More Wols Than You Can Shake A Stick At....

Rainham Marshes More Wols Than You Can Shake A Stick At....

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26 Nov 2015

Another mixed bag of wonderful British weather today with rain and wind followed by sunshine and a clouds with the mother of all cloud banks that was still heading south east as the sun snuck off and hid and the light fell. The wader numbers on the south side of the Thames have remained stable but there was no sign of the six Grey Plover that we saw yesterday. The Dunlin tried once again to roost on Purfleet but the Sparrowhawk became todays headache for them. The Wigeon were incredibly flighty all day and there felt like a few more around and with frequent Peregrine sorties the agitation was warrented.

The Bearded Tits were seen but I suspect not quite as well as when Alan Reynolds encountered this male on Monday.

Amazing views.. Cetti's Warblers were quite vocal again and Stonechats were sitting up although the Dartford Warbler was not seen again. I picked up a few Fieldfare from the centre today and there seemed to be a few more Greenfinches around the feeders.

For Alasdair Wilcock today was all about owls with our Barn Owl in its box and at least seven Short-eared Owls mainly off towards the landfill and Serin Mound Viewpoints from about 3pm (although we did see one near the centre hunting the back of Purfleet Scrape) and to cap it all off he saw a Tawny Owl being booted out of the scrub behind the birdfeeders by the local Blackbirds. Long-eared Owl may have been the more likely species but this clearly wasn't and Alasdair has managed to get himself a much coverted Rainham bird. There have been more Penduline Tits and Great White Egrets on site than there have been Tawny Owls and this was only the second actual sightings of one!