PWC Interview Series: Howard Vaughan - RSPB Rainham Marshes

PWC Interview Series

Patch birder: Howard Vaughan

Patch: RSPB Rainham Marshes (Estuarine minileague)

Date: 13^th November 2015

Niall Keogh (PWC) and Howard Vaughan (RSPB) at Rainham 13^th November 2015

Introduction: Tell us a bit about yourself & your general birding habits...

My name is Howard Vaughan and I am the Visitor Experience Officer at RSPB Rainham Marshes in Essex. I have been working at the marshes for nearly 13 years and seem to spend most of my time here nowadays. Thankfully the view from the visitor centre is open enough that I can bird even from the inside and it affords a great vista over the marsh and the adjacent Thames so even on foul days I have a chance of finding something. I was Essex County Bird Recorder for ten years and birding is without a doubt in my blood.

View across Rainham marshes from the RSPB visitor centre © Niall Keogh

Background info on your patch: A brief history of the site. What habitats & key species can be found there?

Rainham Marshes sits on the site of an ex-Ministry of Defence firing range that the RSPB bought in July 2000. Ancient medieval lowland wet grazing marsh and pools with some reedbed, scrub and a small bit of damp woodland hemmed in by the Thames, two railways, the A13, housing estates and two industrial estates.

Over 270 species on the site list including some historical goodies such as Western Sandpiper and Solitary Sandpiper. Excellent gulling including the UK’s first Slaty-backed Gull and numerous Caspians. Increasing numbers wintering wildfowl and waders as we improve the grazing marsh through habitat management. Breeding Cetti’s Warblers, Marsh Harriers, Bearded Tits and nationally important numbers of Redshank and Lapwing.

Good track record with Penduline Tits and some monster rarities over the last ten years such as Sociable Plover and White-tailed Plover, Baillon’s Crake and Eleonora’s Falcon (…even if they did reject it!)

(left) Penduline Tit © Jonathan Lethbridge / (top right) Bearded Reedling © Chris Lowe / (bottom right) Slaty-backed Gull © Priscille Durnerin

Why did you choose your patch? (for general birding and/or for taking part in PWC)

I have been birding at Rainham Marshes since the mid 1980’s at which time there was basically no legal access to anywhere except the foreshore by the Stone Barges and when I was asked, as WeBS co-ordinator for Essex, to help the RSPB to carry out counts on the newly acquired site in 2000, I leapt at the chance.  Being full time with the RSPB since 2003 has meant that most of my life since then has actually been spent on this site and as I practically live here it was the natural choice. I actually feel slightly guilty about not doing one of the great sites close to my home in North Kent but despite living within five miles of RSPB Cliffe Pools, I would never have the time to do it justice!

Let's get straight to the juicy question! What is the best rarity you have found on the patch?

The Sociable Plover of the 4^th December 2005 was real heart stopping moment for myself and Mike Dent who were out busily counting for WeBS.  I seem to remember the Lapwing count going something like "273, 274, 275 oh... clucking bell". At the time they thought that there may only have been 200 left in the world.

Five years later in July 2010 Sam Shippey and myself found the White-tailed Plover in exactly the same spot much to the amazement of those with us on the Wednesday Walk. I seem to remember picking Sam up in a bear hug! Amazingly Mike Dent was only a hundred yards away the time.

(top left) Sociable Plover © Reg Mellis / (top right) Sociable Plover twitch © Howard Vaughan / (bottom left) White-tailed Plover twitch © Jonathan Lethbridge / (bottom right) White-tailed Plover © Tony Coombs

What is the best blocker or most coveted species you have seen on your patch?

Taiga Bean Goose: three west with 354 White-fronted Geese on 16^th January 2000. By far the biggest flock of WFG’s ever through the site (and probably London) and thankfully they were low enough for us to pick out the big Beans. Tundras have now become the almost annual Beans over the last few years while the English Taiga population dwindles further and a re-run looks unlikely.

Willow Tit: now extinct in Essex and yet they were hanging on mid-county up until the early 2000’s. Odd birds were occasionally encountered elsewhere and on the National Bird Race on the 14^th May 2000 (technically three months before the RSPB bought the site) we snuck on to look for (and find) singing Turtle Dove and found a singing male Willow Tit as well!

