January 22-31: wild goose chase

I started the week with a couple of local days at Brent Res, one of which was for the WeBS count. The best bird there was a Bullfinch, a species I’ve not had locally during the past two years since the local population died out.

Monday morning and it was time for another visit to Rainham, just as many commuters were returning to the office for the first time since xmas and the end of the working from home instruction. It was noticeably busier on the tube and train even with my early start which got me to Rainham station in the half-light pre dawn. This is my favourite time of day just as birds wake up, obviously apart from Robins which have been singing for several hours by now!

It was a few degrees warmer than my last visit a few days ago and it made a lot of difference with Cetti’s Warblers being more vocal and shouting across the path to each other. I walked along by the concrete barges towards Coldharbour Point. At last the tide was helpful for gulls and there were a lot of them to look through on the river and roosting on the half-exposed mud. I eventually picked up an adult Caspian, one of my target birds today.

Continuing on towards Aveley Bay I ran into a pair of Stonechats perching up on the fence and following them around was my other target bird, the no longer elusive Dartford Warbler. Conditions were rather too dismal for photography but I tried anyway and got a distinctive silhouette. The threesome continued heading westwards along the path and I met up with Andy who had just found a 1st-winter Caspian Gull.

Dartford Warbler

Pair of Stonechats

Out in the bay were the regular flock of bendy-bills (Avocets) which always seem to vary in number every day. I carried on round to Serin Mound and had a scan around. The usual flock of five Barnacle Geese were feeding close by and a Marsh Harrier hunted at the back. I couldn’t see any sign of the recent Spoonbill or the semi-regular pair of Ravens. A large arrival of geese followed news that the Greylags and accompanying Pink-footed Goose at nearby Corbets Tey had taken off but I couldn’t pick up anything interesting in the flock of Greylags that had just arrived from that direction.  One for another day.

After another day at Brent Res where the highlight was seeing a male Sparrowhawk flush the regular flock of Snipe in East Marsh, it was time for another East London Wild Goose Chase.

With up to two Pinkfeet being seen in the Damyn’s Hall Aerodrome/Gerpins Lane area for the past three days, I took an early train out to Upminster and then the 370 bus down to Corbets Tey. I walked down to the aerodrome but there were no geese there so carried on round to Gerpins Lane. In the first field north of the road was a large flock of Greylags so I set up scope and made my way through them. They weren’t easy to scan as some were sat down, others were feeding with heads down and yet more were barely visible just over the rise. However, I soon found a White-fronted Goose among them that was new in, then one of the Pink-feet. I was particularly pleased at finding the White-front as I’d missed the flock that were at Fairlop earlier in the month.

I carried on along the road and took a shortcut through the delightfully-named Bonnetts Wood which I hadn’t been to before. At the far end I came across my third Bullfinch of the year. I also saw news that the goose flock had taken off and the two Pink-feet had touched down at Rainham so I was quite pleased I’d made an early start today. I caught the bus back and train from Upminster, reaching home by midday with two good year ticks added.

Pink-feet are fairly rare in London and this was only the third time I’ve seen one before, although I suspect that a fully-winged individual that pitched up in St James’s Park in 2005 was probably also a wild bird.

Pink-footed Goose at St James's Park (as this week's bird was too far for a photo!)

I had a more relaxed end to the week with an afternoon back at Crossness where the highlight was watching a Peregrine stoop and flush all the ducks and waders and another visit to Brent Res.

Lapwing after being spooked by a Peregrine

A Serin that had been recently found at Woodoaks Farm near Maple Cross was too good a bird to not try for so Saturday morning saw me on the Met Line to Rickmansworth. It’s only a short journey for me so I count this as local birding. The walk over to the farm took almost as long and I joined a number of other birders at the edge of the field. I’d not been to this site before but knew of it as the site where a flock of eight Cattle Egrets pitched in many years ago when they were still BBRC birds. At the time I was on Scilly so I never got to see them. It took me a long time to catch up with one in London and I expect to see one at some point this year.

There was a large flock of about 300 Linnet constantly flying around but they didn’t seem like potential finch-mates. After a short time a large flock of Chaffinch flew in and they piqued my interest. They were hard to see from the bottom of the field so I walked up the path and decent numbers kept perching up on the trees adjacent to the M25. I picked up several Brambling and things were looking good until a Sparrowhawk paid a visit and sent all the finches into a panic and they left.

