16th September - RSPB Rainham Marshes, Essex

A weekend away at my daughters in Kent allowed me the opportunity to meet up with an old friend I haven't seen for over thirty years.  Terry and I birded the area around East Tilbury back in the late eighties and early nineties, on one of our first trips there we found a Black-winged Stilt, not only did we bird together but we also played football together.  I left Essex in 1993 and we lost touch until recently when we connected through Facebook.

We agreed to meet t the RSPB Rainham Marshes reserve, a location, like many from my birding at that time that has changed significantly.  I arrived early, wanting to miss the tunnel traffic build up.  And was advised that there was a skua on the river.  I made my way to where a group were avidly watching the river and call directions to get on the bird.  I picked it up as it moved from west to east and then back again amongst a few Black-headed Gulls.  It was told to me as an Arctic Skua, but it appeared smaller and quite pale in areas not found in Arctic Skuas I have seen.  The debate was around the possibility of a juvenile Long-tailed Skua, one had been reported from Canvey the day before in the afternoon.  I managed to get some images, albeit very distant, the views through the scope were better.

In this shot it appears bulky which would support Arctic or even Pomarine Skua, there is some evidence of a white flash in the primaries, not something that is clearly evident in Long-tailed at this age.

Again white in the wing, or is it the light?

Here a comparison with the black-headed Gulls, distance is a factor of course but generally it seemed to be comparable, the Long-tailed Skua being about the size of a Kittiwake.

In this frame a pale rump is visible, a feature of Long-tailed Skua and no clear white markings in the primaries.

Here there are white flashes in the primaries but also the tail does not show any spikes, well not at this distance.

The last images show the skua as having a pale appearance, here the underwing appears pale, which is more akin to the Long-tailed, even juvenile pale phase Arctic retain a certain amount of darker plumage on the under wing.

Here the pale underwing can be seen with also the paler rump.

So the decision?  Well from the images here the opinion was there were elements for both the Arctic and the Long-tailed.  However watching the bird in the field it appeared light, slim and very agile as it moved around the Black-headed Gulls.  There was very little gliding, the flight being almost continuous flapping even when twisting.  The consensus from those who watched it was that it was a Long-tailed, but unfortunately there was not the conclusive evidence to nail it.

I returned to the car park and eventually found Terry, we talked from the off as if the years between our last meeting didn't exist.  From the car park we walked around the reserve on the loop path, the first hide being the Ken Barret Hide where there had been Kingfisher sightings, unfortunately the Kingfisher had not read the scrip and didn't appear, and all that there was of interest was a Snipe.

We did get some brief glimpses of a Hobby hawking over the area behind the scrape in front of us and this augured well for the day, with the hope we would be able to get better views later.

From the Ken Barratt hide we walked on and flushed a Ruff from one of the pools close to the path on the Aveley Marshes.  The next stop was the Shooting Butts hide that overlooks a scrape.  There wasn't an awful lot about, but we did find a Ruff, probably the bird we flushed earlier.

There were several Little Egrets on the bank around the water.  I liked the fact that this Little Egret fishing appears black when back lit by the sunshine.

There were plenty of buddleia bushes around the reserve and they were to the liking of Red Admiral and this beautiful Peacock butterfly.

The trail then winds through the reed bed, gravel on a bird table hinted at Bearded Tits but we couldn't hear any, another birder though, pointed out a bird on one of the rose bushes in the middle of the reeds and it turned out to be a Whinchat, the light again was difficult.

It dropped from the more prominent position to some cover amongst the leaves.

Then another appeared and this one showed a little better.

Always a nice bird to see on passage, I struggled a bit this year so it was good to get this opportunity to photograph them today.

As we watched the Whinchat a Hobby appeared over the butts scrape we had been looking at earlier, it had caught a dragonfly of which there were a lot and was eating it on the wing.

We walked on and came to an open area in the reeds that Terry said was good for Marsh Frogs,  I saw a large one leap into the reeds but was left with this small one as the only one seen.

As I searched to see if there were any more showing I heard the Bearded Tit call from behind me.  Looking into the reeds we could see some moving about and there were constant pinging calls coming from within the reeds, it then became clear that there were at least two males and they were moving to an area where they would be able to be seen.  I managed a first glimpse through the reeds.

One then appeared on the other side of the pool and it moved down the reed stem to, what I thought was to drink, but turned out to be picking insects off the pond weed.

Bearded Tits have different diets in summer and winter, this time of year is when they start to move from a mostly insect diet to that of seed, these though were clearly still taking advantage of the warmth and the insects about.

They use there acrobatic skills to get down to the weed.

Nice to get some different shots from the more conventional views at the top of the reeds.

The reflection of the eye in the water.

An almost conventional view.

I never realised how much of a binocular vision they have until I saw this photograph.

They then made there way into the reeds and away, so we walked on.  A pause in the Marshland area and another search for Kingfisher proved fruitless so we continued around the trail.

A Marsh Harrier flew through against the sun, it was noticeable that the south east wind had picked up and just after the Marsh Harrier a Buzzard came through, again moving purposefully.

As we watched the Buzzard a Hobby appeared and then joined by another, at one point we had the Buzzard and two Hobbies above our heads.

The light didn't help at all, but they came very close at one point.

A different view.

The feeling was these were additional birds to that we had seen earlier and they did not stop, crossing over the reserve and heading south.

A kestrel had been hunting over the fields and then towards us and then settled on the fence close to us.

We stopped off at the Purfleet Hide which overlooks another scrape, a large flock of Starlings came in to bathe in one of the pools.

Then they all took flight in a whir of wings and spray of water.

Of interest on the window was this fly.  Identified as a Noon Fly or Noonday Fly, Latin name Mesembrina meridiana.  They are found in grasslands and around cattle.

For an insect that spends its formative stages in semi-liquid bovine excrement, the noon fly is surprisingly beautiful, with its body of polished jet and wings like rippled glass, decorated with bright orange patches. Interesting too, because each will lay just five eggs, one per cowpat, releasing carnivorous grubs that prey on the larvae of dung flies and other coprophagous insects. Its life cycle, an integral part of agricultural grassland ecology, revolves around defecating cattle.

All the references I can find refer to the feet and head to be orange like the wings, on this one they appear white so I can only assume that these have faded.

Cattle Egrets are now becoming commoner and over the last few days I have seen several of these birds so it wasn't a surprise to find one at the back of the scrape.

We made our way to the cafe for a drink, and then back to the Marshland Discovery Zone or MDZ as it is known to see if the Kingfisher was showing and once again we had missed it. 

A great day catching up with a good friend, we talked all day.  The birds were good too n an excellent reserve.