What...Err, Pipit?

Excluding the patch, it'd been quite a while since I was last out birding. That stunning 1st winter Caspo was the last time I'd ventured away from the park for birding, and even then it was still just down the road. That being the case, I welcomed a trip out to Rainham Marshes on Friday to properly start the year's birding. It didn't disappoint: birds, sunshine (yes that does still happen), more birds and a good ol' dollop of stringing. What more could you want? I suppose a Glaucous-winged Gull wouldn't have gone amiss...
Having travelled by public transport I met up with Jean-Michel Blake (a new London birder, recently moved here from the probably much more bird-filled Zimbabwe) at Purfleet station, before we headed to the marshes.
 The unseasonable mildness we had been experiencing with the weather of late, has now gone. Very far away. It was a bit 'chilly'.
 Having scanned some of the ducks we headed round to look for the Dartford Warbler, which has seemingly ended up on the wrong side of the river. We were greeted with the cursory 'It was here ten minutes ago', and followed this up by giving it a further fifteen minutes to show itself.  The wait, although brief was not in vain. No, sadly the warbler did not show, but we had a Barn Owl pointed out, as this photo oh so clearly shows, so I'm not complaining.

We completed the circuit of the reserve, getting several great views of Marsh Harrier, a few Snipe, a flash of a Kingfisher and a total of 45 species.
Then, after a hot beverage had been consumed, it was time to look for Short-eared Owls along the Thames path.  There was a slight delay, caused by me losing, and subsequently (a hundred or so metres back the way we'd come) finding half of my scope's eyepiece... But no need to worry, ten minutes later a Short-eared Owl took up in front of us! Always such stunning birds to see.
With the train service home being rather infrequent, we began the walk back along the edge of the Thames to Purfleet. It was during this walk I picked up on what, from their call, I expected to be a pair of Rock Pipits, as they took up from the shoreline. I fired off a few photos as they went over. Now let the stringing commence. Upon reviewing the images, the birds seemed paler than I'd have expected, and the eyebrow was pretty strong too...hmm. Thoughts of Water Pipit started to creep in.

Having narrowly caught the train, and once the arduous experience of being a sardine on a bus was through, I got the photos up on the computer, where they looked even better for Water Pipit. There was even a white outer-tail feather. I daringly braved posting the images online, and thankfully was rewarded with several agreements to my suspicion. Water Pipit! Sure, it's not a rare species, but it's one which I'd long wanted to see.
Good company, good birds, terrible photos.

Patch News!

Part two of my trip to Scotland is being temporarily put on hold, because (wait for it)... I have patch news!  I know, hardly believable.
 Having returned from Scotland the previous day, I was back on the patch on the 3rd. It was pretty quiet really, not much of note (as is the norm), but there was a singing Chiffchaff to put a bit of spring mood on things, although it was probably an over-winterer.  As I was beginning to head home I caught sight of a large bird flying over, pure white, heavy wingbeats and long extended black legs with yellow feet... In simpler terms, Little Egret!  A patch-lifer, I've been hoping for one of these to fly over the park for years, namely since I missed one which was seen in the canal after the park was reopened having been closed due to storms.
 Returning to the patch on Sunday, I took yet again to searching the old Pitch-and-Putt course for any Wheatears which decided Valentines look nicer than Wanstead. So of course it drew blank.  All was not at a loss though, as there came the distinctive call of a Meadow Pipit.  A moment of confusion followed, as I tried in vain to see it fly over with no luck, no wonder, as my father then found it sitting in a small tree! It showed nicely before flying down into the grass.  A second patch lifer in a week!
 Later that day, I even managed to find my second Great-crested Grebe for the patch this year! For now, the patch is good(ish).

Rich(ard's) Pickings

My, it's been a while since my last post! Have you missed me? No? Can't say I'm all that surprised...
Since my last post here in the blogger-sphere I can't say all that much had happened, well, despite a bucketload of dipping. And a big bucket at that.  You see, my annual late winter trip to Ireland wasn't quite the success I had hoped.  It resulted in the dipping of the following; Black Scoter, American Coot, Ring-necked Duck and Laughing Gull... Though some small consolation did come from a stunning drake American Wigeon.
 Yesterday morning I headed out for my first proper days birding since returning to England.  I met up with Liam Curson at Newhaven, before heading to the Ouse Estuary to look for the Richard's Pipit he had found a few days earlier.  After fifteen or so minutes scanning the grassy banks in the rain, we were heading to try a slightly different location when another birder found it up on a fencepost.  It gave great scope views here for a couple of minutes before dropping down into the grass. A great bird to start the day with!  We got some more views after it came down into the grass on a distant bank a little later on, and also had four Bearded Tits (Reedlings, whatever) in the reeds around it.

 Walking from here to Tide Mills produced a frankly ridiculous number of Snipe, probably somewhere around sixty. Oh and brief flight views of a jack Snipe as well!
 Tide Mills was pretty quiet, none of the hoped for Wheatears, but a Firecrest was a nice surprise.
 It was then on to Cuckmere, where Liam quickly found an adult Yellow-legged Gull.  A Scandi Rock Pipit, Yellowhammer and Pintail were a couple of other good birds as we headed down the river to look for the Great-grey Shrike which's been in the area for a while. And although it was still in the area having been seen earlier, we couldn't locate it.
 A possible Iberian Chiffchaff had been reported just a hundred or so metres away, so we headed up to see what was going on.  There were a few others there who'd had the bird earlier, and had taken some recordings of its song.  We then got to hear it in person as it appeared in a tree and begun singing.  How does one describe this bird? Hmm, I think weird is the best word. Yes, the bird was weird - No offence.  Most of the time it gave a song, slightly reminiscent of a Coal Tit with some little warbles, but yet it also did the standard 'Chiff-chaff', and seemingly the 'wheet' contact call of a Common Chiffchaff.  An aberrant Colybita is the current theory, and I would agree, though I'd be a long, long way out of my depth making an opinion on it.
An interesting end to a superb days birding, with a total seen and heard list of seventy species!