Thames wader count

A late start today to coincide with high tide; Dave Morrison has again organised a co-ordinated count of all the wader roosts within the London Natural History Society area, from Bow Creek downstream to West Thurrock. Our meagre contribution was 12 Redshank and four Common Sandpipers in the usual roost and another Common Sandpiper roosting with Mallards on a large raft on the next meander downstream. Five Common Sandpipers is our best ever winter count although one or two of these birds might be migrants that have hung around because the weather is so mild, only one other locale reported a single Common Sandpiper highlighting the importance of the lower Lea as a wintering area for this species. Given the mild conditions not much else was seen but two Grey Wagtails and a smart male Chaffinch were notable on the passerine front. Below is a summary of the counts from all the known roosts.

Bow Creek

Redshank: 12

Common Sandpiper: 5

Barking Outfall

Dunlin: 2

Black-tailed Godwit: 10

Curlew: 2

Redshank: 87

Barking Bay

Lapwing: 46

Curlew: 6

Crossness

Lapwing: 103

Dunlin: 940

Black-tailed Godwit: 19

Redshank: 420

Fords

Common Sandpiper: 1

Rainham, Stone Barges

Lapwing: 2

Dunlin: 5

Black-tailed Godwit: 4

Redshank: 32

Rainham, RSPB reserve

Golden Plover: 80+

Lapwing: 620

Dunlin: 400

Black-tailed Godwit: 550

Curlew: 1

Redshank: 435

West Thurrock

Oystercatcher: 8

Dunlin: 100

Common Snipe: 4

Curlew: 25

Redshank: 350

The first kick of winter

East India Dock Basin looking west, 20:11:2011

Common Sandpiper and Common Gull at Bow Creek, 20:11:2011

Greylag Goose at East India Dock Basin, 20:11:2011

Blackbird at Bow Creek Ecology Park, 20:11:2011

The first visit to the patch in over two weeks and the unseasonable weather of recent days has been replaced by an all-enveloping freezing fog which has reduced visibility down to around 20 metres. The Sun almost managed to burn it off around midday, but it is too far south to have had much of an effect and the fog soon returned. River watching was a non-starter, the Millennium Dome, less than 200 metres across the Thames was completely invisible and the few gulls that were around were reduced to ghostly shadows; likewise the basin was completely enshrouded, I managed to count around 130 Common Teal there but the number could have been higher as the reed fringed north shore was not visible, another 30 or so were on Bow Creek and their whistling contact calls were never out of earshot, as if to reassure each other that there were others of their kind nearby even if they could not be seen; the only other wildfowl of note was a single Greylag Goose which sailed out of the gloom at the basin. At least four Redshank were at Bow Creek, they seemed not not like this weather, flushing noisily at the slightest provocation; a single Common Sandpiper was also there but was reluctant to fly giving me the opportunity to take the photograph above. Two vocal Chiffchaffs were in the ecology park, both looked like and sounded like normal collybita to me, two Grey Wagtails were also around the ecology park and a single female chaffinch was in the northern scrub at the basin.