Chilling at Rainham

I'm so fed up with the cold weather. I'm trying to build up my running distances at the moment, with a view to MAYBE doing a half-marathon (my first since 2007) in March, but it's difficult getting motivated to get out of the door when it's barely above freezing. Motivation is a little easier to come by when the objective is birding rather than running, though, and I was pleased to accept Shane's invitation of a morning at Rainham. We were forecast greyness, so I brought the D700. In fact there was quite a bit of sunshine and the D300 with its crop factor would've been a better option. Life was simpler when I had one camera...

There was a lot of wader action as we walked out onto the reserve, heading clockwise. Overhead were flocks of Lapwings and Dunlins, and these Golden Plovers, seen in pic 1 with the Eurostar. Pic 2 is here because I was amused by the way the two in the bottom left seemed to be sharing a single pair of wings.

Water levels were very high, and there was a lovely array of birdlife on view from Purfleet hide. All three waders mentioned above were here in profusion, along with Wigeons, Teals, Gadwalls, Mallards, Shovelers and the odd Pintail, though sadly none were close enough for good photos.

Once past the water, things quietened down a lot. We clocked a couple of Marsh Harriers way away over Aveley Marsh, and 'weet-weet-weet-ing' Mipits leapt out of the rough grassland as we went by.

Little birds of the reeds were in short supply. We found a pair of Reed Buntings, but there was no sign of any Beardies and not a single Cetti's was to be heard. From the Marshland Discovery zone we could see another flock of Wigeons and a Little Grebe.

We went into the tower hide, and surveyed a scene of much water and, on the Target pools, many gulls and Shelducks, looking lovely but distant in strong sunshine. A lone Grey Heron stalked along, and on the other side, looking into the light, there were more of the same wildfowl as before.

Finally, a bird close enough to fill the frame (nearly) - juvvie Mute Swan.

We were on the return loop now, and slammed the brakes on when a Stoat bounded across the path in front of us and vanished into the undergrowth. We searched for it, I made squeaky noises for it to investigate (it didn't) and then Shane spotted it tearing along the boardwalk behind us. Always good to see a mustelid, but I do wish I could get some decent photos!

Next we stopped off at the little pools by the boardwalk where Water Rails have, of late, been showing very well. And we found one, but it was very tucked away and all my photos only show its flicky white rear end. As we watched it, a dark juvenile Sparrowhawk came bombing past.

The feeders were attended by modest numbers of Great Tits, Blue Tits, Reed Buntings and a single Robin. Goldfinches were singing and calling nearby, and as we walked on Shane found a pair of shy Bullfinches and I found a Chiffchaff.

Back at the visitor centre, I bought a cup of tea and we relaxed in the warmth for a while, enjoying a nice view of a flock of Black-tailed Godwits coming in off the Thames as we did so. Then we set out again to walk the first bit of the path again.

The sun was becoming more elusive now, but we enjoyed closer views of Teal and Wigeon from Purfleet hide.

We cut back along the riverside, walking on the low path close to the water. On the Thames were many Teals, plus a few Cormorants and a Great Crested Grebe. A few Redwings flew along the shore, including these two which just about permitted a recognisable photo.

We were almost back at the visitor centre when we found a Stonechat pair, working their way along the bankside. The male was a bit skittish but the female was a little star, flying right over to where we stood and striking a series of poses for us.

Lost in London

No, not me. I knew where I was almost the whole time. The lost soul is a Scaup, which has been living on the Round Pond in Kensington Gardens for a few weeks now. Paul and I went to visit it yesterday, and to check out the general scene. It was very, very cold and grey - luckily I stayed in Teddington on Saturday night and now have my low light-friendly D700 back (well, that helped with the grey, not so much with the cold).

Here's a Teddington House Sparrow, photographed through Susan and Paula's kitchen window before I headed into central London.

Got to Ken Gardens at about 12.30am and met Paul at the Italian Gardens, from where we went to look at a big crowd of Shovelers which were milling around in the corner of Long Water - mostly drakes but a few ducks (probably 4:1 ratio). These two broke away from the herd.

There is an empty skip parked in the water on the western shore. This Moorhen seemed to like it. We had a few seconds of sunshine at this point.

We carried on to the main bird-feeding area, where several people (including this gentleman) were offering handouts to the tits and parakeets. We joined in for a while.

Blue Tits and Great Tits readily came down for seed but the Coal Tit was just too shy.

Of course Feral Pigeons and Grey Squirrels were in attendance too, the former trying to break into Paul's rucksack, the latter trying to convince us that it was the very soul of adorable innocence.

