August 8th-14th: autumn magic

The second week of August may have been another heatwave but it was also full of migrants. On Monday 8th I was back at Brent Reservoir. The Blue-billed Teal was over in the East Marsh and was close enough to get a few photos. It’s a smart teal and appears to have taken up residence as it was present all week.

Blue-billed Teal

Also present all week was the juvenile Garganey in North Marsh although it can often be much harder to find as it tends to spend most of its time sleeping amongst a group of Shoveler. There were the usual three species of wader: Lapwing, Common & Green Sand. Around the reservoir, the numbers of Willow Warblers continue to increase but so far there’s not been much else with them.

There was little change on Tuesday so I needed a visit elsewhere so the next day I met up with some friends and we headed over to Rainham. The only waders in the bay were Black-tailed Godwits so we started off on a loop of the reserve. We had a look in Cordite but there was no sign of any Spotted Flycatchers so carried on to the Ken Barrett. The water level had gone down a lot since last week but does look in good condition for a wader or crake. John picked up two waders flying at the back so we carried on to Aveley Pool and checked out the pool with no name and found two Greenshank. The main pool resembled some sort of avian identity parade with a line up consisting of Cattle Egret, Great Egret, Little Egret and Spoonbill!

Spoonbill (far left) and assorted egrets

It got hot quite quickly so we didn’t linger too long. Butts hide had Snipe and Green Sand but there was not much else to see so we left before we melted in the afternoon heat but we did manage a pair of Ravens near the now dry dragonfly pond.

I was back at Brent for the rest of the week. Thursday saw yet another new record count of Egyptian Geese, 29 this time. I expect next week there’ll be over 30. It still doesn’t seem that long ago that they were rare in London, how quickly things change.

On Friday I did the WeBS count and had just finished in the North Marsh when I was joined by Samuel Levy. Once he was caught up with the Blue-billed Teal and Garganey we went for a walk over the dump, through Woodfield Park and along the North Bank ending up at the Bomb Crater  Pond. Just as we approached the shore of the reservoir Samuel pointed out a large bird flying over the other side. It was a White Stork! I phoned another birder who was on site while Samuel took some photos. It was just below tree top height and was slowly circling upwards, suggesting that it had been flushed off Neasden Rec.

I quickly grabbed a few photos and then watched it gain height over the next five minutes before heading off in a southerly direction. It would have likely gone over Wormwood Scrubs and then perhaps the Wetland Centre but it was really high so it wasn’t surprising that there were no later reports of it. It was one of those really lucky moments you get in birding as normally I would have gone to Rainham on Friday and I probably wouldn’t have spent so long at the reservoir if I wasn’t showing Samuel some of the migrant hotspots around the area.

White Stork

We couldn’t detect any rings when looking at the photos so it seems like it might have been a wild bird. Although there was a big release of White Storks at Knepp they had been tracked along the South Coast so I felt justified in counting this as a genuine vagrant. This was my first at Brent and takes my all time list to 210 (not counting last year’s Ruddy Shelduck...yet). It was also new for my London Year List. It was one I thought there was a chance of getting as I had been fortunate enough to see one in each of the previous three years, all at Rainham, but it was an outside bet.

Things were much quieter at Brent on Saturday although three Snipe were new in. The last day of the week was again another good one. I was first into the hide and was scanning around for waders when I came across a sandpiper feeding front on. I couldn’t make out much on it but it looked too pale for Green and the supercilium looked distinct. It took a while but it eventually turned to reveal the neat spangled back of a Wood Sand which was what I was expecting. I put out some messages and then spent some time enjoying this delicate wader before the first local arrived.

Wood Sandpiper

Wood Sands are almost annual at Brent but I don’t always catch up with them and they’re always a good find. I’ve seen them more regularly at Rainham over recent years so it was good to have a local one. I carried on and refound the Garganey in North Marsh. As it felt like a good day I headed up to the dump to see if there were any passerine migrants around. As I scanned around I saw a small brown and white bird fly into an Elder. My initial impression was of a Pied Flycatcher but I couldn’t see it in the bush. Ben arrived and I left him to keep an eye on the bush while I went round the back. Unfortunately I couldn’t see anything in the bush and it had just vanished. I remained there for a while in case it reappeared. A few minutes after Ben left a Tree Pipit flew in, landing briefly on a tree before carrying on.

Even though I ended up with two good birds, both of which were new for my London Year List (now up to 175) I couldn’t help being annoyed that I couldn’t nail the Pied Fly. It’ll have to wait for another day – hopefully!