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.