Strangely enough the Bee-eater of the 11^th May 2007 is actually more likely to become unblocked than the other two. I shouted quite loudly to get everyone’s attention when it flew over the centre calling. Happy days...

And now for those painful moments... What is your biggest dip on the patch?

Ducks... Green-winged Teal, Mandarin and Red-crested Pochard!

Green-winged Teal: strangely just the one record of an erratic drake in late April 2013 but I was in Lesvos and could cope without it!

Mandarin: only one previous record and this fine drake chooses to appear on one of my very few days off sick over the last 13 years.  I put the news out and phoned round and everyone else was happy but the little bugger had gone the next day.

And last duck trauma… a female Red-crested Pochard last summer was a first of the reserve and on its second day it quite literally vanished just before I got to the pool.

There have been many other superb birds over the years but most were before my time in the Silt Lagoon golden years of the 1970s with Western and Solitary Sandpipers and such waifs that we may once again find if we keep looking.

It's not all birds. What other wildlife of note can be found on your patch?

I found a new bug (Rhyparochromus vulgaris) to Britain several years ago and a 4^th record for Britain of the hoverfly (Eristalis similis) two years ago. It is a superb location for butterflies and dragonflies including Scarce and Willow Emeralds. Excellent populations of Water Vole, Marsh Frog, Wasp Spider and Ivy Bee also.

(top left) Wasp Spider / (bottom left) Eristalis similis / (right) Rhyparochromus vulgaris © all Howard Vaughan

What was your funniest moment on the patch?

Trying to conduct a raffle draw at our September fair in 2009 and realising that a large, angular, dark falcon above looked horribly like an Eleonora’s and instead of calling ticket numbers I shouted for any birders to get out of the tents and look up to puzzled expressions from those gathered around me. It was seen by about 7 or 8 people but unfortunately there were no images obtained and it was ‘record not proven’. Still on my list though!

Most patch birders will dream of that ultimate prize... What national first would you like to find on your patch?

Moustached Warbler: I reckon the chances are almost zero for this but you never know and perhaps one may pop out of the reedbed one winter’s morning on the Northern Trail to feed down at water level in one of the ‘reed rides’ we have created. We can but dream... perhaps more topically I would dearly like to find the French Caspian Plover with my Lapwing flock. It may not be a first but it would certainly be popular!

But back to reality... What is the next most likely patch tick you'd like to find?

Sadly, ducks... probably a Green-winged Teal but would be happier with an American Wigeon.

Each patch birder is probably the biggest critic of their own patch. What one thing would you change about your patch and why?

I would like to move us 15 miles closer to the mouth of the Thames Estuary and strangely enough I would love more eyes on the site.  We have some great local patch birders but who knows what we could find with more...?

When you're dead and gone and there's a bench on your patch commemorating you, what would you like the plaque to say?

"He Came; He Saw; He Rarely Went Home"...                

Evening over the River Thames from RSPB Rainham Marshes © Howard Vaughan

Kilcoole 2014 - Niall Keogh

It was going to take some serious luck and determination in 2014 to beat my 2013 patch birding efforts at Kilcoole. A new patch year list record of 152 species was set in 2013 thanks to extra effort facilitated by living on site for three months in a caravan as a tern warden resulting in a decent showing of patch scarce and rare. I figured 2014 would fall well short on account of working offshore or abroad for extended periods during the year. By some miracle I ended up with an equal species list and a points total just shy of the previous year plus three #fullfatpatchticks (patch life list now on 205) and lots of #patchgold. The thought of matching this in 2015 is looking rather daunting now!

Here’s a synopsis of how it all went…

JANUARY

The year got off to a flier with a sneaky twitch on 2^nd for a Crane present on the coastal fields at Newcastle. This bird was a patch tick when it first showed up in Nov 2013 (found by local birders Cian and Tommy Cardiff) so great to get it again on another year list.

