Rainham

I had two hours free yesterday morning so popped down to Rainham after the school run. I hadn't found any Corn Bunting at Rainham this year despite a report of four birds in the usual location below the tip so I walked down that way with Steve B and sure enough there was a single Corn Bunting singing its heart out from the favoured Buddleia bush so that was quickly put to bed and Steve later found a second bird up on the hill. I pointed out a couple of Stonechat which was new for the year for Steve and then we went to task counting Black-tailed Godwits which we settled on a count of 140. A few Avocet and Redshank were also on the mud with good numbers of Teal and a few Gadwall and Shelduck.

Down on Wennington marsh Steve pointed out the six White-fronted Geese and in return I found him his first Rook of 2026 for Rainham. I counted the Great-black-backed Gulls and after three counts settled on 136 as a total but of note was the lack of many juvenile birds amongst them. This has to be the biggest gathering I've seen of this species out on the marsh. 

Finally I walked the reserve which I don't do very often. I counted 27 Pintail on the Purfleet scrape and quite a few Snipe. Further round and I found a flock of 60+ Fieldfare and then from Butts I watched as hundreds of Lapwing filled the sky for about thirty minutes reluctant to return to ground but couldn't find the expected Peregrine amongst them although I did pick out three Golden Plover and 20+ Dunlin in the flock. A flock of 20+ Snipe was also notable and proved something was disturbing the whole area and my thoughts were probably a fox had got beyond the fence or was it an Otter which is now on the reserve?  I did see two Marsh Harrier but this disturbance seemed a little more than the usual you'd have from a passing Harrier. On the tip a sizeable Starling murmuration was notable.

As I walked past target pools I had my first Bearded Tits of the year which a fair bit of "pinging" and the occasional view as they moved across the top of the reeds.

On the way home I stopped at Dagenham chase and with a tip from Steve I managed to see my first Firecrest of the year.

Year list now 152