Black-tailed GodwitsThought I'd do something a bit different today and do some general birding at Rainham, getting there and back by train (I need all the practise of doing that I can get, so I can get there ASAP when the next mega turns up!).
Black-tailed GodwitsIt should have cost me just under £20 to get there and back, bad enough but clever old me completely screwed up tickets and oyster cards and it ended up costing me something really painful like £35 or £40, I don't really want to add up an accurate figure to be honest!
OystercatcherI arrived on site at about 8.20am and alternated my time between scanning the Thames (the main point of interest at the moment), scoffing myself in the cafe and checking the main reserve until 3.25pm when I started to make my way back.
WhimbrelThe river produced a nice flock of 14 Black-tailed Godwits, 3 Whimbrel, 3 Oystercatchers, a pair of Common Terns attending to 3 juveniles, and 6-7 Common Sandpipers. A small number of Sand Martins and a Swallow moved overhead while a Reed Warbler sang and a Reed Bunting called from the riverside vegetation.
WhimbrelThe reserve held a female Marsh Harrier, 3 Green Sandpipers, 2 juvenile Little Ringed Plovers, a Dunlin, another Common Sandpiper, the summering Wigeon and an assortment of commoner wetland birds. I managed to pick out at least 7 Yellow-legged Gulls (3+ adults and 3+ juveniles) throughout both the reserve and the river.
