Birds seen within 10 miles of home.
Having been a keen birder since the early 1980s I have noticed that living in the furthest NW corner of Kent that apparently the best birding was to be had further East in Kent. However, reviewing my notes has revealed a startling wealth of goodies over the last 25 years within 10 miles of my current home in East Dartford ( based on a 10 mile radius drawn on A Navigator road map book – scientific eh??!!)
Collared Pratincole, Rainham RSPB:
The obvious main sites are Dartford Marsh, Rainham Marsh, Footscray meadows and Crossness, though the outer limit of the radius eastwards contains parts of Cliffe ( Alpha pool, Timber pool and part of the Flamingo pool ), Tilbury, and Stanford-le-Hope. Here I will cover some of the local highlights over the years, including some ‘near misses’ in the hope it will inspire people to realise the potential of their local areas – you really can’t knock the fact I’ve seen 2 Sociable Plovers less than 2 miles from my front door!!
Sociable Plover, Rainham RSPB:
Dartford: Lots of time spent here over the years has produced a reasonable list of quality birds. Giving directions to a good bird ‘from the burnt-out car’ has been problematic in the past due to the abundance of torched out motors on the marsh. 1985 started things off with a long staying Sociable Plover and a Purple Heron that gave people the run around in September of that year. A hard winter spell in 1986/87 produced Whooper Swans and Black-Necked Grebe in the snowy landscape, and in these years Hen Harriers and Short-eared Owls were to be expected – unfortunately nowadays they are just rare visitors but the owl can be regularly encountered at Rainham still. I’ve seen Merlin twice here and Peregrines are regular. Patient searching in the ditches in the past has proved successful for discarded erotica.
Kingfisher, Footscray Meadows:
The rapidly disappearing Littlebrook Lake used to be a bird magnet with Shag, 2 Great Northern Divers, Smew, Goosander, Scaup, Red-Crested Pochard and Slavonian Grebe all seen on the lake and Wryneck, Wood Warbler and Nightingale in the surrounding bushes ( one record of each for me here ). Now ‘progress’ has reduced it to a mere puddle as a new industrial estate is built.
A cold snap in Jan 1997 produced Bittern at Crossways, roosting in full view in a conifer during a snow storm! This local crippler stayed a few days as did a superb Glaucous Gull on the Thames nearby at the same time. It was also possible to see 4 species of Owl on each evening visit at this time, Tawny Owl being the odd one out.
Other surprises included Stone Curlew a mere 50 yards within the Kent boundary in 2000 ( seen after the Franklin’s Gull at Crossness! )
My best find at this site occurred in October 1999. I had visited the Thames to look for a Storm Petrel reported earlier in the day. Just as I was thinking of going back to work, I picked up a distant black blob sitting on the water, drifting towards me – it flew a short distance – Leach’s Petrel!! What a way to spend a lunch-break!!
A Quail in June 1998 showed well on and off for one afternoon and autumn records have included Twite and Great Grey Shrike – the shrike was seen before work, at lunch-time and after work on it’s second day ( news got out after dark ) and first thing Saturday morning – a bird worth savouring!!
Just outside Dartford a White Stork showed well one September evening following a tractor around a roadside field. Here it is... ( photo by Norman Winterman ).
Caption...'Get off my land..Die! DIE!!
Footscray Meadows: This used to be my local patch and I covered it virtually daily for several years. I did’nt get too much for my efforts but I could normally find Lesser Spotted Woodpecker on most trips during the early 1990s. This site came into it’s own during cold spells when Jack Snipe could be found on the river and Smew and Goosander visited the lake. Kingfishers are easy to see here and Water Rails can also be obliging. Surprises have included 3 Pied Flycatchers, 1 Wood Warbler and a long staying Nightingale in 1993.
In 2002 a male Serin spent a few days singing on waste ground less than a mile from the Meadows.
Rainham: A scabby looking hell-hole of a site that attracts quality birds away from Dartford ( I’m not bitter really!! ) Now a RSPB reserve it has possibly the ugliest looking visitor centre in existence which is easily viewed in all it’s glory from Dartford.
Despite the recent opening of the RSPB reserve, this site has a long history of attracting quality birds. In the 1990s I saw Bluethroat in the ditches round the dump on 26/04/94, a male Red-Footed Falcon in 1991 and a juv Black-Winged Stilt in 1998. The dump area is also the best place locally to see Short-Eared Owls in the winter and views can be stunning here.
Development of the site by the RSPB has lead in recent years to a stunning array of rarities being attracted to a reserve that I can get to in under 10 minutes if the tunnel is’nt blocked ( and that is a big IF!! ).
A big thanks goes out to the staff that organised access to the site before it officially opened. This generosity allowed me to see Hoopoe ( 2004 ), Collared Pratincole ( 2005 ), Sociable Plover ( 2005 ), and 4 Penduline Tits ( 2006 ) – cheers all!!
