Kingfishers at Rainham Marshes

11th August 2024

A couple of hours to spare on a hot day so what better way to spend the time than sitting in a couple of hides out of the sun at Rainham Marshes? It was a pleasant surprise to see plenty of water in front of the Purfleet Hide, but unfortunately not plenty of birds, apart from the compulsory Little Egret. 

What was unexpected, however, was when I scanned the scrape with my bins I was confronted with......4 Ruddy Shelduck, of which here are three!!!

A few years again these would have been dismissed as escapes but in recent years, particularly at Abberton, they have been turning up at this time of year to have their moult, and then disappear. And this behaviour is not restricted to Abberton as during the last couple of weeks they have been reported from up to 12 sites in the UK, ranging from Hamphire in the south to Angus and Dundee in the north. It seems the general consensus is that they are from the 1600-strong feral population at the Eemmeer Lake in The Netherlands which gathers there every year to complete their moult.

Now on to the MDZ to see how the Kingfishers are getting on. No activity when I arrived so time to look at the supporting acts. There were a couple of dragonflies cruising around but none settled so I had to make do with this male Small Red-eyed Damselfly.

And no visit to the MDZ is complete without the Little Grebes. Today there was an adult..................

.................and a single juvenile.

And it is always important to find time to look after those all-important feathers.

At this point a male Kingfisher appeared and sat on the distant dragonfly sculpture.

Each time it flew off it returned with a sizeable Marsh Frog tadpole.

And then at last the male flew on to the closest perch for a few shots.

What a great way to end the day.

Also nice to meet Kevin and Sandra Standbridge and to see John Cook for the first time in six years.