October birding & moths

October has the potential to be the best month of autumn but this year it was pretty quiet in London. Visible migration (vismig) - counting birds flying over on their way to their wintering grounds - is typically at its peak and there were a few decent days but the weather conditions weren't that good locally, although some sites in London seemed to be better placed.

Rainham Marshes

I managed eight visits this month and added one new year bird - Merlin. Although I missed what was presumably the same tame juvenile that hung around Ken Barrett hide earlier in the month, I did see it zoom past Butts hide a bit later. One day I'll get a photo of one.

Water and Rock Pipits returned this month and one of the former was reasonably obliging in front of Butts hide but a bit distant for a decent photo.

Water Pipit

Black-tailed Godwits increased in number during the month and often showed well over high tide when they fed on the reserve. They've all now moulted into their drabber winter colours.

Black-tailed Godwits

In the second half of the month a female Garganey was found which stayed around a while but could be tricky to track down.

Sleeping Garganey with Shoveler, Gadwall and Teal

I didn't manage to connect with the two Glossy Ibis that briefly dropped in but there's still a lot in the country so plenty of time left. On Halloween a probable Richard's Pipit was seen on the tip but had long disappeared by the time I arrived.

The final thing of note at Rainham (apart from the welcome re-opening of the Shooting Butts hide) was a Feathered Thorn moth which was roosting on the outside of the visitors centre on 31st.

Feathered Thorn

Beam Parklands

I visited a dozen times this month and the increased coverage paid off on the 26th. I was over at dawn for some vismigging when I heard a distant call in the trees. It sounded like a Yellow-browed Warbler but was just too far away to confirm so I hurried over. Eventually it called again and I was close enough to sound record it. I heard it a few more times but never managed to see it as it remained deep in a dense patch of sallows. They're still a fairly rare bird in London with typically no more than a handful of records each year so it was a nice addition to the site list.

I've had the usual finches on vismig here: Chaffinch, Linnet, Siskin & Redpoll but no Brambling yet.

Dagenham Chase

Nine visits in October, most of which were early morning for vismig. The best bird was a flyover Rock Pipit, the same day that several other sites in London recorded them. They're pretty scarce here with just six previous records, the last being in 2016.

Other sites

I visited a number of other local sites: Parsloes Park, Mardyke OS, Central Park, Goresbrook Park, Barking Riverside, Beam Valley CP and Bretons Park.

Moth trapping

With the nights getting colder, the number of moths flying has drastically reduced and a spell of rainy weather prevented me from running the trap. However, I still managed to add some new species this month.

Blair's Shoulder-knot

Meal Moth

Double-striped Pug

Feathered Ranunculus

Red-green Carpet

July birding

July typically sees the true start of autumn migration, especially with waders and this was definitely the case this year. There was also plenty of fine settled weather to look for insects as well.

Rainham Marshes

I've started increasing my visits to Rainham after the midsummer break and went seven times this month. I added two new birds to my London yearlist: a Crossbill heard flying over the woodland and a moulting Ruff that was present most of the month.

Ruff with a Black-headed Gull

Also around on the reserve were five Great Egrets, regularly seen feeding out in Aveley Pools. They appear to be a family party so may have bred in the vicinity.

4 of the 5 Great Egrets

A couple of Green Sands hung around but there was no sign of the hoped for Wood Sand so that'll have to wait for next month. Black-tailed Godwits streamed back in decent numbers, mostly still sporting their summer dress.

Black-tailed Godwits

Dragonflies were regularly seen, taking advantage of the sunny weather. On one particularly day I saw Norfolk Hawker, Lesser Emperor and Southern Migrant Hawker, all recent colonists. I still haven't photo'd the last two so I'll keep trying for those. Butterflies are still a bit thin on the ground, possibly due to the heatwaves we've had drying all the vegetation up. I did manage to see a Clouded Yellow on one visit. As usual, Jersey Tigers were frequently seen.

Jersey Tiger

Dagenham Chase

I put in a lot of effort this month with 18 visits. The Slack continued to dry up during the month despite the odd day of heavy rain and a few days of pumping water into it. Green Sands were present on most days with up to six seen but the best wader on show was a Black-tailed Godwit that remained for the entire day and was my first one on the patch.

Black-tailed Godwit and 2 Moorhen

A Great Egret decided that a stretch of the River Rom was to its liking and remained for a couple of weeks. Although mostly visible from the main road by the entrance to Grenfell Park, it often wandered down the river towards The Chase and could be hard to find.

I spent a lot of time searching the elms and oaks for hairstreaks but couldn't find a single one. Gatekeepers were everywhere and I did manage the odd Common Blue.