Crane

My first full day of the year came on 8^th when I went down to survey the entire stretch of marsh and coast between Kilcoole, Newcastle and Blackditch East Coast Nature Reserve (ECNR) for the monthly I-WeBS count. This resulted in a fine 1^st-winter albifrons White-fronted Goose among the Icelandic Greylag Geese wintering here. Score! The first time I have seen this subspecies on the patch. It hung around until March but remained elusive. Other patch scarce on the day included Redwing, Feral Pigeon(!), Great Northern Diver, Grey Plover, Mediterranean Gull, male Hen Harrier, Merlin and a fine Snow Bunting. A fantastic start seeing me on 79 species by the months end.

Russian White-fronted Goose

FEBRUARY

The undoubted highlight of the month was a brute of an adult Ring-billed Gull day roosting on the flooded coastal fields at ECNR on 20^th. My third patch record and the first since 1997! Blustery conditions towards the end of the month added Great Crested Grebe and Little Gull off the back of some winter seawatching. Both good species here. Excellent flood conditions on the marshes resulted in peak counts of 286 Icelandic Greylag Geese, c.750 Icelandic Black-tailed Godwits and 68 Shoveler. A Carrion Crow at ECNR on 28^th was another most welcome addition (they’re just about annual) bumping me up to 95 species.

Ring-billed Gull

MARCH

A Tree Sparrow found by Stephen McAvoy in a farmyard along Newcastle Sea Road during the Wicklow County Bird Race was duly twitched and became the first #fullfatpatchtick of the year! One I have been waiting a long time for. The rest of the month was largely uneventful save for another go at the Russian White-fronted Goose, a Dark-bellied Brent Goose among a peak count of c.785 Light-bellied Brent Geese and the first Chiffchaff of the year on 15^th. I was away off to sea then until the second week of April.

Dark-bellied Brent Goose

APRIL

Back with a bang on 11^th with Spring migration in full swing. The ensuing ticking bonanza saw a tidy 21 species of migrants added bringing me to 118 species for the year. Most of these were the expected fare (Wheatear, warblers, hirundines etc.) but included Marsh Harrier and a flyover Pink-footed Goose at ECNR, Arctic Skua and Arctic Tern offshore, singing Reed Warblers back on territory and a stunning male Whinchat at Kilcoole on 26^th, just my second patch record. Managed to finally connect with Black Guillemot in April also, a species I normally see on Day 1 in January! Bird of the month (and quite possibly the year) goes to a stonking white-headed sinensis Cormorant at Newcastle on 22nd. Again, like the albifrons White-fronted Goose, this was another new subspecies for my patch list.

Whinchat

sinensis Cormorant

MAY

Probably one of the best months to be birding on the patch but unfortunately I was away for most of it. As such just three species were added: Swift, Bar-tailed Godwit and a flyover Yellow Wagtail.

JUNE

Some extended volunteering at the Little Tern colony over ten days of glorious weather across the month made up for a lot of lost ground adding 9 new species including Puffin, Storm Petrel, Roseate Tern, Knot and best of all a flyover Osprey on 4^th, my third patch record. Half time scores were 131 species and 169 points (83.25%) comparing well with 136 species and 176 points by the same stage in 2013.

Osprey

Reed Warbler... a bumper breeding season for these on the patch (this one caught & ringed during CES)

JULY

More volunteering at the Little Tern colony through July added some class species. The first of these was an epic Long-eared Owl on the morning of the 5^th, seen at 0415 when on my way down to ECNR for a CES ringing session. Fantastic views of it hunting for half an hour! A most unexpected sight of a flyover Bonxie along the beach on 26^th caused quite a stir at the tern colony! Rambling around the wood at ECNR I connected with a calling Great Spotted Woodpecker first detected there some days previously by the CES team. Great to see Spotted Flycatchers and Reed Warblers breeding successfully there this year too, a real highlight. The 30^th saw two very fine passage waders drop onto the marsh, a juvenile Wood Sandpiper in the early morning followed up by a cracking moulting male Ruff which joined it that evening.

