An icy blow from the north at the weekend saw the temperatures plummeting and the first ice on the shallow water of our pools.  The gales of Saturday had just a tad too much west in them to suck any of the myriad of Little Auks, skuas, sea duck and divers up to our reaches of the Thames but both Little Gull and Kittiwake were seen and our first Goosander of the year was noted.

A Little Auk headed our way from Grays on Sunday morning but did not seemingly make it past the QEII Bridge but I will keep looking in the hope of another of these high Arctic strays.  The sunshine yesterday did tempt the Dartford Warbler back out though, which is good news.

Today saw a lull in the wind but the air temperature was barely above freezing for most of the day and it felt very raw. At least five Short-eared Owls were enjoying the calm conditions from about 3pm and could be seen from the Serin Mound as they quartered the marsh and landfill.

Paul Rigby

Tom Bell found a Black Redstart around the MDZ today and I managed to get down there in time to see it zoom off over the river wall which is slightly better than the last effort for the one at the Tool Store. 

A female Marsh Harrier cruised through and a juvenile Peregrine gave the Dunlin that were contemplating landing on Purfleet Scrape over high tide, a very good reason to head back to safer lodgings somewhere along the riverside.

I also had a couple of great Kingfisher flybys while I was down there and a cracking flock of 'chiruuping' Skylarks entertained me as they circled around over the mixed Canada and Greylag flock where countless Starlings probed and two big fat Ravens turned over pats in search of something tasty...  mmm....  lovely!

Up on the river wall I was greeted by the 'ticky tick tew' call of a Lapland Bunting but I could not find it. I suspect that it was either flying low or was even on the deck but ï could not pin it down which was frustrating but a very good bird none the less and one that has been on our radar for the last couple of weeks.

At this spot I also discovered a yellow Stagshorn fungus (I think). I hope to have a better identification by tomorrow.  Certainly not seen this species here before.

The cold walk back along the top did not produced any errant auks or spinning phalaropes but I did see some fluffed up Robins, a couple of smart Reed Buntings and both Rock and Water Pipits on the foreshore and was greeted by a nice Goldcrest in the bushes by the centre.

Reed Bunting (Lawrence Rogers)

Goldcrest (John Humble)

The cloud started to roll in and we ended the day with another impressive skyscape although the sunset never really happened...

Roll on tomorrow...

23-11-15