Blowing in the wind

With the shortest day only a week away I got a later train down to Rainham but still arrived at dawn.

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.

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.

Ominous skies behind Serin Mound

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.

A swirl of Lapwing with a single Dunlin

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.