Red-rumped Swallow in Thamesmead

Thank goodness for a fish and Sunday opening hours, that's all I'll say.

John A gave me a lovely trout that he'd caught (that'll I'll be eating shortly), but with no dill or fresh lemon to cook it with, I had half an hour to kill between finishing off our unproductive river walk (just a Dunlin and 6 Ringed Plovers) and the nearby Morrison's to open. So with inclement weather and knowing the only place where swifts and hirundines gather on the patch would be Southmere, I headed there. It's a proper grim place at the best of times, nestled between tower blocks and roundabouts where gypsies graze their horses. But on a grey day like today, it was at its aesthetic worst - that is, until I realised there were loads of hirundines and swifts patrolling over it...

Five minutes of scanning, thoroughly enjoying the numbers of birds - including Swallows and Sand Martins that don't breed in the area - while either hopefully or intuitively (??) waiting for something better what with the numbers of birds about. And then after about ten minutes, a bloody Red-rumped Swallow flew through my bins view... and then that adrenalin pumping feeling took hold. John A got called within a few seconds, and then having only really seen the bird for 20 or 30 seconds, all the usual calls/texts were made. But not being a great multi-tasker in this instance, I'd lost the bird...

Red-rumped Swallow Southmere Lake, Thamesmead 11th May 2014

However, as the 15 minutes it'd taken John A to return approached, I picked it up again and the rest is history. A fair few people came to see it, and it was good to see the likes of James L, Barry W, John T, Keith H and Mick S on the patch again. From finding it at 9.50am, the bird was aparrently last seen at 12.50pm.

Red-rumped Swallow Southmere Lake, Thamesmead 11th May 2014. Note the slight streaking confined to the upper breast, indicating the European subspecies rufula. 

It'd only been this morning that John A and I were discussing how regularly the Crossness area drew in crowds. It'll probably be a while til it happens again.