December 1st-7th: winter birding begins

With the official change to the winter season, I kicked off the last month of the year with a day out at Rainham Marshes. I walked from Rainham station up to Wennington Marshes where the two Cattle Egrets were still following their bovine overlords around.

Cattle Egrets

Marsh Harriers and Buzzards were hunting over the marshes while on the river it was low tide and the exposed mud was draped with waders. As I was counting the mass of Dunlin they suddenly all took off, perhaps flushed by an unseen (by me) predator. They split into three smaller flocks which made estimating their numbers a bit easier and I reckoned on 1,700 - the most I’ve seen here this year. Easier to count were the flock of 30 Avocets, two Curlews and a solitary Grey Plover. Added to this were plenty of Lapwings and Redshanks.

Once on the reserve I walked to both ends of the broken loop with a break in the middle back at the cafe. On the clockwise path the Bearded Tits were out on the grit tray so I spent some time watching them but the rather gloomy conditions meant that the light wasn’t great for photography.

Bearded Tit

After three consecutive days at Brent, I decided to try a new park. I’ve been past King Edward VII park in Wembley on the bus plenty of times thinking I ought to visit it. I wasn’t expecting a lot as it’s only a small park with trees around the edge but did manage to record 18 species in the half-hour it took to walk a circuit. Coal Tit and Goldcrest were probably the highlights. Checking eBird later on it was nice to know that I’ve now seen every species that has ever been recorded there – I don’t think there’s many other sites where that’s the case!

With the onset of cold weather I fancied a trip out by the Thames so on Tuesday I went to Crayford Marshes for a change. I’ve only been there twice before, the first being after one of the Covid restriction periods when I desperately needed some open space. It’s easy to get to, train from London Bridge to Slade Green and a two minute walk. For some reason the railway station always conjures up the name Norman Stanley Fletcher rather than Noddy Holder! I guess it must be watching endless repeats of Ronnie Barker’s brilliance whereas I only saw Slade live once - at the Monsters of Rock festival at Donington in ‘81.

It was a crispy, cold but sunny day at Crayford with the low sun making it hard to see anything to the south. That was another reason for visiting here today as the sun is behind you on the walk out and then viewing the river. The moat held the usual assortment of ducks and rails. I don’t know what the remains are that surrounds it, I’ll have to investigate.

Moat and ruins

The path cuts through paddocks on one side and scrub on the other so there’s plenty of small bird activity until it hits a T junction at the riverwall. Across the river is Dartford Marsh so you’d expect the river to be either the Cray or the Dart but it’s neither. Instead it’s the River Darent.

Dartford Marsh across the River Darent

This stretch of the river usually holds small numbers of Wigeon and Teal as well as a few Redshank and I also saw a Common Sandpiper which is likely to be overwintering.

River Darent

Pair of Wigeon

Once past the flood defence you arrive at the mouth of the Darent where it flows into the Thames. 

Flood defence across the Darent

The path then tracks westwards with views across to Aveley Bay and Rainham Marshes. I counted 43 Avocets on the Essex side before the incoming tide swept them into the river. At this point they took flight and just over half of them flew towards me and landed on the Dartford side of the Darent where there was still some mud.

Avocets

A small flock of Dunlin fed busily on the water’s edge knowing that they didn’t have long before the mud would be covered by the tide. In contrast the Lapwing just snoozed as they’d been feeding at night.

Dunlin

Lapwing with Cormorant and gulls

An artistic sign pointed out that London was 24 miles away in addition to being inscribed with a poem about the Thames footpath.

I carried onto the large reed bed in which I heard a couple of Water Rails. 

Reed bed

Along this section of the river there’s no point looking inland as it’s an industrial wasteland of dead cars and recycled scrap. A bit further along this suddenly stops and there’s a nice area of green with fields and scrubby hedges. I always scan this area with eager anticipation as it looks such a good place for a nice rarity.

But there was nothing there today so it was back to watching the river. One of the regular ferries went past after dropping off its cargo at Dagenham.

I retraced my steps until I reached the junction with the path, then carried on along the Darent for a while before heading back to the station.

I ended the first week of December with another visit to Brent where the drake Pintail was still present and hopefully it will spend the winter here. With the weather forecast to be getting colder this month, there’s a good chance of more interesting wildfowl to be seen in London.