Monday 30 April 2012

Another wave of Wheatears



Wheatear at Bow Creek Ecology Park, 30/4/2012

Crayford Marshes, 30/4/2012














                                                       

































It's been a good April for Northern Wheatear at the lower Lea, two on the 4th and three on the 14th, all on the Pura Foods peninsula, were the vanguard for four today, two on Orchard Wharf and two in the Ecology Park, including the female in the photographs above. Initially I thought this bird was an immature male because of the greyness of the mantle, it was so close to me that I was concentating on photographing it rather than critically looking at it, that's my excuse anyway; the other bird was definately a male but he was spooked by a DLR train and flew off to the Pura Foods site; this one was very confiding until a chav couple came along and the gentleman, seeing that I was photographing the bird, deliberately flushed it, returning to his lady uttering the gentle refrain "I scared the bird off hur, hur, hur" to admiring giggles from his mate. I know one should have sympathy for intellectually challenged morons who get an enormous sense of self-importance from annoying other people but I almost suggested that he do something useful with his body, like turn it into fertiliser. As it was a sunny day the site started to fill up with people intent on leaving litter to mark their visit, so I decided to head off to Crayford Marshes for the rest of the day; of all the Thames marshes in the London area this is the only one I have not visited, mainly because it has a bit of a reputation for being in bandit country but I figured that a weekday visit might see the hordes of scramblers and air gunners more usefully occupied, and so it transpired. The photo above shows the northern access to the marsh from Slade Green station, a wonderfully bucolic scene, punctuated every hundred yards or so with some doorless kitchen appliance, just to remind you, in case you should forget, that you are still within the orbit of the Capital.Interestingly a lot of the hedgerows here are Elm so there is a good possibility of White-letter Hairstreak, a mid June visit is in order if it looks like it might be a good year for them. A singing Lesser Whitethroat near the river wall was the highlight of my visit, Swallows were about in good numbers and it looks like a few pairs may breed here, Common Whitethroats and Blackcaps were everywhere, but the only other warbler was a singing Chiffchaff. Skylarks and Meadow Pipits sang from the creekside fields and Ring-necked Parakeets looked slightly incongruous as they screeched over the saltmarsh. The only waders I could find were four Redshank and two Oystercatcher and I had good views of a Common Seal eating a large fish  in the Thames. It's a really pleasant walk from Slade Green to the Darent Flood Barrier but it's a bit of a shock to find a massive scrap yard plonked down next to horse filled paddocks behind the sea wall.

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