CROYDON RSPB MEMBERS' GROUP - TRIP REPORT

The Met Office got it wrong again and a few of our group were ill-prepared for the morning's deluge; undeterred, however, we pressed on for a circuit through the woods at RSPB's Northward Hill reserve. Most of the trees were now in leaf and, although many birds were in full song, some of them were hard to see - including nightingales, of which we heard about ten during our walk, but managed no more than a couple of (possible) glimpses. Blackcap, garden warbler and lesser whitethroat were all seen, though, and two people saw turtle dove. Overhead, herons and rooks were streaming to and from their respective nesting colonies, although the precise location of the heronry eluded us, while in one of the woodland clearings, an amazing sweep of bluebells brightened up even this drab morning.

By the time we had taken lunch, the rain had eased and conditions were deemed suitable for a walk along the track across Halstow Marshes to the Thames seawall at Egypt Bay. En route, a peregrine flew over and stooped (unsuccessfully) at a lapwing, a male marsh harrier was studied through scopes gliding over reedbeds and then resting on a bushtop, a little owl was spotted on a bale stack in which (we later learned) it was nesting, and a trisyllabic call drew our attention to a greenshank flying past. There were also good views of sedge and reed warblers, corn and reed buntings and a pair of wheatears, all either on or beside the track, and a pair of red-legged partridges out in a meadow towards the seawall. Reaching the river at low tide, we found many oystercatchers and about twenty avocets feeding on the exposed mud and these were soon joined by our first whimbrel of the year. In the distance, towards Canvey Island, at least five black terns were fishing with common and Sandwich terns, and two skuas could be seen in attendance on the water nearby. (Although too distant for much detail to be discerned, the skuas were almost certainly part of a group of pomarines that had been reported over recent weeks on this reach of the river). Several yellow wagtails were active on the grassy slope up to the seawall and a grey partridge was also flushed here.

After our long walk back to the cars, we drove round to Bromhey and Eastborough Farms at the western end of the RSPB reserve to visit the Marshland Viewpoint. From here a good range of wildfowl and waders was identified, including several more avocets and a spotted redshank, the latter looking almost black in its breeding plumage (very different to the pale winter-plumage birds seen at Riverside Country Park and Pagham earlier in the year). Two more pairs of wheatears and another red-legged partridge were found in a sheep pasture near the farm, before the appearance of a barn owl provided a fine finale. Laggards among our group were rewarded with excellent close-range views of this well-marked bird (showing unusually deep-gold on the wing coverts) as it hunted over rough ground and then transported voles back to an old barn. Before heading homewards, our leaders went on to visit nearby Rye Street Farm and there managed to locate one of the tree sparrows frequenting the area.