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

At last!

At last after being without my camera then my 500mm lens for nearly four months in total! Both in for repair, one after the other, my lens finally came home today. A quick test and all looks good! So just in time to head off to Lesvos on Saturday!

A funny old time!

Well it's been a long while since I posted anything. Mainly because we haven't done a lot of birding in the last couple of months. Also I think I mentioned in my last post, that I was having camera problems, this was repaired, but then my 500mm lens would no longer auto-focus due to a firmware upgrade applied by Nikon while the camera was being repaired!

So the lens had to be sent away at my cost, to Sigma for an upgrade (free), only to find that when I damaged the camera, the lens must have taken a hit too and also needed a repair. Many £££s later it should all be sorted and I should get it back in time to go to Lesvos next month.

In the mean time we have been up to Edinburgh a couple of times and made our first visits to the Musselbourgh Lagoons, plus a wander around the coasts of the Firth of Forth. Then after taking in some shows at the Fringe we spent a day at a very soggy RSPB Loch Leven.

The hides at Musselburgh are somewhat basic (no roofs), but the views on to the pools are great, over the two visits, this was the list, not huge, but we only spent a short time as we had things to do and it was August!

Blackbird,

Black-headed Gull

Black-tailed Godwit

Blue Tit

Carrion Crow

Curlew

Dunlin

Gannet

Canada Goose

Greenshank

Greylag Goose

Jackdaw

Knot

Lapwing

Lesser Black-backed Gull

Magpie

Mallard

Mute Swan

Oystercatcher

Pied Wagtail

Redshank

Robin

Sandwich Tern

Shelduck

Stock Dove

Swallow

Teal

Woodpigeon

We visited the estuary at Aberlady, unfortunately the tide was in, so there was little about, a few Lapwing, distant Curlew and loads of Mallard.

On our last day up in Scotland and 'Fringed Out' we drove north up the M90 to the RSPB Reserve at Loch Leven. The weather was awful but we persevered and managed a few hours when the rain eased off and visited all the hides. It was a great day in the end, with our first Osprey sightings of the year, we think four seperate birds.

Blackbird

Black-headed Gull

Blue Tit

Carrion Crow

Chaffinch

Coot

Cormorant

Curlew

Goldfinch

Great Tit

Canada Goose

Greenfinch

Grey Heron

Greylag Goose

Lapwing

Lesser Black-backed Gull

Little Grebe

Long-tailed Tit

Magpie

Mallard

Moorhen

Mute Swan

Osprey

Pied Wagtail

Reed Bunting

Robin

Sand Martin

Sedge Warbler

Snipe

Starling

Swallow

Teal

Tree Sparrow

Tufted Duck

Water Rail

Willow Warbler

Woodpigeon

So not bad for what was essentially two non-birding trips.

A quick visit to North Wales and RSPB South Stack

Last weekend brought about the need to head to Rhyl for family reasons, so we tagged a couple of nights on the front, found ourselves a hotel deal in Llandudno and did a bit of birding in our one full day that we had.

It's a few years since we had been to South Stack and the great film of Chough on Springwatch whetted our appetite to see these marvelous birds again. So as the reports at South Stack were good we headed straight there last Friday morning. Now you may have seen in previous posts that I have been moaning about my camera following a mishap, so now it is in for repair. So the only photo I have is a dodgy couple from my phone;

These were possibly the best views we have ever had of Chough and no camera!!! But for the record we were actually over the moon. We had numerous sightings while we were there in a few different spots, but when one landed just 6 feet away we were gobsmacked.

We only saw one Puffin and that was on the water, there were plenty of Guillemots, Razorbills, Gulls and Kittiwakes around. We saw one Fulmar while walking along the cliff paths, plus Stonechat, Linnet, Meadow Pipit, Rock Pipit, Oystecatcher, House Martin, Swallow and Skylark. Plus the usual common species.

After an ice cream purchased at the RSPB visitor centre, we drove along to RSPB Valley Wetlands, parking first at RAF Valley to watch the Hawks coming in and out, except they didn't. We had a bite to eat there before going to the reserve car park just for a short walk to the first view point. Nothing out of the ordinary was seen... Great Crested Grebe, Little Grebe, Mute Swan, Gadwall, Tufted Duck, Mallard, Canada and Greylag Goose, plus Reed and Sedge Warbler.

We went to Bangor for a cuppa and sat near the pier, for a while, the only thing to add were a couple of Shelduck and Cormorant. After our cuppa we started back to Llandudno, calling in at RSPB Conwy, even though the reserve and car park was now closed. We still had a wander for an hour, but it was very quiet, although we did add Heron and Lapwing to the days total.

A lovely day out ion glorious weather

Heavy Metal Time - Cosford Airshow 2018

My annual indulgence to metal birds, managed to get some photos, but missed some good shots especially of the Red Arrows, but still I already have one or two photos of them.....
Enjoy! (This is just some the rest can be found at: Cosford 2018 )