The uneasy marriage between myself and the lower Lea took an almighty step towards divorce this morning, driving rain on a robust easterly wind was was the order of the day, ideal conditions for pushing terns, Little Gulls and perhaps other seabirds up the Thames; I should have headed directly to Gallions Reach but decided to put my faith in the patch with predictable results. Whilst slurping an overpriced Americano in the Esso garage after a fruitless freezing hour at the basin, I received a call from Gary telling me he was watching an adult Little Gull at Gallions Reach. Half an hour later I caught up with him only to hear that he'd just had a Red-breasted Merganser fly upstream after a tip off from John that it was heading his way; doubly gripped. Both of these species are on my self-found London list but the pair of Mergs was over 20 years ago and the last Little Gull over a decade ago; ah well, lesson well and truly learned. We spent the next two hours getting very wet as we grilled the river, a Great Skua had been logged passing Rainham but it didn't make it to us; we added a Curlew, a Common Sandpiper and a Swift before the rain let up and Paul joined us. Late afternoon the sun put in an appearance and we were treated to a steady passage of Swallows, over 130 heading roughly north together with a few Sand Martins and around 20 Swifts; I made a comment about all these hirundines moving could produce a Hobby, ten minutes later Paul got on to a raptor moving east; the first Hobby of the year and the fourth raptor of the day after Sparrowhawk, Kestrel and Peregrine. Other notables at Gallions included around four Oystercatchers, 30 Common Terns and two Skylarks.
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