:

We also saw Speckled Wood, Common Blue, Large White (of course!) and others which we have no idea what they are!

We finished off sitting outside the visitor centre in glorious sunshine with a cup of coffee followed by an ice-cream, where these two Collared Doves posed:

Our Rainham day list:
Black-headed Gull
Black-tailed Godwit
Blue Tit
Carrion Crow
Collared Dove
Coot
Cormorant
Gadwall
Goldfinch
Great Tit
Greenfinch
Grey Heron
Greylag Goose
Herring Gull
Hobby
House Sparrow
Kestrel
Lapwing
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Little Egret
Little Grebe
Magpie
Mallard
Moorhen
Mute Swan
Pochard
Reed Warbler
Shelduck
Shoveler
Snipe
Starling
Swallow
Woodpigeon
Wren