Trip reports

Rainham Marshes - by Frank Clark

Sunday, 25 January 2009

Following our last group visit to this reserve in September 2007, the general consensus was that we should try this site again during the middle of the winter. With that in mind I put this reserve back on our programme for January. We arrived at the car park on a bitterly cold morning, not much above freezing, with a grey sky that promised lots of rain - very much the winter's day that people wanted!! We entered the reserve through the visitors centre and passing over the bridge we began scanning the first of the pools and marshes. Wigeon, Shoveler and Teal were present in good numbers, as were Moorhen and Coot, whilst the ever present flocks of finches buzzed around the area feeding hungrily at the reserves feeding stations. These flocks included Chaffinch, Greenfinch and Linnet.

The circular pathway around the reserve is flat and easily manageable and as we moved off from the first area of the marsh, in an anti-clockwise direction the sky began to look a little less threatening. The clouds began to thin slightly and the odd watery ray of sunshine split the winter sky. Maybe we would stay dry after all. As we moved towards the only hide on the reserve we had good views of Redshank, Lapwing (over 800) and the first of our screaming gull flocks. This flock contained Black-Headed, Herring and Common gulls.

We reached the hide around 11.15 and as I was uncertain what the weather would do, I decided that we should have an early lunch in the relative comfort of the hide. Eating our lunch and watching the birds go by, we added Mallard, Gadwall, Pochard, Tufted Duck, Little Egret and Cormorant to our list. The posties are really excelling themselves these days, as when they broke out their lunch, out came the soup complete with bowls, spoons and napkins. All that was missing was the table cloth and candles!! Satisfied and ready to go on, we left the hide around 12.30 and headed towards the Target Pools.

In the past, getting from the hide to the far end of the reserve and the Target Pools could prove to be a bit on the wet side. The Aveley Pool often floods during the winter months and can sometimes cover the only path with anything up to six inches off water. However, the reserve has undergone a massive change and they have now opened up the raised reedbed walkway which now by-passes this path. This raised walkway will let you get very close to the reedbed birds. It also provides a good raised viewpoint from which to watch the Aveley Pool, whilst not getting to close to the pool side and spooking everything on it. Reaching the first view point we were able to watch a flock of Golden Plover, resilient in their yellowy-golden winter plumage. There soft expressions and muted calls are a typical winter marshes sight and sound. Several Common Snipe were also spotted as were two much larger Curlew.

The Target Pools are generally an excellent area for a spot of gull watching and anyone who enjoys trying to separate juvenile gulls would always be in their element here. Scanning the area, it was apparent that the water level was very high and instead of pools we had one large pool!! While watching the pools, as well as the previously mentioned gulls we picked up Great and Lesser Black-Backed Gulls, a single Yellow-Legged Gull and eventually, the now very regular wintering Caspian Gull. This was a 3rd winter bird and was very striking. (For a description of how to separate this species, please see the September 2007 trip report for this site). Grey Heron, Shelduck and Meadow Pipit were also present around the pool and this finished our list for the day.

In total 52 species were seen. A nice winter walk but most importantly we stayed dry!!

Frank Clark