May 7th-14th: waders and butterflies

After a rarity packed first six days of May it was inevitable that spring would slow down. Over the weekend there were still a couple of migrant LRPs and Common Sands at Brent Reservoir along with the first broods of Long-tailed Tits.

Common Sandpiper

With a few waders appearing at Rainham over the last two days I thought it would be worth a visit so headed over there early on Monday morning. The tide was nice and low by the time I arrived at Aveley Bay and met up with John and Janet. There was a flock of eight Ringed Plover feeding on the water’s edge. This was one of my target birds and I soon picked up another when I scanned the Kent side and found one of yesterday’s Sanderlings on the Dartford mud along with four more Bar-wits. We walked the reserve loop, seeing the two breeding-plumaged Cattle Egrets out with their bovine insect flushers before finding another two Ringed Plover on Winter Pool.

We ran into Howard at Target Pool but there was no sign of the weekend’s Glossy Ibis. Hobbies and Swifts scythed overhead and a Cuckoo belted over but the only sign of any migration was a couple of Sand Martins.

I was back at Rainham on Thursday hoping that Turnstones would be on the move. With high tide occurring late morning I started early at Purfleet and headed straight to the bay but the only migrant wader was a close Bar-wit still in winter-plumage.

Bar-tailed Godwit

I gave it a while then carried on towards Serin Mound. As I walked through the car park I could hear the Corn Bunting singing on the tip but couldn’t locate it. Andy had just arrived so we had a look over Wennington but all we could see were hundreds of goslings. A message had us heading down to the river and we soon had close views of an orange and black Turnstone along with Whimbrel, Ringed Plover and Dunlin that had also arrived since my earlier visit. The Goodyear blimp sailed over the reserve, probably on its way to Wembley?

Turnstone

Goodyear blimp

After a coffee break at the centre we checked out Winter Pool where there was a small flock of Dunlin and a late Black-tailed Godwit. One of the Cattle Egrets was still out on Purfleet marsh. After lunch on Serin Mound I went home through Rainham West and found an interesting dead shrew on the path which looked black and large so I took it home for further examination. It turned out to be what I suspected: a Water Shrew, the first one I’ve seen, although too long expired to be countable on my mammal list.

Water Shrew

Friday was a day off from birding and I met up with John and Janet for a butterfly trip to Hutchinson’s Bank. The weather was still cloudy when we arrived at New Addington so we took an early coffee break in Costa’s before wandering down to the site. It was slow going at first until the clouds eventually parted but we did find some roosting Small Blues, then a Dingy Skipper.

Small Blue asleep on Bluebells

Dingy Skipper

We also found a few roosting moths including Common Carpet and Muslin Moth before the sun came out properly and woke the butterflies up.

Common Carpet

female Muslin Moth

Brimstones were abundant and among the special butterflies of the area we also found Grizzled Skipper. After a meandering circuit we headed over to Chapel Bank seeing some peculiar orchid-like flowers in the woodland which we couldn't identify.

The commonest butterfly of the day - Brimstone

Toothwort (thanks to Neil for the ID)

We had lunch in the sunshine before John found a Duke of Burgundy Fritillary on the path. As I went over to look for it I heard a Marsh Tit calling in the woods at the bottom of the slope. This was an unexpected bonus as it was new for my year list (#169) and I had been trying to work out where to go and search for one. We found another Duke and more skippers then slowly wandered back to Hutchinson’s Bank for another look before getting on the tram.

Duke of Burgundy

Grizzled Skipper

Dingy Skipper