After about 15 minutes the Linnet flock returned and then the Chaffinches trickled back. Luckily they were still a bit wary so rather than feed in the weedy field they perched up in the trees a lot. I kept going through them and then, there it was: a dumpy little streaky finch. I shouted out Serin and tried to get others onto it but it only stayed a few more seconds then flew into the field and out of view. I waited a while, hoping it would return to the same tree but it didn’t so I decided to call it a day and headed home. It was nice watching such large finch flocks with the added bonus of a couple of Red Kites and just my third London Serin, I could call it serin-dipity but without the dip.

I was back at Brent Res on Sunday, doing a quick circuit of the res before leading a conservation task for the Welsh Harpies to re-open a footpath that had got brambled over. I had planned to do a Thames-side location on 31st but news of the reappearance of the Ferruginous Duck at Thorpe Park led to a change of plans.

I arrived at Waterloo Station to find the departure boards all saying ‘Delayed’ and discovered a tree had come down in the overnight winds. Still, trains were running so I bought a ticket and waited for a train at the old international area where the train was allegedly going to depart from. I just don’t understand management of railway stations as it was obvious to me the train wasn’t going to depart from here as all the platforms had trains in, none of which were scheduled to leave before ours arrived. And sure enough with a few minutes to go they changed the platform number so everyone had to head back to the main concourse. I took advantage of the change to pick up a coffee before boarding the train.

At Egham I’d worked out a route to walk down to Thorpe Park and eventually found the partially hidden footpath that led alongside Manor Lake. Viewing was difficult as there were trees adjacent to the path and another line in front of the lake but there were a couple of viewing points. The aythya flock were fairly close and it only took a couple of minutes to find the drake Fudge, sparkling in the bright winter sunshine, its rufous-mahogany plumage contrasting with the large white undertail.

It took a little more searching to locate the female Scaup which was sleeping a bit further out. Unfortunately the combination of viewing through two sets of trees and a fence meant the photography was extremely difficult so I soon gave up with that idea and after being satisfied with the views returned to Egham to battle with the delayed trains on the way home.

Spot the out of focus Fudge Duck

I finished January on 118 species, eight more than my target but more importantly I had seen some great birds during the month: Pink-footed Goose, Ferruginous Duck, Dusky Warbler, Serin and Little Bunting, all of which are fairly rare in London. The total number of species recorded in London during January was an impressive 142 so I’m already 24 short but I should be able to catch up with quite a few of them next month with any luck.

January 15-21: Week 3 highlights

I started Week 3 needing nine more species for my end of month target of 110. It was back to the Wetland Centre for my second attempt at Bittern. I spent an hour in Dulverton and WWF hides scanning the reedbeds to no avail but did hear a Redpoll flyover which was new. On my way to Peacock Hide I stopped by the Sheltered Lagoon for a quick scan as I saw Bittern there last month. Immediately I picked one up walking through the reeds. It was slightly obscured but always a good bird to see. It appeared to be fishing and presumably caught something as after a couple of minutes it just stopped moving and was virtually invisible. I pointed it out to a few birders as they walked past; some waited and eventually saw it while others carried on after failing to see it.

With an early success and no other target birds on site I decided to leave early and headed over to Regent’s Park where there were a couple of fairly easy year ticks (AKA plastic fantastic). There was no activity in the rail ditch so I carried on and soon found Mandarin and Red-crested Pochard. Once I’d confirmed they were fully-winged and therefore not collection birds I was able to count them.

I still had one local target to get so the following day I took a stroll up to Fryent Country Park for my first visit of the year there. Within about twenty minutes I heard a Nuthatch, my intended target then a bit later on watched another one feeding above me in a large oak. I did half a circuit of the park and exited near the paddocks so I could also visit Brent Res. I checked the trees where I’ve seen Little Owl before but there wasn’t one there this time.

Nuthatch

I decided to try Cheshunt for the third time this year. Prospects didn’t look good when I arrived with fog hanging around and when I could see some pits they were frozen over! I walked straight up to Ashley Pit. It was almost all frozen over but there were a few Coots around the wooded islands and they were joined by a stunning drake Goosander. Spurred on by my success I made my way over to Seventy Acres. The fog had just cleared and off the viewing platform was a redhead Smew. Even if this was the semi-resident bird of unknown origin it was still good to see but even better was the drake Smew that was definitely countable. It was too far off for a photo but that didn’t matter as it’s one of my favourite birds. As I’d gotten both targets and the Cattle Egrets had moved on I only spent the morning there.

Redhead Smew on Seventy Acres

The following day I made my first visit of the year to Crossness. There was always a good chance of seeing a few new year birds but it’s also a nice place to spend a morning, if you can put up with the smell! From Belvedere station it’s just a short walk to the nature reserve but it was a bit quiet on this visit. The tide was midway out which is about perfect here and there were hundreds of ducks dabbling in the water. I’ve no idea what they feed on as it’s a discharge from the water treatment works and quite frankly I don’t want to know!

