A bit of colour

I spent the day locally again, and in the bitter cold had a few bits and bobs along The Thames. The early morning highlight were 8 obliging Grey Plovers, the most I'd ever seen at Crossness.

Grey Plover on a grey day

There were a handful of Yellow-legged Gulls hanging around too, and given their individual distinctiveness, at least a 1st-winter and two 2nd-winters were some of the usual suspects. It was decent to see 20 or so Tufted Ducks over the river - evidence of a freeze up elsewhere - but John A and I were in the paddocks (where the highlight was a Stonechat!) when 3 Smew may have flown downriver, as they passed Rainham mid-morning. I also had one colour-ringed Herring Gull (probably a Suffolk bird) before I sacked it off as the tide was high and not much was moving.

A check of the local water bodies revealed a fair bit of ice, but there were 30 or so Pochard on Southmere, a 2nd-winter Yellow-legged Gull as well as a couple of larids with rings - one predictable NTGG bird and then a blue-ringed LBB Gull. It'll be interesting to find out where this bird came from as I've not had one of these before: -

Blue-ringed 2nd-winter LBBG

John A and I then headed to Crayford, and checked the area around Viridor recycling centre. There was at least one nice adult Mediterranean Gull and three ringed Herring Gulls (one NTGG bird and two from Sussex): -

Sussex-ringed Herring Gulls (white rings with black writing) are quite regular in the London area during the winter

Retarded 2cy Common Gull... an interesting bird

We headed back to Crossness, where we met up with Ian M, and saw a nice Bar-tailed Godwit in amongst a good count of 266 Blackwits on the foreshore. It appeared diminutive amongst the Blackwits, but didn't lack agression - perhaps it had a complex, just like many small men do?

A pretty unusual midwinter Barwit at Crossness

colour-ringed Blackwit - think it's from a Suffolk ringing project...

With not much else moving at Crossness, I spent the last hour or so at Rotherhithe in the hope of some cold weather something or other. Not to be, although the Tufted Duck flock has built up to a winter high with 134 counted (84 on Greenland Dock) as well as 2 drake Pochard; loads of gulls on the Thames and a couple of Egyptian Geese looking as stupid as ever on Canada Water.

Frustratingly, probably the best birds of the day eluded me - as I was heading to Crossness early on, I had a skein of grey geese (presumably Pinks) north over Woolwich. But by the time I'd stopped and grabbed my bins, they were too far off to be sure.

Thames gulls and American peeps

Had a mooch around a few sites in southeast London today. Started off at Crayford where, on some wasteground, a large flock of larids had a 3rd-winter Yellow-legged Gull and a ringed Lesser Black-backed Gull (red ringed SN6T; this coding matches rings used by the North Thames Gull Group so I assume it'll come from Rainham or Pitsea - I'll update when I hear back from Paul Roper).

North side LBB

Cross Ness was quiet, with an adult and 2nd-winter Yellow-legged Gull amongst the small numbers of gulls on the foreshore. 500+ Dunlin were decent, but as always, there was nowt amongst them. I then had a walk around North Greenwich where there was a nice bright-legged Yellow-legged Gull opposite Greenwich Millenium Village and a few Teal. Not much else doing mind.

The most productive birding of the day was internet based, when in the early hours of this morning my old mate and one of the WP's finest photographers Vincent Legrand passed on a link of a Red-footed Falcon from the Azores... needless to say, he's no fool and a quick look revealed that it was an Amur Falcon (photos here, here and here)! Now those islands get a fair few vagrants, but this has to rank up there with the best.

And I almost went up for the Cley 'peep', but thought better of it after another tiring week and going to bed late. Although I've therefore not seen the bird, I actually thought it was a Semi-p until the 'Thursday shots' revealed some retained rather rufous-fringed feathers that made me reconsider. A really interesting bird. Here's one I found earlier... in September 2009 on the Azores.

At all times, it felt slick and streamline, and this bird fitted that classic 'miniature Dunlin' phrase that's often associated with Western Sandpiper. Obviously so much earlier in the season, you can't really compare much plumage wise. On the same trip, I bumped into this rather rufous-looking, long-billed Semipalmated Sandpiper (presumably an eastern female?).

Semipalmated Sandpiper, Corvo, early Sept 2009

What would a bird like this look like a couple of months on?