Wood Sandpiper

Ruff

AUGUST

Just one patch year tick in August bringing me to 140 for the year, a brace of Green Sandpipers on the lagoon during the first week. A female Whinchat on 9^th was the second record of that species of the year and only my third patch record overall (but I assume they are more regular than I have recorded). The Little Tern colony had its most successful breeding season on record with 120 pairs fledging a max. of 219 young. Superb! Then it was off to my perch at The Bridges of Ross for some seawatching during the second half of the month.

Colour ringed Little Terns coming to a beach near you!

SEPTEMBER

While scanning the marsh on 12^th I could here the raucous call of some Jays coming from a nearby hedge! Totally unexpected, figured I'd get them in the wood at ECNR but three were here on the closest set of tree lined hedge to the coast. Migrants or dispersing locals? Leading a BirdWatch Ireland branch outing to Kilcoole on 27^th resulted in a distant Red Kite soaring with Buzzards over the inland hills. The second #fullfatpatchtick of the year and one which was on the cards. It was so far away I couldn't see if it had wing tags or not. That'll do! A snazzy juvenile Marsh Harrier arrived towards the end of the month and proceeded to spend the winter here.

Jay

Leucistic Wheatear

Marsh Harrier

OCTOBER

Got down for a cursory look on 1st before heading off to sea for three weeks and was chuffed with the sight of a female Pintail sat in Webb's field. Back on dry land and on the patch on 27^th and a Rock Pipit was waiting for me in The Breaches (well earned after much searching) followed up by some bonus rare subspecies points from a Siberian Chiffchaff on 29^th which made its way inland along Newcastle Sea Road, calling its head off! Some southbound Greenland White-fronted Geese overhead topped off the month nicely.

NOVEMBER

Unreal scenes! November came out of nowhere and added no less than 8 new species to the patch year list. It all started with some #patchgold. I had planned to meet up with Des Higgins on 7^th to go trampling around the wood in ECNR for Woodcock (a lifer for him and a patch tick for me). Having checked the marsh at Kilcoole that morning and making my way down to the reserve via Newcastle, I got a phone call from Des to say he had just seen a Lesser Whitethroat at the main entrance to ECNR! I made it just in time to get a couple of brief but close views as it fed in a wee copse. Certainly had an eastern feel to it but never called or showed its outer tail feathers so we’ll never know for sure. My second patch record after connecting with it as my 200^th patch tick last summer.

Flyby Red-breasted Mergansers offshore on 14^th and 20^th were great to get seeing as I missed out on them in 2013. Down for an I-WeBS count on the 7^th where a feral canadensis type Canada Goose was looking suitably shifty in Webb’s field. Dodgy but it will do! My last two Swallows of the year on the same day also. Late Nov saw quite a few Black Redstarts arriving along the East coast. With that on 26^th I made the point of having a look around The Breaches railway bridge as it is a likely looking spot for one…and there it was! My third patch record. Delighted. This was followed swiftly by a Barnacle Goose in Webb’s field with the Brent. The 150^th species for the year.

Canada Goose

Black Redstart

Barnacle Goose

Fieldfares can be right dodgers here on the east coast, easily missed if not seen during migration or if a cold snap doesn't set in. Quite pleased to get four birds at Newcastle from 25^th. Taking part in the Cameron Bespolka Bird Race at the end of Nov paid real dividends, a total of 91 species recorded between 28^th and 29^th including Jack Snipe and Yellow-legged Gull. The Jack Snipe came in the last hour of light on 28^th after spending all day trashing about likely habitat. One finally appeared on the edge of some flooded saltmarsh in The Breaches (thank Jaysus!). The 3^rd-winter Yellow-legged Gull was the final #fullfatpatchtick of the year. It flew south along the coast past Kilcoole train station on the afternoon of 29^th with a mixed flock of Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls. Textbook! Species number 205 for the patch life list and number 152 for the PWC2014 list.

DECEMBER

By this stage I was getting around to just enjoying some generally fine birding on the patch with nice arrivals of winter visitors in decent numbers and so on. My (failed) quest for patch ticking Woodcock continued with some more visits into the wood at ECNR. Three Chiffchaffs with a roving flock there on 3^rd were nice but no Hume's! Goodies such as the juv Marsh Harrier, Barnacle Goose and Canada Goose were still hanging around, threatening to stay into 2015 (edit: they did… Hurrah). My last visit was on 5^th and then work, friends, family, festivities, turkey dinners, bottles of wine, tins of chocolates, Jurassic Park on the telly and all that got in the way.