Dabblers feeding frenzy

There were a good number of waders around including Curlew and Black-tailed Godwit but more importantly I saw two year ticks: Dunlin and Common Sandpiper. There’s usually a few of the latter species wintering along the Thames but they can sometimes be tricky to find although I wasn't too worried about seeing one at some point during the year.

This is a good place to look through the hordes of Herring Gulls for something more interesting but today there weren’t many gulls to look through so that was it for me. I cut through past the old driving range to the Clockwork Orange Lake (Thamesmere) where a Caspian Gull had been hanging around recently but didn’t see any sign of it so carried on to Abbey Wood station. Who knows, the next time I’m there I might even get to use the new Elizabeth Line, only four years behind schedule!

Common Sandpiper

It was back to Rainham on Friday to round off Week 3 on my regular walk with John & Janet. It took longer to get there than normal as C2C put on a reduced timetable for Covid, just as people were returning to work and then cancelled the train we had aimed for! We managed to dip two Dartford Warblers today, a new one on Rainham West and the regular one by Aveley Bay car park.

The flock of five Barnacle Geese were showing well on Wennington Marsh as we walked along the footpath.

Barnacle Geese with a Canada Goose

Out in Aveley Bay there was the usual flock of Avocet and on the Crayford side a large flock of Dunlin which I no longer needed. However, as I was scanning around over there I did locate a Yellow-legged Gull which was new for the year. Ravens continued to elude us so we stopped in the café for cake o’clock before doing a loop of the reserve. Pintails were present in large numbers and we heard three Water Rails calling from one point along the boardwalk. The regular Ruff was seen on Target Pools from the platform. 

With no other new birds added I finished the week on a nelson – 111 species, now one ahead of my end of month target.

January 8-14: Week 2 100 up

I started Week 2 on my local patch at Brent Reservoir where the only new bird of the year was a Peregrine. As the Dusky Warbler had been showing again over the past few days I decided I need to give it another go. I spent all of the following morning on both sides of the railway line, meeting quite a few other birders who were also trying to track it down. At one point I thought it had been found as half a dozen birders were surrounding a warbler but it was just a Common Chiffchaff.

On my final walk around I heard it calling opposite the reedbed in a long scrubby patch and saw it flit across a gap but the path was too waterlogged to follow it any further. At least I’d managed to catch up with it and probably won’t be returning for a better view. On my way back through the Wetlands I ran into a Grey Wagtail, one of a few common species that I hadn’t yet caught up with this year.

Staines Reservoir seemed to be hosting a good selection of birds so the next day I headed over there. I was somewhat taken aback that the subway I usually take to get to the reservoir had been stolen so had to use the new multiple pedestrian crossings to cross the dual carriageway.

Once on the causeway I started to scan for the four target birds that had been seen the previous day. Another birder located the Slavonian Grebe on the South Basin and I had a look in his scope to see it but couldn’t refind it anywhere. The usually obliging Great Northern Diver was notable for its absence so I wandered down the other end of the causeway where some other birders had gathered, including Neil who I’ve known for decades. Several Goldeneye were around and I located a distant flock of Black-necked Grebes at the back of north basin.

The GN Diver suddenly appeared on the same basin and then vanished without a trace. I’ve never worked out how divers do that on a reservoir, either they possess an invisibility cloak or have the ability to create underwater tunnels to cross to another reservoir. I managed to locate the Slav Grebe against the far south bank and get everyone else on it before Neil found two Ruddy Shelducks flying in. They landed on the south basin and looked pretty smart but I later discovered that they’d been in the area for six months and were presumed escapes. So, no bonus bird but I was well pleased to get all four targets.

Ruddy Shelducks

Looking at the local bird news the rarest bird that I still needed was White-fronted Goose at Fairlop so that was my next day out. Normally going to Fairlop is quite easy as it’s just a five minute walk from the tube station but just as we approached Leytonstone there was an announcement that a broken down train had caused the suspension of services on the Central Line loop. Rather than turn round and go back home I exited the station and decided to get a bus there. Well three buses actually as I didn’t know which one to take so had to work out a route. Luckily the bus stop was just a couple of minutes from the paddocks where the geese had been. Unluckily, they weren’t there. I decided to walk around Fairlop anyway and did add Skylark to my year list but that wasn’t much compensation. Fortunately I could see that the tube service had resumed so once I’d done a circuit I had a much easier return journey.

