Sorry folks but been a way in sunny Cornwall..... so what did I miss?
Well the Spotted Crake still seems to be making sporadic appearances, a few terns and a couple of hulking Great Skuas (I much prefer Bonxie!) came up river in the gloom on Tuesday and the waders have been still showing well on the pools but the undoubted highlight was Bob Cooper and Tony Orwell's unprecedented count of nearly 20 Common Buzzards (and a few Marsh Harriers) feeding in the newly cut hay meadows out on Wennington alongside the A13 on Sunday afternoon.
Insects would have been the main snack food of choice but I suspect that they may have been some displaced rodents scurrying around too....
Anyway, our Buzzards are particularly fond of hovering to look for prey and although they are capable of this it is normally only seen over a bluff or somewhere where there is an updraft. Ours just get on with it and habitually do so whenever hunting the marsh and as we found out last autumn this can lead to confusion with the traditional hoverer that is Rough-legged Buzzard (and we have still not had one on the reserve)...
(Bob Cooper)
So, I head into work today to be greeted by 'You're meant to be on holiday! Reception is covered. Go and do the Wednesday Walk'. Now I have been known to accidently go to work on my day off but I was honestly meant to be in today but did not pass up the chance to get out with Sam and the punters for a slow amble round in the pleasant weather....
Purfleet Scrape was good and drew in the waders as the day went on and these included the colour ringed juvenile Avocet, 11 Redshank, five Greenshank and a single smart juvenile Bar-tailed Godwit with the 17 Blackwits. This is a very good species for us to get in August.
Blackwit - left Barwit - Right : note the same size bodies but different leg lengths.... (Andy Reid)
The woodland was strangely quiet with no tit flock and only a handful of warblers. Lots of insect activity with various hoverflies including the stripy Helophilus pendulus and the long shnozzed Rhingia campestris and a few Red Admiral, Speckled Wood and Holly Blue butterflies.
Helophilus pendulus (HTV)
Speckled Wood (HTV)
Garden Orb spiders were everywhere and there are still many fat Wasp Spiders around while infant Nursury Web spiders lurked on leaves with the front two pairs of legs seemingly stuck together.
Araneus diadematus - the Garden Orb with breakfast (HTV)
A couple of Cetti's Warblers belted out but the reedbeds were actually very quiet with just a few Migrant Hawkers hanging up in them till the sun broke through. A beautiful orange crowned young Marsh Harrier almost flew into us before spooking all the duck from Aveley Pool. It looked just as surprised as we did!
A good search through the duck (mostly Teal) produced three Garganey and Little Ringed Plover, Dunlin and Green Sandpiper were all seen. The sky was full of insects and it was no real surprise that it was a big hirundine day. They were very difficult to count as they were spread over such a huge area but I reckon that near on 1000 Sand Martin were hawking the marsh along with smaller numbers of House Martin and Swallow. A surprisingly large number of Swifts (about 70) were still around and probably from much further north.
Out over Wennington the raptor spectacular from Sunday was still taking place and the final tally was at least nine Common Buzzards and six juvenile Marsh Harriers (as well as our male). Add to this numerous Kestrels, Sparrowhawk, Hobbies and Peregrine and it was truly a sight to behold... could this really be Rainham Marshes where up until just a few years ago both Big BOPS were scarce passage birds?
Bob's Buzzards...
Tony's Buzzards
The walk back along the river wall gave good views of several Common Terns on the rocks along with a single juvenile Arctic Tern. No Black Terns today but a Sandwich Tern was mid river where more Commons were getting gull grief....
A young Med Gull headed out to Aveley Pools and the families of Shelduck were still in the Bay. A Weasel scampered along the Victorian river wall, a small flock of Redshank alarmed off in front and several Lizards were basking on driftwood...
Phone binned! (HTV)
I tried to spend as much time as I could looking out of the window during the afternoon but there was not much going on bar the waders already mentioned
Blackwits and Greenshank (Andy Reid)
However, the Wennington Raptors put on another great display and whilst scanning the marsh a Raven got up and gave chase! It actually showed quite well, albeit at great distance, and eventually headed up onto the landfill.... a great way to end the day.. let's hope tomorrow is just as good.....
27-8-14
Howard Vaughan, Information Officer