August 1st-7th: sarnies, waders and a dodgy duck

When the calendar page turns over to August it always feels like the start of autumn proper and although the wader passage has been going for about six weeks, it’s now time for the passerines to start their southbound journey. This week was notable for the beginning of the Willow Warbler passage, with the first on Tuesday and then slowly building up with seven birds seen on Saturday.

Associated with these were a few Chiffchaffs, Blackcaps and Whitethroats. In the past, the start of the Willow Warbler passage meant it was time to look for Wood Warbler but they’ve become so rare in London now that the chances of finding one have plummeted. Still, you have to look otherwise you’ll never find one.

My best day of the week was actually on the 1st. I was halfway through my second count of the waders when I stopped as I thought I heard a distant Sandwich Tern. It called again, close this time so I abandoned the scope and scanned down the res with my bins, only to see three Sarnies flying in!

They did a circuit of East Marsh, deemed it was safe to land and settled in amongst the mass of Black-headed Gulls. It was clearly a family party with two adults and a nice scaly juvenile. They presumably flew into The Wash and carried on southwards overland to cut off the SE corner of the country and just stopped for a rest. They were still there when I left the hide but weren’t there an hour later when someone else looked for them.

adult Sandwich Tern

juvenile Sandwich Tern

It isn’t a species I see in London every year but this was actually my second sighting at Brent this year as I saw one fly straight over in March. I carried on with my circuit and headed over to North Marsh. As I sat down in the public hide and looked out I immediately saw a Black-tailed Godwit feeding in the water not far out. It was an adult still in summer plumage and was the first at Brent this year.

Black-tailed Godwit

I scanned through all the ducks and found a sleeping Garganey, possibly the one I saw last week. It turned out to be my 60th species of the day, not bad for an urban reservoir tucked up against the North Circular!

On Wednesday the wader flock in East Marsh included a Redshank, another new one this year at Brent. The sandpiper numbers are different every day but it’s hard to tell what the turnover is as some birds often stay a while and it’s quite easy for birds to remain hidden at Brent, especially in the area known to regulars as Bermuda Triangle which isn’t visible from either of the two hides in East Marsh.

On Friday I headed eastwards for a change of scenery and visited Rainham Marsh. I decided to do the full walk from Rainham station although it proved to be fairly quiet. By the time I reached Aveley Bay the tide had dropped sufficiently for some mud to be exposed and it was fairly crowded with a large flock of over 50 Black-tailed Godwits and last week’s Harbour Seal was still present.

After coffee and cake I set out on a loop of the reserve. Yet again the promised Spoonbills were not showing but there was a white mass of roosting egrets in front of Butts hide which included a Great Egret. Also out in front were Green Sand and Yellow Wagtail. I was also on the lookout for dragonflies but despite the sunny conditions there were very few seen.

I finished the week with two more days at Brent, the first of which gave me a new ‘escape’ tick when I found an exotic looking teal in north marsh. I knew I’d seen one abroad somewhere but couldn’t initially remember where or what it was called. I suspected it was African so a quick search online gave me the identification or so I thought as since I’d last seen one its name had been changed and was now called Blue-billed Teal. 

Interestingly though, the offending English name is still present in its scientific name. Regardless of its name, it’s a smart looking duck with blue bill (obviously!), dark crown, beige cheek with a smudge at the rear. Who knows where this individual came from – it’s only the third one to be recorded in London but unlike last year’s Ruddy Shelduck I won’t be building it up to be counted as a wild bird. 

For anyone interested in what it looks like or why its name was changed here's a link to the Wikipedia page.