We headed for Round Pond, on the way meeting Ralph Hancock, diligent blogger of the birdlife here and supremely helpful chap. He pointed out the Tawny Owl tree for us, gave directions for a new Little Owl tree, confirmed that the Scaup was still present on the Round Pond, and persuaded a couple of Jays to come down for peanuts.

A Jay, coveting a peanut. Ralph said that at least some of the Jays here will feed from his hand but this one waited for a nut thrown on to the ground (and then swooped down and grabbed it too quickly for photos.

Some of the small flock of Starlings that mugged us for mealworms en route to Round Pond. The top is a first-winter, then an adult male - note blue bill-base, and adult female - note pink bill-base. How disappointing to see Starlings conforming to gender stereotypes. The female had a bad leg - she seemed to be coping OK but took the opportunity for a sit-down after her fill of mealworms.

The Scaup was dead centre of Round Pond but we waited and it did come closer. It is a first-winter drake, developing some grey adult-type plumage on its mantle but mostly looking rather brown and boring. I suppose it prefers Round Pond to Long Water/the Serpentine because it is, at heart, a seaduck (or if not then a reservoir duck), preferring less vegetated waters.

First-winter Black-headed Gull. Round Pond is good for eye-level portraits of close-range water birds if a) you don't mind lying on the ground and attracting funny looks from passers-by and b) you don't mind that almost all the water birds you see at close range will be Black-headed Gulls.

Almost all. There were also a few Greylags.

On the surrounding grassland were 30 or so Egyptian Geese, including this white-headed bird.

And with the Egyptians was this weirdo. A Maned Duck (aka Maned Goose, aka Australian Wood Duck). There is no collection of clipped exotic wildfowl in this park, so this must be a free-flyer, and Paul suspected it had wandered here from Regent's Park.

We then went to the new Little Owl tree but there was no sign of the owl/s, and we also checked the Tawny tree with similar lack of success. We were freezing by this point so went for a cup of tea at the Lido cafe, first stopping to look at the gang of gulls on the Serpentine, mostly Black-headed but some Commons and a couple of tough-looking adult Lesser Black-backs.

Post tea, it was getting close to 4.30pm and very gloomy, so I decided to put the camera away. However, a passing birder told us that the Tawny was now showing, so the camera came out again for a not-very-impressive record shot of the gorgeous owl.

This is the male of the pair. The female is down there in a hollow from the broken bit of trunk, presumably incubating a clutch of eggs. Hopefully there'll be 'branching' owlets out in a few weeks' time.

A plastic puzzle

Sorry it's been a long time since my last post. I have no excuses (well, I do but you've heard them all before...). Actually I have been without my D700 since Christmas, after leaving it at my friends' place (not on purpose - much as I love them I'm not quite ready to hand over my camera as a gift...). Should get it back next weekend. But I did and do still have the D300.

ANYWAY, what a lovely day it was today. Not even (quite) freezing cold. My Saturdays aren't quite my own, these days, as I spend the mornings helping to teach children how to do aikido (anyone reading this who has a kid, send them to the Shodokan Tonbridge aikido club and I'll turn them into a terrifying ninja for you!). However, I was home by just gone 1pm and wasn't completely shattered so I decided to go down the hill and look at Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve. On the way I had a brief close encounter with a Redwing, which I'd have loved to have photographed, but the Redwing felt quite strongly that I shouldn't.

I was literally unpacking my camera by the horse field when this Pheasant strolled into view just a few metres away, and I had time to grab one very badly framed shot before he saw me and broke into a comical Pheasant sprint. Looking at him, I'm reminded of that dreadful phrase you see on the fashion page of the newspaper - 'try adding a pop of colour'. This Pheasant seems to have added 'pops' of every colour known to man and bird.

By rights the horse field should have contained Redwings and perhaps even Fieldfares, but it didn't, just horses.

Grebe hide was busy and loud. I stood on the wheelchair ramp to get a shot of this Blue Tit, the only little bird brave enough to come near the feeders. Out on the lake were many Tufted Ducks but I couldn't see a lot else.

I looked through the visitor centre window at the sightings book, and noticed that top of the day list was 'white ibis'. That would be the juvenile American White Ibis that's been here since October. I felt a twinge of guilt at not coming to look for it sooner - even though it's (almost definitely) an escape it's still rather an interesting thing to show up. I wasn't sure if it was on the field you can see from Willow hide or the huge field beyond Long Lake, but decided to head that way and have a look.

