Spotted Crake at Ingrebourne Valley.......and an Unexpected Guest !!

19th September 2017

Today's mission was to photograph the Spotted Crake that has been at Ingrebourne Valley for a couple of days. The problem is that the main viewpoint at Ingrebourne faces the sun during the morning and therefore I regard it as an afternoon site, so decided to spend the morning at Rainham Marshes.

Here it was desperately quiet and after a spot of lunch in the Butts Hide I was just about to call it a day when a wader flew in low over the water and did a couple of laps before landing. In flight I could see that the legs were red, but there were no white trailing edges to the wings and then it called "tew-it" and I knew it was a Spotted Redshank.

So now on to Ingrebourne Valley for the main quarry of the day, the Spotted Crake. The bird had been showing very well for short periods, but spent most of its time hidden in the reeds. So, the time was mainly spent staring at the reeds for the slightest movement of a reed or a miniscule ripple in the water. Eventually the bird did appear and worked its way across the reeds, sadly scurrying across the open water. It then disappeared into dense reeds to the left.

So, what about the unexpected guest? Well, I had gone back to reed watch and was staring at the reeds where it was last seen when someone mentioned that "a Buzzard or something" was approaching , but I was so intent on finding the crake again that I didn't even bother to look up. At that momemt Tom Bell shouted "Osprey", and from then on the Spotted Crake took second place as this magnificent bird circled for 3-4 laps just 30 yards above our heads before drifting south-west from whence it came.

So, in summary, I spent the whole day photographing just three species - Spotted Redshank, Spotted Crake and Osprey...............but I have had worst days!!!!!!!!!