Space-Time

In order to better myself and following my cinema visit to see The Theory of Everything and getting my nose stuck into Steven Hawkings A Brief History of Time, I managed to discover the complete formula that makes our universe make sense – birding. Somehow and with the aid of a fortuitous worm hole, I managed to bend time and get some serious birding in this week.

So a visit to Rainham Centauri.

Landing Craft.
With a landscape not dissimilar to the icy moon Europa, I found myself, alone, at Rainham. To be fair, the mother craft that is the visitor centre did open its lower hatch with a burst of dry ice and a figure almost human in the shape of HV-1 did invite me in with a pointing finger but I declined.

I took the opportunity to have a scan around the car park area and flushed a little green monster in the shape of a Green Woodpecker.

Little Green Man
Instead, I chose to traverse the rugged terrain of the the river path in search of life in the shape of Water Pipits and other undiscovered species.


Three Brent Geese grazed along side a flock of Canada Geese. There had been three White-fronts the previous day but alas, they had disappeared into a black hole.

Lift off
There were swarms of gulls over the tip; imagine one of those big space battles in Star Wars and you’ll get the picture. One or two Snipe flew out of cover and across the Thames as I progressed towards the barges. No sighting of any Water Pipits but plenty of Stonechats along the fencing along with Meadow Pipits.







Rather than go back on myself, I did the loop that brought me round to the dark side and a walk along New Tank Road where there was a Kestrel keenly watching for food from its high vantage point. Eventually I made it to Serin Mound. No Serins but loads of Linnets and Goldfinches. On the Marsh, many Lapwings and more gulls.



Not a UFO but a Pheasant.
A quick bite to eat in the RSPB cafe and then a walk around the reserve.

Lapwings

Little Egret

Little Egret

Shoveler

Pintail
From Rainham, I travelled at the speed of light or marginally under it in light of the speed cameras on the A13, and headed off to the place I like to call mission control in the Lee Valley.

I touched down amazingly beside the Bittern Watchpoint and looked for signs of life.
Bittern
Needless to say, the Bittern was playing hard to get which has been the norm this year. But a nice find were a pair of Bullfinches close to the Stubbins Hall Lane car park.

Bullfinch
Along the channel beside Walton’s Walk, a pair of Goosanders hung around long enough to get some attention from the camera.

Drake Goosander

Redhead Goosander
Well that was a brief history of my day. It’s only taken me a light year to blog about it.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Digiscoping DIY Adaptor

Image
Thought I would take this opportunity to explain and illustrate the way I digiscope. I have never bothered to invest in a purpose-made adaptor because I’m never sure which one would be best and I suppose I’m a bit stingy. Instead, I have experimented with different joining mechanisms which have include fruit juice bottle tops, paint roller tubes and plumbing joints. Over the five or so years I have digiscoped, the results have been unpredictable. This has been caused by the light conditions, the mobility of the subject and invariably, the distances between my camera and the bird. probably worth noting here that I also tend to focus through the scope before attaching the camera. The most successful adaptor for me has been the paint roller tube. I discovered if I strip off the furry bit, I’m left with a perfect basis for an adaptor. Depending on the camera lens width and the telescope eyepiece diameter, I wrap insulation tape inside the tube. Measure the depth and width of the ca
Read more

Scotland day 6: Look out. Look up and look where you’re going!

Image
Oh my days! Is it Friday already? This was our last full day with Heatherlea and it was destined to be a big one. Correction: The big one. Do these birding tour operators plan this? Do they always save the best for last? I don’t know. Some would say the Capercaillie caper would have done it and it did in many ways but this day would match it or in some eyes surpass it. You be the judge. Another full fat breakfast! My only thoughts during this now routine ceremony was whether I would still fit in the minibus. To be honest, I thought we would be doing a bit more walking on this trip but apart from the odd amble up a hill, we were never far from the transport. The birding day began with an excursion to Roseisle and initially around some of the farmland minor roads where we picked up a couple of corn buntings just sitting on fence wires. Looking out from a viewpointon the Moray Firth at Burghead Bay there were velvet and common scoters, eider and a few red-breasted merganser. Telescope out
Read more

Scotland Day 1: A few 'grouses' about the weather

Image
We woke in the morning to discover the beautiful sunny evening that met our arrival had turning into a cold, grey dreich. We caught up with our guides and fellow adventurers early so that we could could visit a black grouse lek before breakfast. The visibility was poor and the air damp. When we arrived at the site, it was very difficult to see the birds. A few bobbing backsides – the white of the male tail feathers was about all I could see.  Black grouse, what Black Grouse? Lesser redpoll called as they went over and the inevitable willow warblers sang from various trees. Everyone got poor views to be fair but at that stage, we were all happy. A bit later at breakfast we discussed the weather, as you do and Dave and Chris, our guides for the tour laid out plans for local birding in Abernethy forest, primarily for crested tit and the magnificent capercaillie. The excitement was clearly audible. We arrived and parked up near Loch Mallachie and made our way down through the incredible Sc
Read more