Birding Braunie

After days of dark clouds and heavy rain, the weather finally abated and gave us blue skies and a chilly ground frost that warmed my heart. The bird I have been chasing for a few weeks now doesn’t really enjoy damp wet conditions and so with my new fur-lined trapper hat attached to my head, I headed out to the Wild Coast Project at Wallasea Island. I was a man on a mission but a man without wellies which would prove to be only a small oversight as it would turn out. Reed Bunting So I had light, I had a camera (of sorts) so all I needed was the action. I’m still not totally sure about my little Nikon in terms of its ability to do what it says. The Sports mode seems to blur things even more than the Auto mode and everything else seems to do nothing I need. I did get this smart Reed Bunting though so it can do it when it wants but I need good light. The mudflats held pretty much the cast I would expect for this feature. Dunlin, Common Redshank, Shelduck, Ringed Plovers, Lapwings, ...

Spring has arrived. The garden is on the verge of bursting out in blooms of Cherry and Apple blossoms, Daffodils, Camellias and Bluebells. But it’s not what you see that tells you spring is here, oh no, it’s the birds or to be exact, the dawn chorus. For the lucky ones, this heralds in the spring and is a joy to listen to and doesn’t require covering you head with the pillow because it woke you up. Because the weather was so nice, I decided to take a leisurely trip down to Rainham. Although spring has arrived, Rainham still seems to have traces of winter stubbornly refusing to leave. With a 2nd winter Iceland Gull and a single snow bunting around, it was an ideal place to catch a few lingering winter birds as well as catch up with some early spring ones. As with every trip here, I always start with a walk along the Thames path. Always a chance of wheatear or whinchat but not today. Instead, I came across about three water pipit s. The Thames foreshore has always been good for these...