Bit of a wet one today so have salvaged some shots from other people from the weekend...

We shall start with one of the two female Marsh Harriers... they showed exceptionally well on Saturday and Barry Jackson got tis superb shot to go with the male that I posted yesterday.

Trevor Oakley got this dozing Redshank on one of the old jetty piles on Sunday. You can almost smell the seaweed!

While Tony orwell got a…

And so the Woodpigeon passage continues unabated... Before today we had seen, since last Sunday (3rd), roughly... 114,228 Woodpigeons moving south on a narrow front between the reserve and Chafford Hundred with birds focusing on the Twin Sister mega-pylons before crossing the river...

Today we added another 16,865 (inlcuding 1200 south down the Ingrebourne Valley at the west end of the marsh from Tony K). Most were once…

At 11am this morning we shall be honouring the two minute silence. 

Our reserve was a MoD training ground for the Great War and World War II and many soldiers started their journey to foreign fields from here, where Wigeon now whistle and Harriers quarter....

10-11-13

It started so nicely with blue skies, no wind and .... sunshine...

Woodpigeons were once again on the move and 15,630 were counted heading south across the reserve and further east towards Chafford on the same front as other days this week.

Some came down but most kept on going. This shot by Les Harrison. Interestingly, Ruth reckons that they are orientating on the Twin Sisters pylons that straddle the Thames as many…

Our young male Kes is growing up. Bill got some great shots this week including this one mid hover yesterday in the sunshine that graced the reserve first thing.

As you can see he now has one adult tail feather almost fully grown and Bill said that his gammy left eye seems to have fully healed at last.

9-11-13

Between Ruth Barnes and myself we have been keeping tabs on early morning Woodpigeon passage through our area and this morning was spectacular first thing from about first light through to about 930ish.  All were heading south purposefully at varying heights.

Our totals for the week so far on a line between Chafford Hundred and the visitors centre end of the reserve were as follows...

3-11-13 : 3,200

4-11-13 : 520

A very bitty and fairly unexceptional month with little in the way of true vis mig and just a few bits to suggest that it was actually still autumn. A Spotted Flycatcher lingered till the 3^rd and there were several brief Ring Ouzels and a handful of Redwings and Fieldfares but no large passage was noted. Single Firecrest, Garden Warbler, Redstarts, Reed Warbler, Whinchat and a very late Wheatear were seen and the first…

Evening all...

Just a quicky...  have uploaded the video that Terry took of the mortar detonation on Wednesday using our new state of the art super HD zoomy security camera on the centre...

I bet you have been staying awake at night to see this.... :O)

www.youtube.com/watch

In the same way that Robins will follow you around the garden to see what you reveal whilst digging over the plot; our PIed Wagtails, Stonechats and Meadow Pipits do exactly the same whenever we get in the heavy plant and start earth moving on a large scale.

It did not take them long to come down to the newly turned over land in front of the Ken Barrett Hide.

Russ Sherriff got some great shots (as usual!).

This…

It's been an interesting morning here today!

Unfortunately, we had to close the reserve for the morning today due to an unexpected incident...

 You may have seen (if you've been to the reserve recently, or if you've read the blog posts) that we are having some work completed on site.  We have had a lovely contractor on site to reporfile the scrapes in front of the Ken Barrett and the Butts Hide. This work…

The reserve is now open... Check out the next blog post for what's been going on this morning...

Gone is that biting Nor'westerly of yesterday and back to howling Sou'westerlies we go.... In between the torrential squalls there have been some bright sunny spells when the Golden Plover and Lapwing flock twinkled over the marsh and the vast Teal flock twisted and turned in response to the Marsh Harrier quartering the fields.

With high tide pushing over the saltmarsh it was not surprising that Curlew numbers…

  Terry popped into Thurrock Garden Centre at the weekend and discovered that our huge collection receptacle had not been emptied in eons.... in fact it was too heavy to lift!

So yesterday, we collected this behemoth of a Robin and spent an interesting afternoon counting the mammoth pile of shrapnel.

So, many thanks to everyone who so generously dropped in a few pennies as you raised a whopping £375 for the RSPB!…

Make your support for nature heard.

The future of wildlife-friendly farming is in our hands - make your support for nature heard and sign the e-petition.

 Andy Hay (rspb-images.com)

Help us show the government what you think they should do for wildlife friendly farming. This is a topical issue at the moment as the EU Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) is being reformed.
CAP funding for farmers who deliver good things for…

Lawrence Rogers took this great shot of roosting birds in front of the Purfleet Hide yesterday but just how many species are there and what are they?

I know that the Golden Plover and Curlew also came in with the rising waters so possibly worth a look today too...

3-11-13

Was not quite expecting to be in work today but was grateful of an early start to witness blue skies and the first rays of dawn with hundreds of windblown Woodpigeons moving south on a broad from several miles wide. Nothing compared to the 14,000 over Barnes WWT during the week but still the first taste of autumnal pipgeon movement that we have witnessed this season.

Those blue skies were not destined to last long and…

Sit back and relax for nearly three minutes of sublime footage.... made me smile... More to come from Jerry H I think....

www.youtube.com/watch

3-11-13

The immature Arctic Skua was seen again yesterday by Russ Sherriff as it cruised along the river wall at high tide and glide a few metres above his head... thankfully he managed to rattle off some shots.  It would appear to have a small patch of oil on its breast feathers and some more around the eyes.  Lets just hope that it has not injested too much...

Such a treat to see one of these piratical birds at such close…

Low evening sun and a flock of vibrant Ring-necked Parakeets make for a glorious combination and Tonny Orwell captured the moment fantastically as they headed south across the carpark to roost in Lewisham.

2-11-13

Late afternoon saw a huge pillar of smoke appear in the mid-distance somewhere beyond Fords.....

By 1630 it had escalated into a truly epic blaze with the flames being visible above the large warehouse in Coldharbour Lane some two miles or so closer to us!  Thankfully the wind was taking black smoke high and north east and it was not causing trouble with the traffic on the A13 as it headed towards the reserve.

I…

The team have finished in front of the Ken Barrett Hide and have opened out the scrape to allow the water back in and and re-profiled the large lumpy islands to create lower ones with shallower edges which will be ideal for Snipe and roosting duck.

It's great to have the view back again... just need the birds now!

The new view - minus heaps of Flowering Rush and mega islands! (Andrew Gouldstone)

As I look out…

Hello everyone,

How are you?

Have you all been watching BBC Autumnwatch?  They are filming this year at the fabulous RSPB Leighton Moss nature reserve! What's been your favourite bit? If you've missed it have a look at the BBC website you can catch up on the episodes.

Last night Chris Packham sent out a twitter challenge - which reserve has the best cake? If you're on twitter you can vote for your favourite…