April 19th-30th: full steam ahead

After returning from a week birding in Saudi Arabia, I was desperate to see how the spring birding was progressing in London so a couple of hours after landing at Heathrow I popped up to Brent Res to check. This also enabled me to carry out a WeBS count, albeit a few days late. The only wader in East Marsh was a single Common Sandpiper while Yellow Wagtail and Reed Warbler were new for the year.

The following day I was back at Rainham. There was a notable increase in Sedge Warblers and they were joined by a few Reeds. I wonder what the resident Cetti’s Warblers make of this time of year as they quickly go from being the dominant songster to being almost drowned out by these newcomers. The four Barnacle Geese were still on Wennington but this proved to be the last day I saw them. While on the Serin Mound I heard a Grasshopper Warbler reeling away in the enclosed bay, a much needed new bird and one I’d hoped to get today.

A few Med Gulls were seen and heard flying over the tip, surely the best sounding gull on the planet? Looking out towards Erith Yacht Club I saw a few Common Terns and numbers picked up to reach a healthy 45. Aveley Bay was largely devoid of waders so I carried on to the centre to start a lap of the reserve. Just before I arrived a Great Egret flew past, although not new for the year, they’re still rare enough to enjoy finding.

The reserve was fairly quiet as it has been on recent visits, hopefully this will change before the end of spring.

After spending another day at Brent, it was back to Rainham on my usual Friday visit with friends. We took the longer route via the barges, seeing a pair of Med Gulls fly over the river before taking the path over the tip to Serin Mound. The Gropper was still reeling but we didn’t linger for too long as there was news of waders in the bay. It didn’t take too long to locate the three Bar-tailed Godwits. These waders used to be fairly regular at this time of year at several sites in London but Rainham is now one of the last places where you can catch up with them. There was also a single Dunlin with them.

We walked around the reserve and saw the Great Egret which was still here. A few Swallows and Sand Martins went over and we had another look in the bay as the tide was ebbing but there was nothing else new in.

I kept local at the weekend, visiting Brent on both days. On Saturday I finally saw my first Little Ringed Plover of the year but the best bird was after I left the hide and was walking towards Cool Oak Lane. I heard an unusual but still familiar song coming from the willow scrub in the builder’s yard. It took a little while to place it as it was out of context but I was fairly sure it was a Common Redstart. I shot a video to capture the song and started to scan in the trees for it. I managed to locate it fairly close and it was as I thought: a cracking male Redstart. It eventually got chased off by a Robin and went quiet so I couldn’t relocate it. It always a nice bird to see locally but to hear one sing was totally unexpected as there are no previous records of a singing bird.

The next day I was sitting in the hide when two terns suddenly appeared out of the bright blue sky, they dropped down over the res and flew around just beyond the rafts for a minute before they flew off north. It was easy to identify them as Arctic Terns with their Daz-white wings and long tail streamers.

I was back at Rainham again on 25th and it was another good wader day with three more Bar-tailed Godwits and three new year birds in Aveley Bay: Grey Plover, Whimbrel and Greenshank. Even better, the Curlew Sandpiper found at the weekend was tucked away on Winter Pool taking me up to 151 for the year. By the end of my visit I’d notched up 13 waders for the day. The Great Egret was still showing nicely from Butts Hide to add to the Little I’d seen earlier.

Great Egret

Little Egret

My last easy new warbler fell the next day at Brent, a Garden singing by the hide where it turned up yesterday. A cloudy morning at Fryent Country Park failed to produce anything new so the following day I ventured over to Staines Res in the hope of connecting with the flock of Little Gulls that had been present for a few days. When I got onto the causeway I was greeted by the spring emergence of clouds of insects but at least they’re good for the birds. And they’d attracted a group of Swifts which were my first ones this year.

I started scanning the North Basin and it didn’t take long to find a Little Gull, first an immature then some several stunning summer-plumaged adults. Among them were a few Common Terns, one Arctic and even better, a single Black Tern. I took a few crummy record shots and chatted to the only other birder there who’d seen the same selection of birds along with a first-summer Med Gull which I soon caught up with. Surprisingly, there were no waders around so once I’d had my fill of the Little Gulls I headed back to Staines station.

Black Tern

adult Little Gull

Arctic Tern

1st-summer Little Gull

There was time for one last visit to Rainham in April although I didn’t see any new year birds. It was again good for waders with a nice flock of 15 Bar-wits in the bay, along with a couple of Whimbrel and another Grey Plover as well as a Wheatear. During the walk around the reserve I even managed a prolonged view of a Cetti’s Warbler.

Wheatear

Cetti's Warbler

To finish the month, we had our Spring Bird Count at Brent Res on 30th during which we managed to clock up 70 species. I had an early start to the day, getting a Tawny Owl calling just after 5am. There wasn’t a tremendous amount of migration going on but between us we did see a few migrant Red Kites and Buzzards and I located 86 singing warblers of eight species. My year total finished on 155 at the end of April.