Little Stint & Curlew Sandpiper at Oare marshs

Having just got back from my break, I thought I would have a day in the garden & to wash the car after getting a lot of mud over it after a trip to Chewvalley lake on the way home yesterday.
It got to 9 o'clock when Brian phones to ask if Jimmy & I want to go to Kent to Oare Marsh for a few hours, so the car will stay dirty for another day,as we meet up within 20mins & do the 60 miles to Oare.
Nice & easy to park right by the scrape, so no walking today, just stand & wait for the birds to come in as the tide is on the way in & they will all come & settle on the scrape.

It is already full of birds, a hundred or more Golden Plover, plenty of Dunlin, also lots of Ringed Plover everywhere.
As we scan we pick out 2 Little Stints, & later we see another 2 so 4 in all ,this is the most I have seen in one place so nice.
Brian now spots a Curlew Sandpiper for us, I would never have spotted that on my own, a Hobby flies over the back of the scrape as well.

Golden Plover one of my favourite sights




Just about a (Little Stint)

 



Ruff





  Next Jimmy gets a nice Ruff that sits not to far away from us, we also see 5 Snipe fly over.
A nice few hours just standing in one spot looking at some wonderful bird life, great day.


Just a nice sight Mute Swans

 Off home now, only downside to the day Arsenal are playing & it's on the radio, & they lost, still if you have a goal scorer who can't score, & a keeper who can't keep,not much hope really.

Spotted Crake at Greylake

Not a birding trip this one, I was away for a short break with my wife Jean to Somerset & Devon.
But being very near Greylake it was the first port of call to try for the Spotted Crake.
On arriving at the car park I was lucky enough to meet a volunteer who kindly walked with me to the spot where the Crake had been seen this morning, after just a few minutes we hear a Rustle & look over to get a quick look of the target bird, I do get one more look at it as it walks through the reeds, but in the short time I have given myself to see the bird I think I have been very lucky to have the help from the friendly volunteer who saved me a lot of time searching for it .

the iformation board

I would have liked to have stayed longer to see if I could get a photo, but I was told it had been a bit elusive, so with Jean waiting in the car with the dog I say my thankyou's & feel happy at seeing another lifer for me.

Short Billed Dowicher (lifer) Lodmoor Dorset.+Beautiful Gothic Moth +Black Rustic + Migrant Hawker

Meet up with Brian at 5am for we have decided to travel the 3 hours to Weymouth in Dorset to get a sight of the (Mega tick) a Short Billed Dowicher, I think it is only the second time it has been seen in our part of the world, so it is a must to see, it is a longer trip than usual as we try to limit to about 2 hours travel.

A good clear journey & we arrive in just over 2 1/2 hours, Brian likes to get there as quick as possible.
In the car park we meet a fellow birder that we met last week at Minsmere, he was the one who spotted the pec for us, we utter the words & get back an answer that we liked a lot, he has just been looking at the bird & it is showing well.



Short Billed Dowicher

So a quick march for about 10 minutes & we are all getting great views of the target bird, no waiting just straight on it, (great) it is to far over for me to get a clear photo, but this is it.



Heron

A friendly Heron drops in for a photo.
There are a nice chatty group of birders here & we get talking to them & we are told to go to Portland B T O Observatory & we may see some Moths from the traps.
So we don't need a second invite,


Meadow Pipit

not to long later we are looking out at sea by the lighthouse, not to much about, a few Wheater, & Meadow Pipit on the rocks back from the water.
We start to walk up the hill to the BTO, Brian says lets take the car, Jimmy & I decide to walk, big mistake as we go to the wrong place & end up with a long walk all up hill, when we catch up with Brian after about 30 mins he is sitting very comfortably & has a big grin on his face when he see's us,(Nice)



Brown Bush Grasshopper

We do see a lot of Moths, as our friend had told us, he was already here when we got here & he sure knew he's stuff about Moths & Bug's, we forgot to ask he's name, that was a shame.



Migrant Hawker



Brimstone



Common Marble Carpet Moth

Black Rustic



Beautiful Gothic

After a good stay, we head off to Radipole Lake for a quick look round to finish the trip off, nothing new to see, but a pleasant hour spent here, before heading home,& feeding our faces. altogether another great day spent with the boy's.

Pectoral Sandpiper at Minsmere +Bitterns+ Little Stint

Brians back from his holiday in norfolk, so we meet up on sunday to travel the 100 miles to Minsmere in Suffolk. the target birds are Pectoral Sandpiper & a Montagu's Harrier has been reported flying over the south levels. On the way into the reserve we see 100s of Partridges running all over the road, I have never seen this many before, what a sight to see, also mixed in with them are loads of Pheasants.
We settle down in the hide over looking the south levels, but after a couple of hours we get no sign of the Harrier, there are 2 Marsh Harriers sitting in the bushes & 2 flying in front of the hide we get great views of them, one comes & sits on a Branch in the middle of the scrape, then we see a Bittern fly round the back of the scrape a nice long view of it.
Next in is a great view of a Kingfisher, it sits in the middle of the next scrape for a good few minutes, before flying off  but still giving great views.
Jimmy & I leave the hide before Brian which is not normal, we head for Island Mere hide, this is a really nice big hide & anybody who gets to sit in this hide will enjoy the experience, not to much about out of the normal, but there is a Sparrow Hawk just sitting on a branch in the middle of the scrape, it sits for a few mins before flying to another branch also in the scrape.
Brian has now caught up with us, he is also impressed with this lovely hide, we don't stay long as we need to go after the target birds.            
                                                   
We set off on a long walk down to the new Konik Pool,this is quite a long walk, but it turns out to be well worth the walk,
We see plenty of Snipe, also Red & Greenshank, 4 Ruff , a Little Egret flies in, 15 or so Spotted Redshank are seen, but no sign of the target bird, we spend a long time here but no luck , just before we go a nice Little Stint pops in  which was nice,  we head back the way we came now, when a fellow birder we had been talking to starts to wave to us, we head up the path to the next scrape & tells us the Pec had just flown in, it takes us a minute or so to get on to the bird, but then bingo we all get great views of it.


