A Green-winged Teal at Rainham Marshes

4th April 2025

A Green-winged Teal was found at Rainham Marshes on the 22nd March and could be very elusive, but now seems to be seen more often so time for a visit. As I walked down the ramp and on to the trail to the Purfleet Hide there were the first signs of spring with many Dandelions, White Dead-nettle and Red Dead-nettle.

The Purleet Hide was very quiet as you would expect at this time of year, and sadly the Great Crested Grebes seemed to have abandoned their nesting attempt. In fact the only shots taken were of the usual Lapwings and Canada Geese.

On the trail to the MDZ a heron was fishing in one of the ponds on the marsh, and an Avocet was sitting on eggs on one of the small islands. Avocets can't nest on the Butts Hide scrape just yet as the water levels are still too high.

Sadly no Kingfishers at the MDZ this year so far, just the resident Little Grebe.

A little further on towards the dragonfly pools a strategically placed poo plank revealed the presence of Water Voles.

Now on to the river wall hoping for an early Wheatear. No such luck but there were Goldfinches and Linnets up by the Serin Mound.

Out on the saltmarsh one of the Rainham Kestrels was hovering, trying to home in on one of the many voles that live out there despite regular high tides.

Cetti's Warblers are now in full song and although they are notoriously difficult to see, this is the best time of year to catch a glimpse as they are far more active when trying to attract a mate. This bird shot across the river wall and dived into a reed bed about 40 yards away on the reserve side of the wall but luckily there was a small tunnel I could focus through.

Chiffchaffs are now all over the place, both on the reserve and the river wall and many are quite tame, allowing you to apptroach to within less than 10 yards.

Always nice to get some singing shots.

But the best surprise for me today was the discovery of a very active colony of mining bees near the Coldharbour Lane car park. As a novice on insects I contacted Peter Harvey, the Essex Recorder for Bees, who identified them as the Yellow-legged Mining Bee, Andrena flavipes, which is quite common in these parts. Thanks Peter.

But now on to the target species for the day. The Green-winged Teal has normally been seen on the water behind the MDZ but can be very elusive and difficult to photograph as it swims to the far end of one of the finger lakes and can sometime disappear out of view. Luckily, as I was approching the MDZ along the boardwalk, it was swimming in open water in front of the MDZ and I was able to grab a few shots before it disappeard once again.

And also managed to get a comparison shot with an Eurasian Teal.

A very satisfying day!!!

Green Sandpipers and a Surprise at Lemsford Springs

1st April 2025

A quick visit to Lemsford to see if any Green Sanpipers are hanging on before their long journey to their breeding grounds in Scandinavia. The site looks very different now with much of the watercress swept away during the heavy winter rains and the far bank cleared of many trees to such an extent that you can now see the River Lea and the horse paddocks beyond.

What was noticeable was the site was very quiet with ducks represented by just a single pair of Mallard, just three Green Sandpipers, one Grey Wagtail and not even a single Little Egret. Unfortunately the Grey Wagtail was feeding downstream and into the sun so I concentrated on the Green Sandpipers.

I love it when they cock their head sideways to assess a possible overhead threat.

So what was the surprise? Well this Wren flew past the hide and landed on a small mound of earth just a few yards away and lay on the ground with its wings spread. This behaviour is normally associated with one of having a dust bath, sun-bathing or anting.

Anting is where birds such as Blackbirds spread their wings on the ground to allow ants to crawl into their plumage. They then rub the ants into their plumage with releases the ants formic acid to either kill parasites or for feather grooming. The precise reason is unknown.

The bird was only there for 10 seconds so I suspect it was enjoying the sun and the warmth from the bare ground.

A Spring Visit to Amwell

31st March 2025

My first visit to Amwell this year to see what was about. The ducks were now in their breeeding pllumage like these male Teal and Shoveler.

A pair of Oystercatchers were on their usual island in front of the White Hide, but were not quite ready to nest just yet as they left the site after an hour.

What was a surprise today was to see a pair of Goldeneye from the Gladwin Hide. I had assumed that any Goldeneye would be long gone.

But the stars of the show today were the Snipe feeding in the dead vegetation on the scrape in front of the viewpoint. At first they were all buried in the vegetation and were therefore hard to count, but eventually all came out on to the muddy puddles and showed well allowing an accurate count to be made.

There were 16 birds present, a good count for this time of the year, but despite some concentrated scanning of the flock I can assure you without fear of contradiction there was not a single Jack Snipe amongst them.

Also good to meet Mike from Ware and have a catch-up with my old mate Ron Cousins.