8th June - Bowers Marsh and Vange Marsh

- June 08, 2020

I visited Bower Marsh and Vange Marsh in Pitsea today.

I was hoping to see house martin and sedge warbler as I have not managed to see either of these birds in Hornchurch country park so far this year, which is unusual.

I began at Bowers Marsh and made my way towards the main scrape area where there are often many hirundines around at this time of year, but it appeared that there were only swifts and swallows present today.

I had heard some songs of reed warbler or sedge warbler from the reedbeds along the paths and at the edges of the scrape but I am not very good at distinguishing one from the other by song and unfortunately they were not showing themselves at all.

Before moving on from the scrape, I scanned the water and islands for anything unusual, but there were only black headed gulls, mute swans, mallards, coots, pochards, oystercatchers, avocets, little egrets, greylag geese, lapwings and a little grebe. I took a few photos of the little grebe because it looked quite colourful, although it was not really very close to me.

There were a small group of people viewing the scrape from a different side so I thought I would go round to that side to see if there was anything interesting, whilst watching for sedge warbler or house martin on the way.

When I got round to the spot where the people had been standing, they were no longer there and I could not see anything on the water of any interest, apart from a showy reed bunting. There were still swifts flying quite low around me and as I watched them I suddenly saw the tell tale flash of the white rump of a house martin.

I decided I would not complete the whole circuit of the reserve trail as I also wanted to visit Vange Marsh, so I made my way back towards my car and as I was walking, I noticed a small brownish bird with a long tail. I immediately thought it was a bearded tit but I did not get a definitive view as it dived into the reeds some way off and was not seen again. A little further on I met a couple of RSPB volunteers who were picking up any litter they could find beside the paths and they asked me if I had seen the black necked grebe which had apparently been seen there that morning. I wondered if the colourful "little grebe" which I had photographed earlier was actually a black necked grebe but I couldn't be sure from looking at my camera screen image. I would have to wait until I got home to see the image properly on my computer screen.

Over at Vange Marsh I made my way towards the viewing screen which overlooks a small lagoon walking along paths bordered by reeds where I have seen bearded tit and sedge warbler in previous years.

I stopped off on a small path which allowed views of a large section of reeds from which I could hear song and see movement of a couple of brownish birds. One of the birds flew towards the top of the reeds and showed itself to be a sedge warbler. I then took my camera out but the bird had flown and I had to wait for the bird to show itself again. Unfortunately both birds flew away and I had to wait patiently for another bird to come into view. Eventually I spotted a small bird in amongst the reeds and was able to take some photos of what was a sedge warbler.

Having achieved my objectives for the day I returned home to look at my photos, some of which are shown below.