Seymour Birdies Diary: A Couple of Hours in the Purfleet Hide

5th March 2025

A lovely sunny day and a couple of hours to spare so where better to go than the Purfleet Hide at Rainham Marshes.The first to put in an appearance were two grebes, a Little Grebe and a Great Crested Grebe. There was some concern over the Great Crested as until today there had been a pair nest building, but today only one was present, so let's hope the other is OK.

Also two species of geese, Canada and Greylag, although at Rainham the Greylags normally significantly outnumber the Canadas.

Now for the ducks of which there were nine species present, starting with the surface feeders, Gadwall, Mallard, Wigeon, Teal, Shoveler and Shelduck.

The Teal were already showing signs of spring!!

And all the males in their resplendent breeding plumage.

Only two species of diving duck, Tufted Duck and Pochard, with the Tufies being represented by a single male.

There were just three Snipe visible, but only one in the open for a photograph.

Luckily the Lapwings were a lot more showy................

.................with lots of display flights.

And just a single Dunlin still in winter plumage, luckily feeding closer to the hide than normal.

As by way of a change from ducks and waders, a female Marsh Harrier drifted over the scrape. There are always a few harriers around Rainham but they don't very often venture down to the Purfleet.

So what were the highlights today? Well the first was a group of Gadwall in their tightly-packed high speed display flights. Here is a lone female being chased by six males and luckily for here she appears to be the fastest.

And the second highlight? Well the more astute of you will have noticed that I said there were nine species of duck present but so far have only presented eight. Well the second highlight was this male Pintail. He and his mate were asleep in front of the hide for most of the time so no action shots here.