Knew it. A sunny day with light winds today and everyone and their mother has turned up at Rainham Marshes. Coach loads of flask waving wrinklies swarm through the visitor centre on their way to fill up the hides, open their rucksacks and munch on sandwiches and oh shit, the loudest crisps on earth, Wheat Crunchies.
Don’t get me wrong, I like people; people have their uses and when it comes to looking through flocks of gulls, many eyes make light work.
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| Linnet |
As you go through the visitor centre, you can either go left or right. I waited until the family with the sugared up kids screamed off to the left and I went right. peace at last and a very confiding
Linnet who was also enjoying the quiet. It was even now calm enough for the
Pintail to nod off which was a shame as this is the first time I have managed to photograph one and a head would have been nice.
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| Pintail |
There were thousands of
Lapwings on the reserve today and these were peppered with a small number of
Golden Plover. Occasionally, these flocks would catapult into the sky like nature’s playing a game of Buckaroo. Usually it will be a raptor like a peregrine or merlin that causes this but today there were no signs of any raptor so I can only suppose it was little old Deidrie devouring her Wheat Crunchies that spooked the plovers.
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| A few Golden Plover with the Lapwings |
New hides are popping up everywhere at Rainham Marshes. I have a feeling that before long, it will be one of the finest reserves in the RSPB portfolio. The main hide is amazing. The windows are controlled by turntable wheels and pulleys that you need a degree to operate but are great fun when there are no birds around. Today it was different. There was lots to see.
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| Drake Shoveler |
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| Little Egret |
A
Little Egret, lots of
wigeon, teal, gadwall and
shovelers dabbling about and huge flocks of gulls mainly made up of
black-headed gulls also had
great black-backed gulls, lesser black-backed gulls, common gulls and one
Caspian gull in the melee. The only reason I knew there was a Caspian gull was because of the crowd. When you birdwatch, a crowd can be a very useful indicator. First they draw your attention to something or maybe nothing and there are many eyes to scan the flocks and cut down the effort. Then as chances had it, you have a gull expert in the group.
Finally, there was a small group peering into some reeds as I headed back towards the centre. They had found a couple
Bearded Tits low down and close up to the boardwalk (see what I mean by how handy a crowd can be when they’re not annoying). I couldn’t muscle in so only got off one shot before the pair disappeared. Another 'headless' shot but heyho, better than nothing.
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| Camera-shy Bearded Tit |
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