Common Blue

I also went round all the ponds and lakes regularly looking for the afore-mentioned London colonists but haven't had any success so far.

female Banded Demoiselle

Beam Parklands

I visited seven times in July. My local patch was in the news mid-month when a wildfire burnt a large section of it and got quite close to some adjacent houses. This is the third year in a row that there's been a fire here and while the grassland has already started to recover following some rain, the gorse bushes took a severe battering and may not recover.

Bird wise it was fairly quiet until the last week of the month when I saw my first Buzzard of the year and, even better, heard my first ever Green Sandpiper on the patch.

I also popped into Barking Riverside and Mayesbrook Park but both sites were fairly quiet. Hopefully things will be busier in August.

July - slow start to autumn

July is often a transitional month, jumping around between summer and autumn depending on the weather. Waders and gulls are the most obvious birds on the move and towards the end of the month the first warblers pop up in hedgerows.

I often start this month with a trip down to Oare Marshes in Kent for the regular Bonaparte's Gull that arrives in July for the autumn. We go by train to Faversham and walk to Oare. This year it didn't take long to find the Bonaparte's as it was the first gull we looked at!

Bonaparte's Gull

Our timing was excellent as it flew off not long afterwards. Along the shore was a single Bar-tailed Godwit and there were plenty of Black-tails on East Fleet but there weren't many other waders. The weather started to deteriorate so rather than look for the Dainty Damselflies we headed back early to Faversham. 

This was my only trip outside East London this month and with a lot of sunny weather I decided to stay local and continue recording butterflies and dragonflies on my various local patches. I didn't ignore the birds though and July often produces a mega. This year it was a Franklin's Gull at Crossness, just the second record in London, the first also being at Crossness way back in 2000. 

As I saw that bird I didn't drop everything and go for it but wondered if I could see it from Rainham. When I was exploring London sites last year I came across Three Crowns at Rainham, a viewpoint of the Thames just off Ferry Lane South. I figured I might be able to see the gulls off the outflow so I headed there after the weekend. It was right on the edge of telescope range but after an hour I saw the Franklin's Gull fly around and also picked it up on the river. The gulls moved closer into the bank so became harder to see as the tide dropped and despite being joined by several other keen Rainham listers we couldn't pick it up again over the next couple of hours.

The Franklin's Gull became my 200th species at Rainham and I have also seen 210 at Brent Reservoir. While there are many other birders who've seen a lot more than me at Rainham I don't think anyone else has recorded the double-hundred at two London sites.

I was back at Rainham the next day to look (or listen) for a reported Quail. Unfortunately it didn't become my 201st species as it had stopped calling by the time I arrived. I visited Rainham quite a few times this month and on one day jammed into a superb flock of 11 Wood Sandpipers which was enough to merit an exclamation mark on the Birdguides message. However, it wasn't even a record count in London which is 16 at Rammey Marsh.

The last couple of years have seen a summer heatwave and all the grasslands are brown and crispy and most of the pools at Rainham have become dust bowls. Luckily there's been enough rain this year to change all that. I've even seen a couple of 'rogue' Pyramidal Orchids flowering where they don't belong - at Rainham and Dagenham Chase. The latter was probably a first for the site and I even managed to get my photo of it published in the Romford Recorder, not quite National Geographic but it'll do!

Pyramidal Orchid, Rainham Marshes

Pyramidal Orchid, Dagenham Chase

I visited Bedfords Park in Havering with Sam to look for insects. There were a lot of dragonflies & damselflies but it was a struggle to get them perched to identify them. We did manage a Lesser Emperor which was the first time I've managed to see one in the UK although it is a recent colonist. We also visited Havering CP for butterflies but it had clouded over by the time we arrived so didn't see much.

Small Red-eyed Damselfly, Bedfords Park

Norfolk Hawker, Rainham Marshes

Norfolk Hawker is another recent colonist to East London and one I look out for on my local patches but so far I've only seen it at Rainham.

I've been keeping an eye out for moths as well and one of the bus stops at Dagenham Chase has been a good place to look for them recently.

Dusky Sallow, Dagenham Chase

Rose Plume, Dagenham Chase

So far it's not been a good year for Painted Lady but I did find one at Barking Riverside.

Painted Lady, Barking Riverside

Emperor Dragonfly, Barking Riverside

Despite concentrating on insects this month, I've actually managed to photograph a few birds as well.