One of the Konik Ponies

 Also 2 Garganey are spotted here.             

Time to go now, the walk back is made easier by watching the lovely Konik Ponies which are roaning free along the side of the path, also we see Beaded Tits & hear Cettis Warbler as we head up to the beach for one last look for the Montagu;s.
No luck which is a shame as Brian has not got any year tick today & this is the reason he came here today.
Jimmy & I only got 1 year tick which was the Pectoral Sandpiper. Brian already had this, overall this was a really nice trip loads of Birds to see & a good laugh or two.




View from Minsmere beach

 As I am writing this blog on monday Brian has been back to go to Boyton where the Montagu's Harrier was spotted yesterday.
And this time he got to see it, I would like to have seen it as well, but I am really happy Brian has seen it today, he put's in a lot of work so Jimmy & I get  to see so much so it is nice to see him get his just rewards.

Roding Valley



Jay

 A quick walk over my local fields & lake, within 1 minute I see a nice Jay, also sitting just across the ditch from me a Song thrush looked friendly but flew off as I moved my camera.

A quick scan of the lake, I see a few Tufed Ducks, Mallard as usual, plenty of Coots, a few Moorhen,just normal stuff, but then I pick out a pair of Gadwell splashing about, I do see on here now & again, but not often so nice.

The Swans babies are as big as the mother now & are swimming about very happy in the warm sunshine.

A  walk over to the bushes  to look for the Goldcrest, but I never heard or saw them today.




Flowers still in bloom at the Hidden Garden

 A walk to the hidden garden it is nice to see the wild flowers still in bloom.
No new birds but I do see a Red Adrimal &  Large White Butterflies.
As I walk back across the fields there are maybe 20 Pied Wagtails flitting about on the grass.

Baillons Crake Lifer at Rainham Marsh

With Brian being away for the week in Norfolk with Sue, Jimmy & I had planned to go out on Saturday early morning.
But after looking at Bird guides and other sites on & off all day friday, nothing seems to be about, so we decide to wait till sunday.
Then late friday night Jimmy checks out the birds sites one more time ,and there is a mega bird reported at Rainham Marsh, a Baillons Crake has been spotted, and the reserve will be opened at 6 o'clock as a large crowd will be there to see it, this is about 3 hours before it normally opens, so a big thank you to Howard & others for putting theirself out so we can try to see it.
Up early & get to Rainham at about 6 ,15am, we are shown to a temporary car park which is already busy.
We walk 10 minutes to the hide, which is packed, this is a big new hide, which is great , we climb over tripods to get to somewhere near a window, the bird had been seen walking about in front of the hide 5 minutes ago.
We manage to get a good view out of the front & side windows, it takes about half an hour for the bird to move into view, I am watching over the back of the reeds there is some movement going on when all of a sudden a Coot sends the target bird up , it's a quick flight across the water & out of sight again.
We now know the where abouts of the bird & wait a good few minutes before it flies up & goes back over to the other side , but this time it is a slow flight & Jimmy & I get a good view of it as it lands, it's a quick view before it goes into the deep reeds.

We wait for another couple of hours, but we don't see the bird again.
So we call it a day & head home, I am writing this blog at 3 o'clock & up till now the bird has not been reported again, if it does show tonight Howard said he will open the reserve again early,
only being 25 minutes away, we will try again tomorrow, to see if we can get a photo of it.

Pomarine & Great Skua at Dungeness & Porpoises

Up early Jimmy & I meet up with Brian to set off to Dungeness once more, it takes us about 90 minutes to get to the beach, the hide is not open again, it seems unfair that only the few can use the hide, but never mind we start to look out over the sea mainly we wanted to see Black tern today as Jimmy & I need to see one for a year tick.

We spend 3 hours on this part of the beach no luck with the target bird, but we are now joined by a good few other birders which helps us to scan the sea for anything going through.
Jimmy calls a Little Gull which is always nice to see.

Lesser Black-Backed Gull

Then it's Brian's turn to call a Kittiwake not to far out, then somebody calls out a Pomarine Skua, after checking with the boys,that is indeed what the bird is,we all get a nice view of it.
We see Arctic Terns & Common Terns, also about 20 or so Scoters flying through.
Next up we see a nice Great Skua, this is another year tick for us,this brings my year total to 239, this is my best year total so far.
We also see a couple of Porpoise's swimming about in front of us always worth seeing this wonderful  sight

Off to the cafe for a cuppa & some toast, energy restored so off to look for Black Tern up the other end of the beach by the boats, plenty of people fishing here, we scan for some time and see more Arctic terns & another Bonxie, also some more Porpoise's pop up & down not to far away from us.



 Then the target bird for the day appears when 2 juvenile Black Terns are spotted, they had been reported from here earlier, It's good to finally catch up with them. Total now standing at 240.

Tree Sparrow

Off to Denge Marsh now,a quick scan reveals Sandmartins everywhere maybe 500 or more, also a Little Egret, but no sign of the Great White Egret, not to much about so we have a quick drive round to scan across the lakes and then a quick look at the Tree Sparrows at the reserve entrance.
 Brian take's a quick drive down to the vistor centre to see if anything is reported, but the board has not been updated today, so we call it a day and head home.


Dungeness( Bleak)

Dungeness( this is a calm day)

Heron