02-Jan Birdwatching in January

January is an excellent month for birdwatching with many winter visitors and rarities taking advantage of London’s above average temperatures. Visits to Walthamstow reservoirs, Barnes Wetland Centre and the Thames estuary are all to be recommended.

One unmissable sight are the vast congregations of dunlin, sometimes numbering thousands that can sometimes be seen in places such as Rainham marshes and Tilbury fort along with large flocks of lapwing, wigeon and pochard. A strong winter light and the low dead vegetation makes close observations of birds such as snipe, water rail or the rare long-tailed duck far easier than usual.

Among lapwings, smaller numbers of golden plovers are also worth looking out for with their dull gold backs. They used to be called whistling plovers as they produce one of the most haunting of all winter sounds. George Orwell wrote of their musical flute-like calls after he was fortunate enough to have heard them whilst standing on Westminster Bridge one day at dusk. Although they never venture so centrally these days they can still be heard at Fairlop Waters. It is not so surprising that such an emotive sound was associated with the legend of the seven whistlers. This legend interpreted eerie sounds in the night sky as being a portent of imminent death. It was also believed they were the calls of demonic hounds searching for lost souls, seven calls in succession heralding the apocalypse.

We now know it is much more likely to be the contact calls of small flocks of curlews, wigeons or plovers. As mixed lapwing flocks rise from some disturbance such as a passing merlin or peregrine falcon, any golden plovers among them usually tend to separate, preferring to fly together. This often makes them easier to pick out. At Rainham marshes there is also usually a sprinkling of rarities such as bearded and penduline tit.

Along other parts of the estuary such as Tilbury fort hundreds of dunlin as well as redshank may well now be congregating. There are also usually rafts of Brent geese and smaller numbers of knot and bar-tailed godwit. On barren marshes short and long-eared owls, as well as hen harriers, are regularly recorded. Smaller birds such as Lapland and snow bunting occasionally turn up as do twite, black redstart and firecrest. Some warblers such as individual chiffchaffs, blackcaps and Cetti’s warblers do not migrate south, preferring to remain behind.

They can all now be heard as well as seen. Good places to look out for such birds are Deptford marshes, Dagenham marsh and the marshes around Cliffe, each place having its own regular specialities. At the very end of the estuary rare divers, scoters and skuas are also worth looking out for.

It is reasonably common to see a diver flash by. This will either be a red-throated, black-throated or northern diver. The most common is the paler red-throated which has a sloping forehead and slightly upturned bill. If it looks bigger and darker with a round forehead and forward pointing beak it may well be the black-throated. If altogether larger, darker with a thicker neck and heavier bill, then it may be the rarest and most impressive of all, the great northern. This also has the steepest forehead and occasionally trails its legs.

In quiet fields, especially near marshes, fieldfares and redwings may now be seen in numbers. Some of these birds may be close to starvation, having just flown across the North sea to take advantage of all the hawthorn berries. They are sometimes so hungry they will even eat frozen berries. Fieldfares look like large slate-grey mistle thrushes whereas redwings are more the size and shape of a song thrush but with a strong eye-stripe. Fieldfares, when disturbed, are noisy and make short glides before landing again, whereas redwings are quieter and tend to take refuge in trees before returning to the ground again. Both are often seen together this month, occasionally mixing with jackdaws and starlings.