Birding Braunie

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

This was a bit strange. Long-stayers don’t normally stay long enough for me. I’m usually at work or doing something that prevents me going even short distances sometimes to see a good bird. So I’m a little lost for words as I stole a couple of hours this morning to hunt down the Slavonian Grebe that has been pinging up on my mobile for a couple of weeks now. I wasn’t expecting to see it. The stretch of water it resides on – The Heronry – was mostly covered in a thin layer of ice this morning. I started telling myself it would or should have gone somewhere else to find a bigger expanse to fish in. But needn’t have worried. I speed to distantly swimming happily about close to the waters edge and so I steadily worked my around the water, through a muddy path that led close to the bank. I sat down amongst the brambles and frosty fallen leaves and waited. Coots came busily by and eventually so did the grebe but the grebes ganged up on it and sent it back where it came from. Another 20

Love 1 st Jan. Love the idea of a year-long bird race. Love the fact these two things have come together at Rainham Marshes RSPB thanks to Mr H. Vaughan. My 2014 scramble for species fell flat as I couldn’t get ‘out out*’ only just managed an ‘out*’ so ended with 153 species which is well short of average. My team for the bird race is the Wildgoose Chasers. This name has stuck with me for years, ever since I used to team up with my dad and brother and do the Lee Valley Bird Race quite a few years ago now. This BIG YEAR Bird Race for Rainham Marshes is quite a clever way to increase visiting birders and get a better picture of what species hang out on the reserve. My Rainham ritual always starts with a walk along the river towards the Tilda Rice Factory that looms large above the Stone Barges. My first target bird along the initial stretch from the reserve visitor centre was a Rock Pipit . These are usually found amongst the jetsam deposited on the foreshore and I

Who needs warm sandy beaches, softly swaying palm trees and the sound of a south sea tide rolling in and just touching your toes, when you can have a cold, lip -chaffing wind, a mile of uneven muddy pathway across a barren, bulldozed landscape? Welcome to Wallasea Island folks. Wallasea is certainly a birding paradise, at least, it is if you stick close to the entrance to the reserve and around the car park. With winter comes an array of raptor species with headliners in the form of Hen Harriers and Short-eared Owls . These two species are absent during much of the year in the south-east so it is wonderful when they can be easily watched, often together, quartering the wild bird cover areas of Wallasea Island. And if that wasn’t enough, there were fine appearances from the scarce Rough-legged Buzzard although this is a particularly fine year for this magnificent bird. A Merlin made a brief sortie by the 'white gate' with Marsh Harriers , a Peregrine and a Kestrel or t