Of 'wings and Winged Things

I headed out to Rainham yesterday for some scope usage as I've commandeered the thing for the time being from Dad.

Before I went to Rainham, I took a short detour and passed by West Thurrock, where there had been ~225 Waxwings the previous day in the Costco car park. Since I was in the area, this sounded too good to pass up so I headed straight there. I was greeted by a nearly empty car park and an immediate sighting of 8 Waxwings simply perching in a tree, being completely ignored by any Costco customers walking by. I got the scope on them and they changed tree, flying a long way distant. But then they came back again and swapped from tree to tree until they decided to fly off for good. It was still a great sighting, for 15 minutes or so! And with the scope on them, they were utterly beautiful, again so weird to see them in the 'feather' (or flesh). Three of the car park attendants came over to have a look and seemed really interested and excited to see the things, which was good.

So onto Rainham, having seen my second lot of Waxwings in a totally different location within two days of seeing my first ever lot...

It was a relatively quiet day at Rainham, bird-wise. That said, there were still thousands of birds, but even that can still constitute a quiet Rainham day! Highlights would include Pheasant by the cafe feeders, Shelduck, female Great Spotted Woodpecker, beautiful views of a Redwing, hundreds of Greylag Geese (including one messed up hybrid that almost had me convinced it was a White-fronted...) a lovely pair of Stonechats, at least 3 Ringed Plover - another newish find for me here, a Little Grebe, a small flock of Redshank - something else I don't see overly often at Rainham, and a flock of Linnets.

There was, on the way back to the main cafe, a Pipit of some kind perching on a fence wire as I approached, nearby 3 Pied Wagtails feeding. I got the binoculars onto it but didn't get much chance to see it properly before it flew off. From what I saw, I would have pegged it as a Water Pipit, due to the highly prominent eye-stripe. This isn't concrete evidence though, and I didn't get to see much more before it took off. It also made a high-pitched but feeble 'tsuiit' as it flew off, which isn't exactly a decided feature in my opinion. Therefore it unfortunately remains a mystery. No tick for me.

'Till next time then!