With Suzanne needing to catch up with lost sleep I headed out to Rainham for first light this morning bumping into David C. in the car park we set off day listing together. First up a smart bird on the foreshore we both settled on being a third calendar year Caspian Gull. A Common Seal was fishing close in and attracted the attention of dozens of large gulls. We counted nine Common Terns and I had a single adult Little gull fly up river too. Two Corn Bunting sang from the fence at the top of the mound although they were hard to hear above the noise of the Skylarks. As we walked the foreshore we heard lots of Sedge Warbler, Blackcap and Chiffchaff but couldn't get on either Common Whitethroat or Gropper both of which Dave had yesterday.
Viewing across Purfleet scrape Dave found a Yellow Wagtail and as I searched for it I found two birds together and we added Pied and Grey Wagtail to the days total too. A Swallow flew over at we scanned Marshland scrape for the American Teal which we found after a good search. Med gulls flew over calling but were again really high up in the clouds. On the return leg we bumped into a Wheatear on the fence before it dropped to feed on the path allowing a few images. Then two Dunlin flew over with a Sanderling for company which is not a given annual bird at Rainham so a nice day tick. A Ringed Plover and Oystercatcher dropped onto the last of the mud as the tide came in to join the few Black-tailed Godwits and Avocets before the tide moved them all on. At Serin mound we added Raven to the days total of 72 species. Wennington marsh is now almost dry so we could do with some rain now.
As far as I know there's only been four Wheatear seen so far this year at Rainham and I've had two of them. None have hung around long so we were lucky to see this one this morning.
Year list now 169 (Rainham year list now 101)
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