On the way up, I had a look at the big lake, which had the usual stuff on it, including this Cormorant that's boasting such a fine crop of white filoplumes that it almost looks like a different species. These special feathers, present at the start of the breeding season only, are apparently most prominent in older birds, which suggests this Cormorant is a proper mature silver fox (or silver vixen).

Looking for the nature? It's thattaway. Robins were much in evidence but I didn't see many other little birds about today. A few gangs of tits, but a total lack of finches - quite odd not to bump into at least one Siskin/redpoll flock here in January.

Willow hide was crammed to capacity and, again, loud. There's a reason I rarely come here on weekends... Peering over the tops of heads I could see Tufties, a Jay up a tree, a fair few Shovelers and Gadwalls, no Wigeons though. And apparently no ibis from here - well, I couldn't see it and no-one was talking about  it, so I figured it must be in the big field further along. So all in all I didn't see much point hanging around, so continued towards Long Lake.

 I went down to one of the swims on the north shore of West Lake, to look for the Egyptian Geese that I could hear honking and gurgling away. Couldn't see them, but this fully ornamented Great Crested Grebe popped up right in front of me, much to its dismay. I also startled a couple of Wrens that were chasing each other about in the lakeside trees.

All the other grebes I saw here (and there were many) were winter-plumaged (as is surely appropriate for January), including this one doing a great Nessie impression. Also out there were many Tufties and a few Pochards.

And on past Long Lake and to the big field at the end. As I approached, squelching through giant muddy puddles, I could see a small knot of birders, so concluded that the ibis was indeed here. And I didn't even have to search for it, because it was immediately pointed out to me, among a flock of Greylag and Canada Geese in a distant and rather shady corner of the field.

And here it is. Impressed? No, nor was I. Actually, that's a bit unfair. Ibises are lovely birds. It was very actively feeding, moving much faster than the geese (though seeming not to want to wander far from them) and poking at the ground with that splendid ibis bill. You'll notice it's not white - juvenile American White Ibises aren't. The plumage says it's a first-winter bird, which is usually a good sign when looking at a possible vagrant. But this probably isn't one.American White Ibis is a pretty sedentary species, not known to have ever crossed the Atlantic. And while no zoo/private collector has turned up asking for its ibis back, apparently the species is quite popular in collections on the near continent. So it is almost certainly a plastic fantastic, but to give it its dues it is surviving pretty damn well out on its own in the wilds of Kent.

I hung around here for a while, chatting to other birders (and thanks for the scope views, guys), and generally having a look at what else was about. I located a small group of mixed thrushes (Redwings, Song Thrushes and Blackbirds) quite close to us (but in deep shadow).

See that big lump in the tree? That's you, that is. Sorry, channelling the Mary Whitehouse Experience there... ahem. The big lump in the tree is a Common Buzzard, found by the same chap who'd first pointed out the ibis. Would have been nice to see it soaring over the field in sunlight (and a bit closer) but I suppose Common Buzzards can't just soar everywhere all day, especially on cold days like this.

This same chap had told me that the only time he'd failed to find the ibis in this field was when there were no geese here. And he also said that he'd seen the ibis flying with the geese. So it seemed to me that it might be worth waiting a while to see if anything happened with the geese...

... and after a while, this happened...

... which caused this to happen with the geese still on the ground. More geese from the other side of the field joined in, and they all flew right overhead, so things were a bit chaotic for a moment and I couldn't find the ibis, but then I did, and it was flying, but it only flew about 5 metres before landing again and resuming its ground-poking. I blame the one solitary goose that didn't leave the field with all the others - apparently the ibis is happy as long as there's at least one goose in its vicinity.

I did manage a couple of pics of it (just about) in flight.

It did then wander a little closer - still nowhere near close enough but you can at least get a bit of a better look at it. From other pics I've seen, it does sometimes come a lot nearer to the path.

It was getting on a bit now and I was starting to lose sensation in my feet, so I walked back to the visitor centre, seeing little of note on the way.

Going through the wildlife garden, my attention was drawn by these backlit Honesty seedpods. Honesty gets its name from its seedpods - their papery membranes are so thin that you can easily see the seeds inside (or in this case, the big hole where something broke in and removed the seeds).

A bonus as I was starting to pack away - a lovely adult Herring Gull going quite low overhead, with the late afternoon sun giving it a bit of a glow. I was in Hastings earlier this week but sans camera, so didn't get to photograph any Herring Gulls there, which was a downer but this helped make up for it. And if you don't think gulls are lovely, you are probably reading the wrong blog.

I took a pic or two of the waxing crescent moon before I left. Decided they looked a bit insipid with the blue sky, so I had a bit of Photoshop fun with this one.