Dull start on wet day but turns out well at Oare.

We set off at 5 am on a wet morning destination Dungeness. It rains nearly all the way & when we arrive it's up to the hide on the beach where the visibility is very poor. A few Gannets some Aulks offer a poor return but I do pick up a tick when a few Sandwich Tern fly close in, a few Porpoise show well but it's not worth getting to wet for what is on offer.
A look around from the car gets us our first Wheatear of the year by the lifeboat station but that was the only one we found.
A drive down the track to the reserve gets us another year tick when we hear several Sedge Warbler & a couple show on the drive down.
Not wanting to get to wet we stay in the car & head off to Oare for another look for the Dowitcher.
We spend a fair while searching from the sea wall but it's not looking good & Brian & Jimmy started to walk back but I was talking to a nice couple from Chelmsford so I had to get a move on to catch them up & when I do they have found a Little owl so knowing that the pair I had just left wanted to see the Owl we turn to signal to them only to find that they were doing the same to us as they had found the Long -billed Dowitcher, so it's back we go & sure enough the bird was on an island on east flood with loads of Godwits a bit tucked down but no doubt that was our bird ,so thanks Tina & Doug in return they got to see the Owl on the way back.
As always we have to pop into Elmley & find a lot of water so loads of birds walking about mainly Redshank & lapwing but we see 5 Snipe a few Skylark & we get to watch the Marsh Harriers building a nest.Unfortunately no Yellow Wagtails are found.

Just a few shots of the many Redshanks

A couple of the many Hares that were running about

Well it was there so why not.