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.