I revisited the Nightingale pair at Fishers Green and found another singing male by the bench which is promising. I followed the Fishers Green walk with a long walk around King George V on Friday where I found a Common Sandpiper, Wheatear, Black Redstart and lot's of hirundines but no Swifts. The Terns on the reservoir were disappointingly all Common.
Saturday saw me head out to Startops reservoir where I picked up a fly over Whimbrel before enjoying first a flock of Twenty Little Gulls then another flock of eight in four hours watching. Terns passed through but were again all Common. Whilst watching Red Kites, Buzzards, Sprawk and Kestrel I picked up my first Swifts of the year when four birds flew through with the mixed hirundines that contained Sand Martin, Swallow and a single House Martin. Kingfisher, Yellow Wag and Grey Wag the only other birds of note.
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| Little Gull |
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| Part of the flock of twenty Little Gulls |
On Sunday I met the Jims at Rainham where a walk along the river gave us a pair of Grey Plover that I original called as Golden in a strange trick of the light. Eight Bar-tailed Godwits were on the mud with three Ringed Plover and some Avocets. There were some Terns fishing on the far side of the river but were too far out to be anything but Comics to me. Jim picked up a White Stork out on the reserve as we scanned looking for Spoonbill. The bird flew out across the river mobbed by gulls and shows no wing damage so is a different bird to the Lee Valley encounter we had a while back.
On the reserve we scanned for Jack Snipe without success but found ten Common Snipe and a coupe of Greenshank flew out calling from Purfleet scrape. Swifts started to move to give the Jims a year tick and as we walked around we found a couple of Lesser Whitethroat for another year tick.
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| Mute Swan |
Year list now 166
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