The best birding today was had down on the foreshore where the theme of Some Kind Of Pipit was continued with good views off all three Rainham species including this nice Meadow Pipit taken by Russ Sherriff.
Note the warm plumage tones, obvious mantle stripes, neatly speckled underparts on a pale buff background and pink legs.....
Four Corn Buntings showed well to my group and to an American couple who have become regular visitors in recent months while Reed Buntings, Skylarks, Starlings, the usual finches and a pair of Stonechats kept us looking for more!
Corn Buntings (Russ Sherriff)
Reed Bunting (Lawrence Rogers)
Over the hightide there were 27 Curlew, 400 Dunlin, 8 Black-tailed Godwit, 40 Golden Plover and a single Grey Plover although a low flying helicopter put paid to their slumber. Snipe were very obvious during the day as they struggled to find soft ground...
Parakeets zoomed over as the sun went down and a Goldcrest was still zitting from the riverside hawthorns despite it now being -2c!
16-1-13
Howard Vaughan, Information Officer