So I had a few spare minutes this morning before work and popped into the end of Aveley Bay to have a scout round for a Sedge Warbler or bounding Ouzel but I was in fact greeted by three adult Spoonbills feeding actively on the foreshore in the bay at 0720....
I could not believe my luck. I have seen a few here over the years but never on the foreshore and actually in the tidal Thames. They looked quite a home and given the level of activity they were obviously hungry and finding lots of food. I excitedly phone and tweeted out the news and started to move closer to try and phone-bin them for the record.
Unfortunately the wash from a large ship pushed them off after just a few minutes. They climbed high, ignored the marsh and headed off strongly north till they were little dots in the distance. I was practically shouting at them to come back and land on our lovely wet and wonderful meadows!
I was actually a little despondent when I got to work as no one else had got to share the experience but amazingly at about 0830 Dave Smith found another bird (this one a pink billed immature) on the Target Pools where it stayed all day....
Spoonbill (Russ Sherriff)
The Garganey, Greenshank and Black-tailed Godwits were still around today and Curlew reached a very unseasonal 38. The three Common Terns were still in the Bay and a superb immature Red Kite circled above various heads this afternoon but for some reason none of us could pick it up from the centre!
Red Kite (Lee Spence)
Gonna get that Sedge Warbler tomorrow!
7-4-15