Bearded Tits at Rainham Marshes

14th June 2023

It appears that Bearded Tits have had another successful breeding season at Rainham so, despite the heat, off to try and find some. When you enter the reserve you are greeted by a blaze of colour from the huge amounts of Tufted Vetch everywhere and some Mallow.

First stop was the Purfleet Hide and I was quite surpised there was still some water in it. A lot of commotion here. There were about 15 Redshanks in front of the hide and they were all going mental, flying around and screaming their heads off. They almost certainly had young and a predator, out of sight from where I was sitting, was lurking in the reeds. 

This was inside the new predator fence so hopefully will not be a Fox or Badger, but I don't know how effective the fence is agianst smaller predators such as Stoat, Weasel and Mink. Perhaps it was a Heron sitting in the reeds although I never saw it all the time it was there. At least the activity gave some opportunities for some flight shots

Fairly quiet along the trail, presumably due to the heat, so just the usual suspects of Reed Bunting and Whitethroat.

At the MDZ so sign of any Kingfishers at the newly constructed Kingfisher bank, but a pair of Little Grebes were fishing in the pool.

So now on to the Bearded Tits. The north trail was still closed so I decided to spend my time at the dragonfly pool by the grit tray. I did see several Bearded Tits but difficult to say just how many. I do know for certain there was an adult male, adult female and three juveniles, although not necessarily from the same family, but the total could be well into double figures.

Unfortunately today they were not particularly cooperative and the only shots I managed to get was of this juvenile female.

Better luck next time.