White winged tern

I was enjoying good views of the the tern today after work at Rainham Marshes for ten minutes at 4.30pm when a peregrine decided to have a go at the tern, it made two VERY close attempts in catching it only centimeters away even at one stage the tern was under the waters surface trying to escape.The tern then went towards the river and was lost to view.It was one of those open jaw moments.Here is a distant record shot.

Essex Birding

Canvey Point
An early start this morning with Dave Mo and Martin Redfern saw us sea watching at canvey.We had a Great Skua,7 Arctic Skua,8 Black Tern,6 Scoter,Black and Bar Tailed Godwits,Sandwich Terns,Grey Plover etc.


Vange Marsh
The scape looks really good here, but the birds are distant.We had 3 Spoonbill,Woodsandpiper,2 Dunlin,Green Sandpipers,Black tailed godwits,LRP.It was really nice to have a varied mornings birding and only a small time spent in the car.





One of the three Spoonbill at Vange.



The Little Owl showed well at the Ingrebourne Valley on the way home.

Rainham Marshes RSPB

There had been 3 Woodsandpipers this morning at Rainham but unfortunately they had gone by the time I got there, but still took the family for a walk around the reserve and met up with Bradders where he showed us the Wasp Spiders at the Ken Barrett's hide.

Connect Four

I have visited the Ingrebourne Valley four evenings in a row this week to check the viewing area for waders.Well I had 6 Green Sandpipers Wednesday being the highest count. Other than that, a few Sand martins have gone through and a couple of Teal and thats it really .The camera has stayed on my shoulder as its either raining or the birds are to distant.

Patch update

I started at the viewing area this morning and had 5 Green Sandpipers but no yank waders as yet.A Tufted duck brood of a couple days old were on one of the fishing lakes.I really notice the absence of Swifts today with only 2 seen.

The patch is on fire

The Ingrebourne Valley had a Cattle Egret on friday found by Dave Morrisson .It only stayed a few hours so some of the locals manged to see another site first.Also this week a Spoonbill flew over the second for the year.Well I have been busy working all weekend, so only spent some time on the patch and had a Juv Pergerine over tonight and the usual Green sandpipers on the viewing area.