Arctic springtime in London

I'm writing this having just thawed out from a day out and about in London. The biting wind and overcast conditions were a far cry from last weekend's summer weather. However, London usually has more promise with laden skies and rain with this weekend being a fairly satisfying one locally...

I had a good stroll round Crossness yesterday with John A, where there were some moderate highlights with a male Wheatear, a 1st-summer Yellow-legged Gull, 7 Swifts and 2 Swallows topping the bill. Waders were surprisingly absent, with single Black-tailed Godwit and Common Sandpipers as well as 3 Redshank. A check of Russia Dock Woodland didn't produce the previous day's Spotted Flycatcher that Richard PJ had seen but Blackcaps were belting it out from every patch of cover.

Wheatear Crossness, London 28th April 2018

And then on to today, with a day around London with Dante and Jamie P as it had been a while. The wind was bitter and you could tell the northerly element, which seemed to get worse as the day progressed. Yet starting off at Southmere, Thamesmead early on it was obvious that the hirundines had been having a rough time - about 80 Swallows, 25 House Martins and 5 Sand Martins in all - with many sitting on the railings by the car park (that is now bollarded off to stop pikeys settling again). This was the largest amount of hirundines I'd seen here since May 2014, the day I found a Red-rumped Swallow here but alas it wasn't to be today.

Swallow Southmere, Thamesmead, London 29th April 2018

Nearby at Crossness, it was quiet and dull although a Hobby was a decent enough site as well as having a good opportunity to see what was around wader wise on the paddocks. So with the weather feeling like it was mid-February, it was back to what we know best and a check of Crayford and the area around Viridor and Jolly Farmers.

I'd actually thought that it would be a quick check and move on, as I'd not heard of anything at the site recently. But how wrong could I have been. I could talk you through things as they happened, but I think the totals speak the loudest - this was an excellent gulling session, and I can't remember ever seeing three white-winged gulls together at a London site, let alone in April. A juvenile Glaucous Gull, two Iceland Gulls (a new 2nd-winter (seen at Rainham Marshes previously) and a juvenile that has been around for a while) and at least two 1st-winter Caspian Gulls.

juvenile Glaucous Gull Crayford, London 29th April 2018

The highlight for me, undoubtedly, was the juvenile Glaucous Gull as it was my first here at Crayford. I picked it up initially in flight, but it was a really small bird or at least that's the sense we got when we first saw it in the morning. The 2nd-winter Iceland Gull (seen previously at Rainham by Jonathan W and Shaun H) was a great bird too, with a nice amount of moulted grey on its mantle. While there were at least two 1st-winter Caspian Gulls, with one a bit better than the other piece of presumed German muck.

juvenile Iceland Gull Crayford, London 29th April 2018

2nd-winter Iceland Gull Crayford, London 29th April 2018

We did break our productive gull session up with a couple of hours at Nazeing GP in the Lea Valley. No sign of the Red-rumped Swallow there, but it was fun enough scanning through the large hirundines at least when we were out of the wind. So that was it for another weekend, and onto the working week once again.