I've walked Rainham a lot this year before or after the school runs I do for the grandchildren and I've seen some good spring passage for my effort. I've recently added two site ticks with Green winged Teal and Red-crested Pochard to a growing total which I have as yet not counted but I suppose I should at some point. On Thursday Ben who also walks Rainham a lot found a female Blue-winged Teal on the small pool west of Purfleet scrape and I was heading to Rainham already after dropping the little ones at school so by 9.30 I was waiting on the bridge for the volunteers to open the reserve. I walked down past Purfleet scrape and the hide to find the pool the bird had been reported on only to find the cows using it and I was worried they may have moved the bird on but within a few minutes I'd seen a small brown drab duck at the back of the pool and with its white facial patch at the end of the black bill and white eye ring crossed by the black eye line I knew I had the target in the scope. It was drab and I'd have probably walked past it if I didn't know it was there so full credit to Ben who first saw it, stopped to look and check it out, nailed the ID and put the news out with confidence.
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| Blue winged Teal |
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| female Blue winged Teal |
This is a site first for everybody including me and took the year list to 196
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| Still there on 2nd May (the cows had moved on) |
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| The pool (puddle) that the Blue winged Teal has chosen to stop at |
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