Early January walk round Rainham Marshes RSPB nature reserve

Last week, on a day when the sun was shining, my camera and I decided to go for another walk around the RSPB nature reserve at Rainham Marshes, near Purfleet.

At the edge of the Thames, just before the entrance to the reserve, I came across a Starling on the branch of a thorny bush with a few remaining red berries.

I first walked along the path through the woodland area of the site and was met by this very friendly Robin.  It really wanted some mealworms from me but, unfortunately, I did not have any on me.

Further along the woodland path, I came across another friendly Robin.  This one was perching on the side of another thorny bush.  I learnt later that, one this side, it is blind in the eye and it has a split gape where it was attacked by another bird.

There is a boardwalk around most of the nature reserve.  The sun was shining on the reeds at the edge of the boardwalk and surrounding a narrow stream.  The visitor centre's strangely-shaped roof can be seen in the distance.

Along the edge of the path I came across the remaining seed heads from one of the tall plants - shown against a background of clouds that appeared in the blue sky.

This is a close-up of a Lapwing in the sunshine - photo taken from the Purfleet bird hide.

There were several Starlings flying around near the Lapwings.  This one's feathers look amazing in the sunshine.

Later on, back near the visitor centre, a Magpie perched briefly on top of a tall shrub.

Further down, a Blue Tit posed briefly amongst the twigs and red berries.

Yet another walk round the reserve that was filled with a variety of wildlife.

Birds on a rowan tree in Kensington Gardens

During November my camera and I went for a couple of walks in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens.  I spent several hours lurking near a rowan tree that was covered with lots of bunches of red berries, hoping that the birds would not spot me near their tree.

With patience I managed to take photographs of the following birds:

A Jay hanging upside-down as it reached for a small bunch of berries

A Starling with a berry at the end of it's beak

A male Blackbird reaching out towards a small bunch of berries

A Blackbird with a berry in it's beak

A Magpie contemplating the world while sitting amongst a huge amount of bunches of rowan berries

A close-up of a Jay sitting on a branch where there were hardly any berries left

A Mistle Thrush reaching out towards a huge bunch of berries

A Mistle Thrush staring into space while perching amongst the berries

A Wood Pigeon was looking around searching for more berries

A Redwing was wondering why there were so few berries left on the tree!

Needless to say, this is just a small selection of the photographs I took while getting cold near the rowan tree!

Blackbird sunning itself in the North Greenwich Ecology Park

During one of my visits to the North Greenwich Ecology Park in the summer I came across a blackbird that was sitting on the boardwalk.  It's beak was open and it was panting.  It was a very hot sunny day and I think it was trying to cool down.  I tried to stay still and take some photographs without disturbing it.  This did not last very long!

The blackbird could obviously hear the clicking of my camera and flew up into a tree and tried to conceal itself in the leaves.

I would assume that it would have been cooler in the shade of the tree than on the ground - so perhaps it was doing something else on the boardwalk?  Was it sunbathing?  I wonder!