Garganey, Rainham Marshes

Common Sandpiper, Rainham Marshes

1 of 11 Wood Sandpipers at Rainham Marshes

Part of the Wood Sand flock

Green Sandpiper, Dagenham Chase

Spoonbill, Rainham Marshes

Juvenile Green Woodpecker, Beam Parklands (upgrade)

Kestrel, Barking Riverside (upgrade)

Bearded Tit, Rainham Marshes (upgrade)

House Martin, Dagenham Chase

Meadow Pipit, Rainham Marshes

Linnet, Rainham Marshes (upgrade)

Reed Bunting, Rainham Marshes (upgrade)

With seven new birds photo'd in July I'm now up to 122 species this year. It's going to have to be a busy autumn if I hope to reach my target of 150.

Summer Doldrums

June can be a pretty quiet month for birds, spring migration is generally over but by mid-month the first trickle of 'autumn' migrants start to appear, most likely failed breeders. So if the weather is suitable then I usually turn my attention to insects. However, this year spring migration carried on well into June and for much of the month it was cold and overcast, definitely not good for insect watching.

On June 7th, I made my way deep into South London for my annual trip to Hutchinsons Bank and the only time each year I actually use the tram. I was hoping that the Black-veined Whites that were released last year would be flying but we didn't see any despite earlier reports. There were plenty of other butterflies flying in the sunny weather, the highlight being Glanville Fritillary.

female Brimstone

Dingy Skipper

Glanville Fritillary

Holly Blue

Small Blue

We saw very few moths compared to previous visits and only a few other insects but there were Bee and Common Spotted Orchids in flower.

Two-banded Wasp Hoverfly

Common Spotted Orchid

The following day I received a text from John Archer who had found a flock of Sanderlings and Ringed Plovers at Barking Riverside. I left home immediately and soon found the flock which now numbered 16 birds. Unfortunately it was low tide so they were a long way off so I only managed to get a poor record shot.

Sanderlings & Ringed Plovers

The following day I received a message saying a probable Red-backed Shrike had just been found at Dagenham Chase. While I was getting ready to go out and look for it another message alerted me to a Purple Heron at Rainham Marshes! I wasn't sure which one to go for but when I walked out of the house I turned right so realised I was heading to Rainham. I got a train to Purfleet pretty quickly and hurried onto the reserve. I stopped to talk to the finders to get news of where it was - it had come down near Aveley Pools so it was just a question of waiting for it to come up again.

I tried a couple of spots and after a long wait I picked it up flying towards the pools near Butts hide where it went down into cover again. It was my first Purple Heron at Rainham and possibly the first ever record as the only previous record is considered a bit dodgy. I was also pleased I'd made the right choice as the shrike wasn't seen again at The Chase.

The rest of the month was spent visiting my local patches and recording butterflies and dragonflies. I also found a few firsts - Bee Orchid at Beam Parklands and Pyramidal Orchid & Marbled White at Dagenham Chase.

Pyramidal Orchid, Dagenham Chase

Black-tailed Skimmer, Beam Parklands

Essex Skippers, Beam Parklands

Marbled White, Beam Parklands

Marbled White is probably new for Beam Parklands as well as this site hasn't really been well recorded before. It appears that Marbled Whites are now colonising the suburbs of East London in the same way they did in NW London. All of my local patches have suitable areas of rough grassland so I'll keep looking out for them.

On one day I recorded nine species of dragonfly at Dagenham Chase, mostly on Fels Field which has a couple of really good ponds for Odonata. The best for me was Four-spotted Chaser as I never saw these in NW London.

Banded Demoiselle

Black-tailed Skimmer

Broad-bodied Chaser

Four-spotted Chaser

I even found time for a couple of visits to Ingrebourne Valley which I didn't have time to visit in spring.

Female Banded Demoiselle, Ingrebourne Valley

male Banded Demoiselle, Ingrebourne Valley

Comma, Ingrebourne Valley

female Emperor Dragonfly, Ingrebourne Valley

Willow Emerald Damselfly, Ingrebourne Valley

I also managed a couple of dragonflies in my garden for the first time, although I clearly missed one egg-laying last year.

my garden pond

Blue-tailed Damselfly

Common Darter, recently emerged...

...from this exuvia which I found a few days later

Bird photos

It was a quiet month for bird photos. I decided not to count the rubbish photo of Sanderling (see earlier) so the only new species I photo'd in June was Great Egret at Rainham. I also upgraded one thanks to a rather tame Jackdaw which I've met a couple of times. With half the year gone I've photographed 115 birds in London. It will be pretty difficult to get another 35 but will see how it goes.

3 Great Egrets & a Grey Heron, Rainham Marshes

Great Egret, Rainham Marshes

Jackdaw, Beam Parklands (upgrade)