Gary Howard's birds and wildlife

Serin, Caspian Gull, Ring-billed Gull, Mediterranean Gull, Bittern, Smew, Great-northern and Black-throated Diver and Black-necked Grebe. What a list of birds! Yet that was not the full story today; the birds were undeniably great but some of the sites and circumstances were less than aesthetically pleasing and well wide of my ideal.  I was out with Andy Lawson, James Hunter and Josh Jones.

Our time at Rainham was spent adjacent to the tip and as the sun rose over the Dartford crossing the smell began to rise too! We saw the long-staying Serin well and Andy picked up a distant Caspian Gull. It started to get rather busy by mid-morning so we headed off to Westcliffe on Sea.

We'd found Rainham busy but Westcliffe in the sunshine was on a different level altogether - mobbed ! Eventually James found the Ring-billed on the roof of the casino and we scoped it surrounded by curious on-lookers.

Next stop was the Lee Valley Country Park where the bittern hide lived up to it's name and provided us with fantastic looks at a Bittern despite a packed hide which included a kid on a trike, prams, noisy kids and noisier birders. A drake Smew was scoped on the main pit.

With daylight fast running out we left and sought out William Girling Reservoir. After first getting lost and then stuck in traffic James 'phoned a friend and we were guided onto a small park on a hill overlooking the reservoir but in all probablility a good half-mile from the water! That was as close as we could get so we cranked up the magnification on the scopes and eventually sorted out 2 Great-northern Divers, a Black-throated Diver and some specks which were apparently Black-necked Grebe's...............  

Good birds, great company, lets leave it at that.

 sunrise over the Dartford crossing

Serin

Bittern