Rainham Againam

Since I hadn't been to Rainham for such a while, and with the potential lack of unemployment entirely imminent, I decided on Friday to spend half a day birding at the reserve. It turned out to be a pretty sunny day, and the temperature and wind were within acceptable limits too! Lovely!

I would love to say there was a definite feeling of Spring in the air, but unfortunately there was only a mere hint thereof. Nonetheless, I stomped round without time limiting me, taking in all the sights and sounds. Granted, there were more birds singing than there had been for the last few months, but it was still Dunnock-centric. They're early singers and I really wanted to be hearing more Blackbirds, Greenfinches and Great Tits. Even Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps but I suppose it's a bit too early to be getting into that quite yet...

Plenty of waterfowl! Teal and Wigeon in great numbers, with Shelduck, Shoveler, Pochard and Gadwall in only slightly lesser numbers (especially Shelduck - more than I've seen at Rainham before). I heard a Cetti's Warbler singing a couple of times, and counted at least 4 Little Egrets. There was one Greylag Goose in with all the Canada Geese. Otherwise, for the most part, pretty much what you would expect from a large body of marsh and water.

Although there were one or two surprises and/or nice things to see as I progressed round the reserve. I spent what must have been about 15 minutes watching one small Pipit, trying to work out what it was. I had pretty much decided on Rock Pipit, then to my disappointment I saw its legs finally in a better light: they were pink! This was sad as it meant that I had been studying a Meadow Pipit intently for a decent amount of time, although I look at it as experience in Pipit identification, which, let's face it, I need a hell of a lot more experience in...

Another surprise amongst the Lapwing and good few Golden Plover (some of which were developing a little black on their fronts ready for breeding plumage), was a Ruff that suddenly popped out from behind a mound and ran back and forth along an island feeding for a long time. Again, I'm not hugely good with a lot of waders, so it took a while to identify. My main deciding factor (after I'd decided I was pretty sure) was a reserve warden speaking to a friend, describing the Ruff, calling it a Ruff, and then assuring me it was a Ruff. So that was a nice thing to see anyway, although I missed the Little Ringed Plover he spotted further along the island while I was trying to identify the Ruff. Still, College Lake in the Summer is all I need for a LRP tick!

Along with a lone sleeping Curlew, a multitude of Lesser Black-backed Gulls, a surprise Snipe, a Little Grebe that I snuck up on and scared the living daylights out of entirely by accident, and a pair of Stock Doves feeding under the feeders by the visitors' centre, I had distant but good views of a hunting female Hen Harrier. It was quite brief but the white rump was all too telling.

So unfortunately, I might not be getting the chance to do a lot of birding in the next while, what with full time employment starting up tomorrow (and hopefully going on further than the one-week trial period). Therefore these posts could be even sparser than they have been of late. Still, I'm immensely looking forward to my next trip with Dad to Suffolk: four days of birding bliss!