Hoopoe, Rainham:
Since the reserve has opened it has been a great place to visit with the family and our visits recently in 2007 have seen us connect with 2 Spoonbills, Marsh Warbler, a very showy Red-Backed Shrike, Bearded Tit, Cattle Egret and several Garganeys. An Iceland Gull was added to my local list in Jan 2008.
I’m sure this site will go from Strength to strength – what are the chances of Western Sandpiper and Lesser Kestrel reappearing??!
Other goodies seen locally to the reserve include Spotted Crake and Great White Egret in the Ingrebourne valley.
Crossness/Thamesmead - has more to offer than just car theft and Belmarsh prison – it has produced some surprising birds: I’ve seen 2 Sabine’s Gulls ( 1988 & 1998 ), Squacco Heron ( 2007 ), Franklin’s Gull ( 2000 ) and Grey Phalarope ( 2007 ) in the area over the last 20 years. To quote a friend who visited the Squacco Heron earlier this year:’ This bird has been present in Thamesmead for the last 8 days, but surprisingly has’nt yet been stolen, shot or burnt out!’
Squacco Heron, Thamesmead:
Thurrock: like a scene from ‘Dawn of the Dead’ a visit to this huge shopping centre usually sends shivers down my spine, but a quick detour to the Thames has seen me connect with 2 White-Winged Black Terns ( 1990 & 1991 ), Grey Phalarope ( 1999 ) and a nearby Great Northern Diver. However, I remember this site more for missing Bridled Tern by 20 minutes in 1991, though I did nail it later in the day at Hanningfield reservoir due to some extremely erratic and aggressive driving.
Of course, Essex is’nt alone in having dodgy areas – anyone remember the Spotted Crake at Denton, Gravesend? The mental scars will never heal! Parking was wherever there was a space between the burnt out cars. The bird showed well, though!
Further east in Essex brings you to Tilbury and one of the area’s rarity heavy-weights – a superb Greater Sand-Plover seen on the foreshore and seen later flying into Kent. A Lesser Yellowlegs wintered one year and was seen here and at Cliffe during the period.
Nearby Stanford-le-Hope had a juv Woodchat Shrike in 1994 that showed well afterwork one evening.
Cliffe: And at the very outer limits of my chosen area are parts of Cliffe. A mouth-watering list of birds seen here over the years, but those seen in the target area include the following: Short-Toed Lark, Grey Phalarope, Little Auk, Bean Goose, Red-Necked Phalarope, Pectoral Sandpiper, Stilt Sandpiper ( 1990 ), Temminck’s Stint, Pomarine Skua, and Long-Tailed Duck. If the boundary extended 0.5 miles further East the final list would be staggering!!!
Sometimes a bit of patience can save lots of mileage ( though hindsight is wonderful! ). In 1990 I twitched a female Pine Bunting up at Bigwater NR up North. There were mutterings at the time about if it was or not, so when a male was found at Druridge Bay in 1992 I went up for it. Little did I know a week later I would be watching one at Dagenham Chase in Essex!!! We also saw Long-Eared Owls here on this trip.
Outside the area:
Some quality sites / birds are or were just outside my chosen area. Further into London I have seen 2 Ring-Necked Ducks – a drake at Surrey Docks and a female at Valetine Park ( where Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers showed well on our visit ).
In the South-West of the area towards Croydon I have seen Pied-Billed Grebe at South Norwood and a Citrine Wagatil at Beddington Sewage Farm ( 1993 ) – this was a UK tick for me and thanks are in order for the access that was organised to this normally private site ( Beddington has also produced Killdeer, Rustic and Little Buntings, Tawny Pipit and Glaucous-Winged Gull!!! ).
Back out to Cliffe and just outside the zone I have seen 7 Pectoral Sandpipers, 5 Red-Necked Phalaropes, 2 Grey Phalaropes, Marsh Sandpiper, Stilt Sandpiper ( 1987 ), Pallid Swift ( 1998 ), White-Rumped Sandpiper, 2 Terek Sandpipers ( 1989 & 2005 ), and Buff-Breasted Sandpiper. When news broke of the swift, I was watching a Grasshopper Warbler near the Timber lake – I only had to run 200 yards!!!
Montagu’s Harriers also feature, mainly in the Ryestreet area and Hawfinches used to occur near Mockbeggar farm.
Further into Essex and Hume’s Warbler graced Fairlop CP a few years ago.
In the South, Sevenoaks is a few hundred yards outside the area, but I’ve seen 2 Night Herons and Kentish Plover here.
And there you have it – all that quality on my doorstep! I hope this inspired some of you to look closer to home and to read through your old note books – I was very surprised when I started this project!!