Daily Yaffle: February 2024

Thursday, February 29, 2024

February ramblings

This month I continued my birding locally in London. It was a particularly wet month which meant poor light for photography and no circular loop at Rainham as the path was flooded in several paces.

Rainham

I managed nine visits to Rainham Marshes this month and ended on a total of 94 species. New birds seen this month included two Brent Geese on the Thames (which annoyingly vanished before I managed a photo), several Short-eared Owls along the riverwall, a Red Kite over the reserve, a singing Firecrest in the woodland and the first returning Corn Bunting on the Tip. Despite two dedicated walks around Coldharbour Point I couldn't track down the erratic Spotted Redshank and managed to miss the little party of Goosanders that spent a few days on the reserve.

Most other visits were to Dagenham Chase, Beam Valley and Barking Riverside but I did visit one new site: Cely Woods. I discovered an easy way (for me anyway) to get there, on the 287 bus, alighting at Acer Avenue and then walking for a mile eastwards along Upminster Road North/Warwick Lane. The only downside is the lack of a pavement on the eastern half. One bonus though was seeing three Red-legged Partridges along this road.

Note, this is another upside-down map with North at the bottom!

Photographs

I photo'd 21 new birds for the year and upgraded two more so finished the month having photo'd 79 species. There are still plenty of common birds I haven't captured yet so will be concentrating on them in March.

Red-crested Pochard, Dagenham Chase; an upgrade.

Mute Swan, Dagenham Chase

Egyptian Geese, Dagenham Chase

Tufted Duck, Rainham Marshes

Little Grebe, Rainham Marshes

Great Crested Grebe, Dagenham Chase

Feral Pigeons, Beam Parklands

Caspian Gull, Rainham Marshes

Great Black-backed Gull, Rainham Marshes

Common Buzzard, Rainham Marshes

Short-eared Owl, Rainham Marshes

Another Short-eared Owl at Rainham Marshes

Kirsty the Kestrel at Rainham Marshes (upgrade)

Magpie, Rainham Marshes

Raven with nesting material, Rainham Marshes

Skylark in song flight, Rainham Marshes

Long-tailed Tit, Dagenham Chase

Dartford Warbler, Barking Riverside

Song Thrush, Beam Parklands

Robin, Rainham Marshes

Dunnock, Beam Parklands

Rock Pipit, Rainham Marshes

Linnet, Rainham Marshes

Lesser Redpoll, Cely Woods

Corn Bunting, Rainham Marshes

Sunday, February 18, 2024

New challenges

For this year I've decided to stay more local rather than bomb around all over London. I'll still be doing occasional trips across the capital so I've decided to take on two challenges this year: seeing 150 species at Rainham Marshes and photographing 150 species in the London Area (the LNHS recording area which is a 20 mile radius of St Pauls Cathedral).

Rainham Marshes

I clocked up a total of 83 species in January. The highlight was finding a Goshawk which flew out over Winter Pool twice on a hunting loop and then returned to the woodlands. It was seen again later the same day then two weeks later so it must have also been hunting elsewhere as it's not the sort of bird you can easily miss. It's still quite a rare bird in London but probably more numerous than official records show.

Other good birds seen during the month were a single Common Scoter on the Thames, Grey Plover and Ruff. Birds I missed included a Bittern that was seen on a day I was there and a Hen Harrier on a day when I wasn't. Both are scarce visitors at Rainham and may not occur again this year.

Sites visited in January

Aside from my local patches (Rainham Marshes, Dagenham Chase, Beam Valley, Barking Riverside, Becton and a few other parks) I went to Staines Reservoir for the divers, Cheshunt for Bittern, Wanstead for the Fudge, Finchley for Waxwings and had a day in central London in the Royal Parks.

Photos

I managed to photograph 57 birds in January. The weather was often rainy or just grey so it was difficult at times to get decent photos so I'll hope to upgrade some of these in future months.