With the shortest day only a week away I got a later train
down to Rainham but still arrived at dawn.
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| Sunrise over Rainham West |
The forecast breeze and single figure
temperatures suppressed a lot of bird activity and very few Cetti’s Warblers
were heard as I walked through Rainham West. As it was low tide I decided to do
the long walk via the barges instead of heading along Coldharbour Lane.
When I got to the river a male Peregrine slowly circled around over the gull-less gantry. Perhaps because of the presence of this top
predator there were very few waders around, just a small gaggle of Redshank and
a solitary Black-tailed Godwit.
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| As the light wasn't very good for photographing avian raptors I've included a feline one instead. |
Despite the wind, raptors seemed to be the order of the day
as walked along the Thames with a Kestrel, a female Peregrine and a Merlin all
seen within a few minutes over the tip. The Merlin was actively hunting the
Starlings, with flocks flying around and splitting up. Unfortunately they
disappeared over the other side of the tip so I didn’t see if the Merlin was
successful or not.
Just as I approached Aveley Bay an alarm gull made me look
up and a gull flew over in panic with two Peregrines flying together behind it.
However they ignored the gull and flew straight north. It’s possible these were
different birds from the first two birds I encountered so I may have seen four
Peregrines. I diverted to the Serin Mound hoping to add some more raptors and a
pair of Marsh Harriers were hunting over the reserve but there was no sign of
the Common Buzzards that I usually see here.
I scanned Wennington and counted 18 Rook, my highest count
here but there could have been more birds present. The weather had deteriorated
and there was the odd shower and the wind had picked up considerably. Black
skies in the distance made me head to the centre without much delay but I did
scan Aveley Bay and apart from a flock of 20 Avocet was surprisingly devoid of
waders.
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| Ominous skies behind Serin Mound |
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| Pylon lit up by a Rainbow |
Needless to say the woodland walk was closed due to the
winds and there was no chance of any Beardies in this weather so I walked
clockwise straight to Butts hide for lunch. The incoming tide had brought many
Lapwing and Dunlin in and I managed to find a single Snipe to add to the wader
list before calling it a day.
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| A swirl of Lapwing with a single Dunlin |
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| A Snipe I photographed a week earlier when the light was better |
The weather meant it was a struggle finding many
of the usual birds such as Stonechat and Reed Bunting but I managed a
respectable 65 species which along with the views of the raptors I had earlier
still made it a good day.
