Good Friday means Brian is off work, so the three of us are looking at Black Redstart at Dungeness by 7.am, only the two to start with but I see 4 more later while looking by the lighthouse garden a great start to the day for us they are not needed for a tick but a great little bird to watch.
The car is parked & it's off to look in the gorse bushes for some of the 18 Firecrest that landed the day before.
We are meet by many Firecrest & Goldcrest all feeding at the bottom of the bushes & as the day gets warmer they start to sit out a bit to give great views, we count over twenty & also get to see some more in the Lighthouse garden along with a good showing of Chiffchaff & at least two continental Coal Tit.
As we head back to the car after a good three hours watching all the small stuff Brian picks out a
Woodcock as it flies up from just inside the power station fence & flies low along the fence line which enables us to get onto it for a good view & we needed it for a year tick so along with the Firecrest that's two ticks for the day as it turns out that is all we added for the day apart from Brian who walks the beach by the fire station & gets a Wheatear for his troubles.
A quick drive down to the visitor centre gets us a pair of Smew & a single Great white Egret but with nothing much on the reserve we head off to Elmley.
Not been to keen on Elmley of late but Brian had been there a couple of days ago & was very happy with what was going on there, we only had time to drive the entrance track, but with a fair amount of water about we are looking at a lot of Redshank, Lapwing, many Curlew a single Snipe & then a great find as we see a Jack snipe tucked down in the grass,to think Jimmy & I spent six hours this week looking for one at Rainham, still never mind three in a week is not bad.
Many Marsh Harriers are about & we spend twenty minutes just watching them fly back & fro across the track.
Then a real bonus when we see a Short-eared Owl just sitting on the ground close by the track.
A really nice pleasant day on a warm sunny Good Friday , only two ticks but it was just a really nice day & we are not to far away from home is another bonus for us.
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| Chiffchaff |
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| firecrest |
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| again |
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| Goldcrest |
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| Short-eared Owl |
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| again |
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| The great white Egret |
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| Little Egret |
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| Jack Snipe |
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| Chiffchaff again |
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