Rediscovering the Joys of Birding
• Saturday, April 26, 2008 - Rainham Avocets
Today I managed to get in quite a few hours of unencumbered (by my lovely son L) bird watching down at the RSPB reserve at Rainham Marsh. My eldest daughter K and her friend wanted to go to the annual Shell Show at Theydon Bois with their aunt who is a keen shell collector. K went the previous year and enjoyed it thoroughly and was bringing her friend along this time as well. I offered to drive them there and then to head off for a spot of birding before collecting them when it was all over. I chose Rainham as somewhere reasonably near where there would be a chance of some interesting birds.
Everything went according to plan and I arrived at Rainham at around 12:30. The reserve consists of some marsh land with some scrapes, surrounded by reed-filled ditches and a convenient board walk all the way around it. The reserve borders the tidal Thames and there is also a walk along the estuary as well though it's not all part of the reserve. A quick look at the log book revealed that both avocet and whimbrel had been seen that day along the estuary front itself - both birds I was keen to spot. I decided to head off down the estuary front first but took a wrong turn and by the time I realised that I couldn't get to where I wanted I was already too far along the board walk section of the reserve. Still there was plenty to look at. There seemed to be whitethroats singing everywhere and showing themselves reasonably well too. There were also quite a few singing reed warblers and I soon located one that was singing in a relatively small patch of reed and relatively close by. A bit of peering into the reeds soon revealed the bird itself, which was great as reed warbler had been one of the birds to be purged from my life list during the night of the long knives (when I removed all birds that I wasn't certain I'd seen as a boy). It was good to see it properly and also to get it as a year tick as well. I was just walking further along when a couple of interesting birds flew over head. Almost all white with long trailing legs and long beaks, as soon as I got the bins on them I identified them as avocets. They actually flew in to land on the central scrape by the reserve building and I was able to get good views through the scope. These were birds that I knew I'd not seen as a boy so another first for me.
A bit further on I heard an interesting call and saw a pipit doing an interesting song flight, flying from a post up into the air and coming down again, tail raised at an angle. I remembered from my youth that this was the song flight of the tree pipit so I was pleased to see this again - I'd only ever seen one once before as a boy.
There were more reed warblers and whitethroats and at one stage a couple of birds flew into the reed beds that looked rather like cetti's warblers but they remained silent so I had to leave them as probables. Further on round there were a few pintails, lots of shelduck and plenty of immature herring gulls. There were also little egrets, redshank and a pair of little ringed plover back on the main scrape with the avocets who were still present.
One interesting thing about Rainham is the frogs: at this time of year they make a right old racket, which is really loud and at times drowned out the sound of the warblers! Many visitors to the reserve were actually there to watch the frogs rather than the birds.
Getting back to the reserve building at around 3 pm I decided to have a look along the estuary which is where the avocets and whimbrel had originally been seen. Apparently the tide was in now so there would probably not be much to see but I was curious to take a look any way. I had not realised quite how far it was to walk and it was getting on for an hour later when I finally got round to the far side. I could see that it looked quite promising and at low tide would have had potential but right now there was little present. I knew from Bird Guides that black redstarts and ring ouzels had been seen there earlier in the week but I didn't see either despite scouring the area.
I realised that time was marching on and since the reserve gates were locked at 5pm I need to get a move on to get back in time. At a fast walking pace I kept an eye out for birds and actually saw another reed warbler, lots of whitethroats, a few reed buntings and a bird which flew across the path which could have been an ring ouzel though I didn't get a good enough view. I made it back with 15 mintues to spare but realised that I'd been walking non-stop and a reasonable pace from 12:30 until 4:45 with only a 15 minute break for lunch. No wonder I had blisters! I managed to rendez vous with the shell collectors in time and we had an uneventful journey back home.
Three more year ticks, two of which are actually Lifers as well so a very productive day
151 reed warbler (LIFER)
152 avocet (LIFER)
153 tree pipit |
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• Tuesday, April 29, 2008 - Pipit?
I'm thoroughly enjoying your blog. Like you, I had to restart my list a few years ago for the species I may have seen! I also have a young family to make birding opportunities few and far between!
Unfortunately I have been exiled from Berkshire (home) and Oxon (Abingdon - work) to work just outside Birmingham or I might have bumped into you at Famoor! (Although staying away means I get to go birding each evening which certainly wouldn't happen at home!)
I have a word of caution about your Pipit at Rainham. Meadow Pipits also have a parachute song flight. The two fundamental differences are the call and the legs. The mipit has a rather monotonous weak song while that of the tripit is much richer. In the parachute flight, the tripit dangles it's legs, the mipit doesn't. Habitat wise, tripits are usually in wooded clearings and heaths, mipits in open areas but with a lot of overlap. I haven't been to Rainham but I would suspect mipit is more likely. You might want to look up a recording of the call to confirm your id?
If your not sure, take a trip down the A34 to Snelsmore Common or Greenham Common, both pipits are there...
Keep up the blog and hope to bump into you sometime.
Robin