First (proper) wader of the year

31st January - I was able to get out this morning before yet another wet front moved through.  The previous days' rain had already had an impact on the flood meadows - they had risen a few inches since Tuesday and were now impassable from the railway - I had walked here on Tuesday.  The paths were once again thick with mud and puddles, though the lake level looked fairly similar.

I'm amazed that with the high numbers of BHG about, a Med hasn't been seen.  There are usually upwards of 15 birds seen during an average year, with one or two during the winter, though Feb/Mar passage is probably the easiest time to see them.  A few more LWHG are drifting back to the site during the day time, which gives me hope that one of the scarcer gulls will appear.  Not today though, but this rather retarded 2nd winter Herring Gull had a red colour ring with white code VXJ.  A quick response from the ringer found that it had been ringed as a chick at Havergate Island, Orford, Suffolk on 1st July 2012 - this was the first sighting since then.

At about 11:15am, a Dunlin flew in low over the spit, presumably straight off the river.  It flew around looking to land amongst the tightly packed Lapwing flock, but couldn't find anywhere to its liking, but eventually pitched down on the base of the spit.  I grabbed a blurry record shot in the dull light - you can just about make it out in the centre of the shot!

However, it didn't seem happy and soon took off again, calling frequently.

The pair of Shelduck remain and 4 Snipe were lurking in the reed bed on the spit, otherwise everything else was as expected.  I took a walk along the path to the western pits, but it was pretty quiet.  4 noisy Nuthatches near the Queen's Head pub were a year tick and good numbers of Redwing in the fields were the best.

As predicted the rain came early afternoon.  I had some free time at gull roost time, so decided that if I took a big brolly, I wouldn't get too wet.  Plenty to look through, though the big BHG/Common Gull raft that forms on the eastern side of the lake gets harder to see as the light drops.  Luckily, the LWHG are coming in to the western side, so are more easily viewable, though their numbers were quite low today.  A nice sub-adult, probably 4th winter Yellow-legged Gull was another year tick - I get hardly any YLG at this time of year and usually have to wait for the post breeding dispersal in the summer, so it was a welcome addition.  Unfortunately in the inclement conditions, I couldn't take any sort of photo.

I've also had an update on the NTGG colour-ringed GBBG from the other day.  These birds are always ringed at either Rainham or Pitsea Landfills, so no surprise to find that it was ringed at Pitsea as an adult in Feb 2013.  Map here:

http://www.ntgg.org.uk/cgi-bin/map.cgi?p=recmap&t=r&r=MA28713