The year finished on 152 species, 199 points and 98.02%. All in all a fine result.

And now, the dips…

There were many, including a few howlers!...

Glaucous Gull, Iceland Gull (continuing as my patch bogey!), Purple Sandpiper, Garganey, Mandarin Duck, Spoonbill, Curlew Sandpiper, Laughing Gull, Little Stint, Black Kite, Long-tailed Duck and Scaup.

New Patchwork team member - Ireland

Hi there. My name is Niall Keogh and I’ll be representing the Irish birding contingent through my involvement with the Patchwork Challenge as one of the newly appointed admin team members. Born and raised in Dublin yet I’ve always spent most of my time birding outside the county, often at meccas such as Tacumshin Lake or The Bridges of Ross. Whilst this has meant I’ve been treated to superb days with multiple species of yank wader or insane seabird passage, patch birding has always featured strongly for me and I’ve ‘worked’ several less frequently birded or seemingly less productive sites within striking distance from home through the years.

I guess the patch which I’d be most associated with is that of Kilcoole, Co. Wicklow. This is where I started birding as a kid on day trips by bus from home with my father, later developing into solo forays where I found some of my first good birds as a teenager and then spending four summers in a row living on site as a Little Tern warden at the colony there (which now hosts 100+ pairs in a good year).

A full detailed description of the patch and the list of birds seen there can be found here and here. For the purposes of this blog post I’ll give you a quick run through. Essentially the patch is comprised of a series of coastal marshes, lagoon, a small estuary, shingle beach, rough grazing, reedbeds, wet birchwood, alkaline fen etc. along a relatively straight stretch of coastline. With the UK sitting between Kilcoole and the continent, eastern migrants are often at a premium but it does well for species such as Hobby and Yellow Wagtail (at least in an Irish context, i.e. might see one of each a year!). Falls of passerines are certainly possible but hard to predict. I’ll be a happy chappy the day I see a Redstart! Scarce seabirds are, well, scarce and with a lack of large expanses of open, deep water and only a small estuary at hand means that birds like Pochard, Knot etc. often make a days birding here very much worthwhile when they do show up.

Pintail... #patchgold

But no point dwelling upon what I don’t have. Everyone’s patch has something special and I’m lucky at Kilcoole to have a decent number of wintering wildfowl to look through (peaks of 1,000 Light-bellied Brent, 300 Icelandic Greylag, 750 Black-tailed Godwits etc.), a successful breeding colony of Little Terns and continuous variety with plenty of oddities moving North and South along the coast throughout the year resulting in an often surprisingly high species diversity. When it comes to Nearctic vagrants it does surprisingly well for an East coast site (but being in Ireland no doubt helps!). Twenty individual waders of six species, three species of duck and a gull all of North American origin have been seen through the years. No complaints there! Total patch list to date is 203 with 176 of these seen since 2011. Taking part in PWC in 2013 lead to my highest patch year list of 152 and I’d be certainly keen to try and break that again this year (but it will take some amount of effort and luck). Patch ticks I’d like to get in the coming months?... Red Kite, Woodcock, Iceland Gull and maybe a Black-throated Diver!

One of three Wilson's Phals seen on patch through the years... a bizzare run of records! 

Webb's field & lagoon, where the magic happens!

So all in all I’m very much looking forward to contributing to the development of the Patchwork Challenge as I see it as a very worthwhile exercise which more birders should take part in. I’m an avid BirdTracker too and hope to work on that aspect in an Irish context in particular. Get those records coming in! I’ll be knocking about on the various PWC social media outlets so be sure to say hi (or whisht!) if you read some of my babbling posts. And if you’re ever in Wicklow then feel free to get in touch and we can go in search of Tufted Duck at Kilcoole and ignore all the Roseate Terns passing by in the process!

Updates, news and pics from various Irish mini league participants can be found on the Patch Birding Ireland blog so be sure to give it a look from time to time and see how we're all getting on.