Saturday 22 June 2019

A good visit to Rainham Marshes with plenty to see, though the light was poor at times. There were plenty of young birds, with a good selection of ducklings, among them Pochard ...


... Gadwall ...


... and Tufted.


The Canada Geese have bred here, which for some reason they haven't managed in the Central London parks.


There was a distant view of a Little Grebe with a chick.


The Lapwings had half-grown young ...


... and an Avocet attacked a Coot that had got too close to its teenage chicks.


There were several Redshanks.


A Common Tern and a Black-Headed Gull squabbled about a place on a post. The tern won.


A Little Egret was fishing, shaking a foot to bring up water creatures from the mud.


A Reed Warbler carried insects to feed its young.


A Reed Bunting perched on a reed ...


... and so did a Wren ...


... and a Whitethroat.


A Linnet perched in a bush.


A House Sparrow picked up a Peacock butterfly caterpillar, chewed it for a bit and discarded it. Evidently the caterpillar tasted nasty.


A Water Vole looked out from the bank.


Insects included a Cinnabar Moth ...


... a Four-Spotted Chaser dragonfly ...


... and a Seven-Spot Ladybird, the first British ladybird I've seen this year as all the ladybirds in the park are invasive Harlequins.

12 comments:

  1. Seems like you had a successful time at Rainham + good to see so many species breeding successfully. If the Canada Geese do not seem to be breeding in the central parks, could that be due to control measures like covering the eggs with paraffin or other mineral oils? This is often used to control numbers without having to cull adult birds. The birds are fooled into thinking the eggs are developing so don't relay.

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    1. Hugh says that nothing has been done. Also, several Greylags have hatched broods which have taken their chances with the gulls. This seems to be a real mystery.

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  2. Thanks for these pictures Ralph. I’m going to Rainham Marshes today so will look out for these birds.
    It’s the same in St James’s Park. Plenty of greylag goslings, quite a few Egyptian goslings, but the Canadas don’t appear to breed.
    We also have two Swan families with seven cygnets each.

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  3. I have seen two spots in the Natural history museum garden, so there are a few left. Have you ever been to the London wetlands center has does it compare to Rainham Marshes?

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    1. I much prefer Rainham Marshes to the Wetlands Centre. Rainham is a wild place made accessible only by a perimeter track and a few hides, while the Wildlife Centre is over-organised and often you can only see very distant birds through glass. It also costs over three times as much as Rainham for admission.

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  4. What an excellent and productive visit! So many great pictures! I am sure you had a great day.

    Poor Avocet doesn't know that Coots are not to be messed with. But I wonder that the Avocet should have thought that the Coot was dangerous to its chicks.

    Seven-spot Ladybirds have become very rare here too. Some organic farmers have taken to breeding them to use as natural insecticides for their crops.

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    1. Here you can actually buy native ladybirds as larvae or adults to gobble up your insect pests. They are not outrageously expensive, and seem to survive being delivered by courier.

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  5. I was at Rainham on Sunday, despite unannounced ‘rail replacement buses’ (the three most dispriting words in English, surely?). I was struck by a thing I’d not seen before, sparrows flitting about in the reed-beds. Not as adroitly as the warblers, it not being their normal habitat – so they were a lot easier to see, indeed quite attention-grabbing. Owing to the poor light (the weather was much as it wason Friday, evidently) I found myself repeatedly, if momentarily, mistaking females and juveniles for reed warblers; and males for sedge warblers (or, if I saw the black caps, reed buntings). Very wxasperating! I do think the management should put up notices requesting patrons of the reserve not to behave in this inconsiderate fashion.

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    1. Well, I live in central London and the nearest House Sparrows are three miles away, so they're an exotic luxury for me.

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  6. Here is a photo of two native British ladybirds not far from Hyde Park
    https://www.flickr.com/photos/14586608@N08/47804412782/

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    1. Natural History Museum Wildlife Garden, a highly isolated place. I wonder whether the ladybirds were deliberately introduced (but if so, they would probably deny it). A serious problem in Kensington Gardens is that there is a large colony of Harlequins in the public lavatory next to the Italian Garden.

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