After another day at Brent Res I headed back to Rainham for my second visit of the year. There were still quite a few birds I needed and had planned to target gulls but the tide was in and there were hardly any gulls on the river so that didn’t pan out well. As usual I failed to connect with the Dartford Warbler but did catch up with a couple of relatively common birds I need in Green Sand and Linnet. Not sure how it took 13 days to see Linnet but it became my 100th species for the year.

To end Week 2 I went back to Cheshunt, this time with John & Janet. I still had a few target birds here, with priority being Smew. However, despite recent sightings we failed to locate either of the two birds that were seen that day. The only new bird was Treecreeper which we heard while having lunch which brought the end of Week 2 up to 101 species.

January 1-7: Kicking off the yearlist

Now that I don’t have work getting in the way of my birding I decided to go for a London year list using only public transport. Although I’ve kept one for the past couple of years I’ve not made much attempt at it before. Last year I amassed 169 species without much effort which would have been a little higher were it not for the lockdown at the beginning of the year. I have a rough target of 180 for the year with 110 by the end of January.

I had originally planned to see in the New Year at Rainham where I would have seen the highest number of species but plans fell through so I ended up in the Lea Valley instead. I began on Walthamstow Marshes but failed to connect with the incredibly elusive Dusky Warbler. It was a nice bright day and the local Song Thrush was proclaiming his territory.

Song Thrush

There wasn’t a lot on offer at the adjacent Wetlands so I just used it as a shortcut to Tottenham Hale station and took the train up to Cheshunt. I hadn’t figured on everyone who lived nearby taking advantage of the Bank Holiday and the place was heaving. Even the hides at the Bittern Watchpoint failed to offer any sanctuary as noisy tots ensured any Bitterns weren’t going to emerge from the reeds.

I didn’t see anything particularly good for the year list but a Red Kite over Seventy Acres was bird of the day.

Red Kite

I visited the London Wetland Centre on Jan 2nd where for the second day in a row I failed to see Bittern but managed to find a couple of decent birds with four Jack Snipe on the grazing marsh and the same Brambling on the feeders that we’d found in December.

Brambling

After a couple of local days doing Brent Res and shopping, my next expedition was the Bexley Little Bunting. I’d already seen it in December but that was last year and who can resist going for second helpings of such a smart and cooperative bird. This was my third Little Bunting in London and the first two took a bit of effort to find and then never showed for long. The Bexley bird clearly hadn’t read the script as it fed unconcerned along the path just a few metres away. As long it isn’t over-togged then you could watch it for ages and I did leave it happily feeding there when I left.

Little Bunting

As I’d got back to Albany Park so early I decided to take the next train wherever it was going. Luckily it was heading to Swanscombe so I spent the rest of the morning there. There was no sign of the Spoonbill on Botany Marsh but I learnt it had been coming in later. I walked along the brand new Thames footpath for the first time and spent some time checking the Thames but amazingly there was only a single wader on show, a Common Redshank. As I walked back up the hill to the station I looked back at Botany Marsh and could see a distant white blob which through the bins became a Spoonbill, the first one I’ve seen in London in winter.

White Blob (Spoonbill)

It was back to Brent Res the next day and my first good find of the year with a Great Egret in north marsh. I’ve seen a few here over the years but it’s always a good one to see locally and it’s where I found London’s first ever Great Egret many years ago. I also managed to catch up with a Tawny Owl at its day roost before it slinked off back into its hole.

Great Egret

Tawny Owl

I finally made it to Rainham Marshes at the end of the first week of January with my regular Rainham birding frinds John & Janet. We located the regular flock of five Barnacle Geese on Wennington and then found a Brent Goose hiding in with the Canadas, another good year tick and the first bird in 2022 that I didn’t see last year. There were the usual Marsh Harriers hunting near the A13 but no sign of any Ravens that are often present.

4 of the 5 Barnacle Geese

Brent Goose

As we left Serin Mound the resident tame female Kestrel (she needs a name: Katie?) landed on a signpost right next to the path with a vole in her talons and proceeded to consume it while being totally togged. She really has no fear of people and is a delight to watch.

Kestrel with prey

With the tide out in Aveley Bay I was able to rack up some wader year ticks with Avocet, Black-tailed Godwit and Curlew being added but there was no sign of any of the 1,000 Dunlin that had been around – where do they all go? And talking of absent birds, the elusive Dartford Warbler continued to be elusive. It’s been on the river wall for a couple of months and I’ve still only seen it once.

After a stop for coffee & cake we did a circuit of the reserve but didn’t add much more apart from a heard-only Bearded Tit. Back at the centre we decided to look for the Firecrests and were rewarded with point-blank views of both birds. This was another bird I expected to just about see during the course of the year but most probably in late autumn so it was nice to catch up with it so early. At the end of Week 1 I finished on 90 species which was about par.