Trip reports

Bird Walk at Rainham Marshes RSPB Reserve on Saturday 8 December 2007

Tuesday, 11 December 2007

Only 5 of us brave (or foolish!) souls turned up for this walk on a day when the forecast was for fairly strong winds and heavy rain from early on. The rain, light at first, began half an hour or so before the walk was due to commence, but at this stage the wind was still reasonable. After a short delay we decided to set off and on the outward journey of about a mile round to Aveley Pools the conditions were not too bad. We very quickly picked up a female Stonechat along the edge of the ditches and then as we entered the only area of small trees and bushes which afforded some protection from the elements we saw a small number of Fieldfares which only gave brief views and a single Redwing which somewhat frustratingly stayed at the back of a hawthorn bush.

Continuing on along the wooden boardwalk that takes us through this part of the reserve we then entered the much larger and open area of pasture and various pools surrounded by sedges. We entered the hide which got us out of the rain for twenty minutes and here we observed a good variety of wildfowl and waders. Among the species seen were Little Grebe, Pintail, Wigeon, Teal, Gadwall, Shoveler, Shelduck, Black-tailed Godwit, Redshank, Snipe, a large number of Lapwings and a nice flock of Golden Plovers.

We briefly visited the extensive reedbed which backs on to the high-speed rail link and which for the past two winters has hosted a small number of Penduline Tits, but by now the wind was picking up in strength and we were unable to find even a Reed Bunting which should be evident in this locality. As we turned towards the wind to begin the walk back to the warmth of the Visitors Centre the rain increased in intensity and conditions quickly became very unpleasant. A small group heading towards the hide informed us that they had seen a Peregrine sitting on one of the pylons but although we scanned around the pylons in the vicinity we were unable to locate it. It, like us, was probably in search of somewhere a little less exposed to the elements, and so we quickly returned through deteriorating weather to the comfort of the Centre.