First frost of autumn

Today was yet another visit to Rainham Marshes. I always enjoy my days off during the week; whilst weary commuters pile off the packed train at Fenchurch Street on their way to work, I board an almost empty train heading back out of London. It finally felt like a change of season today with the first frost of autumn and a distinctly cold feel marking a shift towards the colder days of winter.

Ferry Lane marshes

Autumn is the longest season in the birding calendar beginning in the middle of June (while ‘normal’ people are still looking forward to summer!) when Green Sandpipers first put in an appearance going right through into November. While all the summer visitors have now left, birds are still arriving to spend the winter with us. There was some evidence of migration as there had been arrival of Song Thrushes overnight, particularly along the river wall but nothing was flying over and I only saw one Redwing among the Song Thrushes which were presumably of continental origin. Lots of Robins were setting up their winter territories, some of these may also have flown over the North Sea.

This could either by Ricky - a distant cousin of Rocky - or a Robin from over the North Sea

Down at the Concrete Barges a Fox let me approach closely to take its photo before heading off.

It was almost high tide and a small group of Starlings found a convenient safe place to rest up and preen while their feeding ground was temporarily underwater.

Starlings on the Deep Sea Diver sculpture

Rock and Water Pipits were both seen along the river before I managed my first Meadow Pipit of the day, in fact by the end of the day I had seen more of the first two species which overwinter here than Meadow which is most numerous as a passage migrant.

By the time I reached Aveley Bay the tide was right in and there wasn’t a wader in sight. I’d only seen Lapwing and Redshank so far so hoped there would be more roosting on the reserve.

But I’m jumping ahead and before then I diverted to Serin Mound before going to the reserve. On the approach I heard a Brambling call several times but couldn’t actually see it. There were lots of finches, thrushes and Reed Buntings flying around and diving into bushes and a bit further back there was the first of four Stonechat that were around.

Wennington Marshes was finally living up to its name with the first pools of water in the fields since spring. It had attracted hordes of Greylag Geese and a lot of large gulls but I couldn’t find anything interesting among either flock.

Once on the reserve I headed straight for the woodland and walked round very slowly looking and listening for crests in the hope of bumping into one of the Firecrests that were around earlier in the week but I only managed one Goldcrest. A single tagged on to a flock of Lapwing at Ken Barret hide but by the time I got to Aveley Pools there weren’t any waders other than a few Lapwing and I never saw a single Black-tailed Godwit all day.

It started to feel more like a winter’s day than one in late autumn and it remained cold all day so I decided not to wait until dusk to see if any owls came out – I’ll leave that for another day.