Arrived yesterday morning at the serin mound at Rainham Marshes around 5.30 to find Wennington Marsh in fact the whole reserve mostly hidden beneath low lying fog. Spot a Crane, I couldn't even make out the cows!
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| Sun beginning to burn off the fog |
But the sun was breaking through and the mist was slowly clearing, we moved position halfway up the landfill site path. I say we there was one other person looking. The Crane had been spotted flying in to Wennington Marsh the day before (Sunday) by the site manager while out surveying, his second mega find while out surveying in as many weeks!
Sure enough the chap who I was with (sorry don't know his name) spotted it. When I say spotted it, he saw it's head and neck. It was feeding along a ditch much closer to the A13 than to our position, so a long way off. We kept getting brief views of it's head until eventually it walked clear of the ditch and remained in full view preening for about 20 minutes, before walking back along the ditch and showing it's head again intermittently.
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| A very distant Crane in the mist |
As I slowly walked back down the landfill footpath, I heard the distinctive 'Whet my lips' call of a Quail and is sounded very close to me, but alas remained hidden. Was I really on the edge of London, a Common Crane and a Quail, I had to pinch myself! lol.