Penduline Tits, Rainham Marshes

Apologies for the pithy title, it is designed to appeal to search engines, not blog readers....

Anyhow, as you may have gathered, guess what turned up at Rainham today? No idea? Oh, well I'll tell you then - Penduline Tits. They're basically annual here now, and this is a good Reed Mace year - there are heads everywhere. Whilst dipping the Bluethroat last weekend I commented that we were bound to get Pendulines again this winter, and it is nice to have my faith repaid.

Typically they had flown off just before I got there, and after half an hour I started to think of my experience last year, when I missed them by minutes four times before finally connecting. Above the noise of the wind and gassing birders though, came a thin reedy call that no-one else heard. I made this known, which got people concentrating again, and this time we all heard it. And suddenly, there they were, a pair, contact calling constantly, windborne reed-fluff everywhere.

Superb little birds, we are truly lucky to get them. Hopefully they will be around all winter, and will attract more in. I think that a few years ago there were six. I expect the weekend will be fairly busy. For those that don't know, the Dragonfly Pool (so named because there is a sculpture of a dragonfly in it) is along the boardwalk clockwise from the visitor centre, just underneath the Targets (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 on brickwork), in the extreme south-west of the reserve.