Daily Yaffle: Becton

Showing posts with label Becton. Show all posts

Monday, September 1, 2025

August Birding

This month typically sees the first 'proper' autumn migration with many warblers on the move along with flycatchers, wagtails & pipits and an increase in waders.

Rainham Marshes

I managed only seven visits this month, fewer than I had expected but a couple of heatwaves put paid to more visits. I'd missed Wood Sandpiper a couple of times already this year and this is the best month to see one so I was pleased to find three on Aug 19th on the newly-named Small Aveley Pool. They hung around for the rest of the month with up to five birds seen.

Wood Sandpiper

2 Wood Sands & a Black-tailed Godwit

This pool proved to be a magnet for waders during the second half of August with two Ruff, Green Sandpiper, Little Ringed Plover and a flock of Black-tailed Godwits all present.

Two more year birds were seen, a Whinchat on the tip and a family party of five Spotted Flycatchers at the end of the woodland.

Spotted Flycatcher

The 19th ended up being a really good day as not longer after finding the Wood Sands I saw a White Stork circling low over the reserve. It had been seen a couple of days earlier but was seen flying off. I was pretty sure I'd seen it in a field just north of the railway lines while I was on the train to Purfleet.

White Stork

This is the fourth White Stork I've seen at Rainham and it has become an annual visitor to the reserve. This individual was ringed so was probably one of the reintroduced Knepp birds but as they're breeding there now I believe they should all be countable.

Among the various butterflies and dragonflies on site, there were a few Clouded Yellows and an obliging Wall but I still haven't managed to catch up with the Brown Hairstreaks yet.

Wall butterfly

Dagenham Chase & Beam Valley

I visited 13 times but didn't see a great deal. Losing all the water in The Slack has really reduced the attraction of the site this autumn. I spent a lot of time searching the scrubby areas for flycatchers but didn't manage to find any.

I also went to Beam Parklands six times and despite the burnt areas grassing over and looking suitable for migrants, didn't manage to record anything notable.

Other Locations

I managed to visit a few other sites in August: Barking Riverside & Bay (as it's now called on eBird), Becton Creekside, Tylers Common (where a Red-backed Shrike disappeared 20 minutes before I arrived!) and Wanstead Flats (where most of the interesting migrants had left overnight).

Ruddy Darter, Becton

I also had a couple of trips out of London, down to Oare Marshes in Kent to see the regular Bonaparte's Gull and on a Seabird Safari across Biscay for cetaceans and seabirds.

Bonaparte's Gull, Oare

Spoonbill, Oare

Tuesday, December 31, 2024

December birding

It ended up being a quiet end to the year with no wintry weather in December, just plenty of grey skies. There was little opportunity to add any new birds apart from one day when I ventured up to the top end of the Lea Valley to Amwell NR.

It's been 15 years since I lasted visited Amwell (thanks eBird!) and much longer since I went by train. It's a fairly easy route for me though it does involve quite bit of changing trains to get to St Margaret's. Then it's only a short walk along the canal to the viewpoint. I walked down the other side to the Gladwin hide which I'd not been to before and started looking for the Smew. Eventually I found it asleep with some Shoveler under the trees on the opposite bank although it did wake up once.

Smew, Amwell NR

At the time it was the only Smew in the London Area, although another one appeared at Staines Res for a day. It's a shame that they have become so rare now as a result of milder winters. The peak numbers were well before my lifetime with a UK record count of 144 at Brent Reservoir in 1956.

I only managed three visits to Rainham this month and didn't see anything new so finished the year on 153 species. At least I surpassed my target of 150 for the year even though I managed to miss several birds I should have seen, notably Bittern, Little Gull, Osprey and Quail which were all present on days I was there.

Earlier in the year I blogged about the Three Crowns at Rainham. It's on a few of the signposts around Rainham West but there's no other information about what it is. I followed the signs and found a cut through to a footpath where you can view the Thames (and where I saw the Franklin's Gull over at Crossness). Thankfully the Romford Recorder picked up my physic thoughts and revealed all.

As you might expect the Three Crowns was a pub and was originally called Ferry House. It dated back to the 16th Century and stood on Ferry Lane next to where the ferry used to run across the Thames to Erith on the Kent side. It was rebuilt in 1839 after a fire and eventually closed in 1951 and was demolished in 1972. I haven't been able to establish exactly where it used to be but am guessing it would be on the riverside where the Tilda rice factory now is.

Three Crowns pub

The ferry was used to transport pilgrims across the Thames, presumably on their way to Canterbury. There is a plaque on the riverwall to this effect.

I visited Dagenham Chase eight times and Beam Parklands five times in December where the only new bird was a Short-eared Owl at The Chase. It briefly landed then got hassled by a Magpie and chased by Crows as it started flying around.

Short-eared Owl being pursued by Crows

I did miss a couple of birds at The Chase: Pintail and Barnacle Goose but did connect with the returning Red-crested Pochard so at least there was some wildfowl movement.

Drake Red-crested Pochard back for another winter

I also revisited a few local parks that I hadn't been to for a while, namely Harrow Lodge Park, Central Park (not the one in NY - there's now three parks with that name near me!), Mayesbrook Park and Parsloes Park. My best sightings across all of them were Stonechat at the latter site and a Firecrest in HLP.

Between Xmas and New Year I did escape London for a day and dipped the American Yellow Warbler in Kent so the less said about that the better. I might even have to try again in the New Year as it reappeared two days later.

Photos

I photographed two new birds in December: the above Smew and a Goldeneye, also at Amwell and had a couple of upgrades. This brought my total to 141 birds photo'd in London this year, just slightly above my revised target of 140. I ended up seeing 175 birds in London this year so photo'd 80.5% It's possible I could have reached my original target of 150 with a bit more effort as there were quite a few woodland birds that I didn't get around to photographing. Still, I think 141 is a good figure and as far as I'm aware is a record (only because I doubt no one has tried it before!). So if any togs want to give it a go let me know how you get on.

Goldeneye, Amwell NR

Tufted Duck, Beam Parklands (upgrade)

Rock Pipit, Becton Creekside (upgrade)

At the moment I'm not setting any challenges for 2025 but that could always change!

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.