Friday 24 June 2011

Rainham Marshes 23rd June 2011 7pm - 10pm

Last night Shaun and I took a large group of 25 for an evening guided walk around Rainham Marshes. The group enjoyed a Great Spotted Woodpecker on the feeder in the woods, as well as a single Cuckoo and numerous Marsh Frogs.

We took a slow walk round not seeing that much, until the very end. At about 9.00pm we were about to leave the reserve onto the sea wall when, whilst chatting to one of the group, I thought in the back ground I caught a short zzzzz of a Grasshopper Warbler. A few seconds later, there it was again. Moving back down the path we honed in on where it was and surprisingly I spotted it deep in cover. Being a new bird for almost all the group, and with only 2 scopes available we tried to keep some sort of order, for people to see it. Eventually after about 30 minutes, everyone enjoyed good views as, every now and then, it sat out in the open. With the light fading fast we exited the gate to the sea wall to be greeted by a 2nd Gropper, reeling away. We didn't get to see this one, but the group all went home, no doubt texting "tick and run" to their birding buddies! Surely everyone does that don't they?!

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