Baird's Sandpiper at Reculver plus nice day at Dungeness.

The three of us meet up at 5am &set of for Reculver, we park up at 6.30 & start the long walk down to the Lagoon where the Baird's had been seen on Saturday.
This is a good test for the new knee being the first really long walk since being back on the scene & despite dragging a bit behind the boys it's no problem.
We have our fingers crossed that the bird had stayed over night & with nobody coming back as we walk down we are not to sure, when we arrive a few birders were on the scene & the bird is there we are pleased to be told.
The Baird's was happy to walk about on the other side of the bank with a couple of Dunlin & a Little Stint.
We watch it for a couple hours & despite many more birders arriving & loads of bikers & dog walkers going past the bird is not disturbed.
So after having had our feel of the Baird's we head back on the long walk to the car, on the beach we find many many Ringed Plover, some Sandling, the odd Turnstone,one Wheatear also seen, then 3 Whimbel fly up to give Brian & Jimmy a year tick.
It's still early so we have to make a decision to either go to Oare or Dungeness & as always Dunge wins.
The plan is to drive down Galloways to look for Whinchat & Wheatear & maybe a Pied Flycatcher.
The first two we see many off but not a single Flycatcher despite at least six trips up & down the road.
A trip down to the lighthouse area is a waste of time as the place is swarming with day trippers
& I don't think we saw any birds but we never got out of the car so we never really deserved to see much.
Before we head home it's a quick drive down to the track to the Visitor centre but not much doing so it's off home.

As we leave just like last week a friendly Kestrel poses for some camera work.

And one last bird on the way home when we see a Buzzard sitting on a post for another chance to use the camera.

Baird's Sandpiper

Buzzard

Lesser Yellowlegs at Vange

A text to Brian at 5 pm to see if he wanted to head to Vange for the Yellowlegs,back comes the reply if you are driving it's on so 15 minutes later I pull up at Brian's & we are on the way.
Only 30 miles away but at that time the roads are busy & a broken down car in the middle lane the M 25 slows us down & we don't arrive till about 6 30.
As we pull into Chestnut rd we are lucky enough to see Dave B just as he was leaving & he confirms the bird is still there & gives us a tip to head round to the side as the bird is tucked in the reeds & we will get a better view from there, that turns out to be a good tip as we pass some birders & they didn't have the bird.
We soon pick out the target bird & it comes out from time to time to give great scope views for the whole hour that we stayed.
Also seen Ruff, Redshank, Green Sandpipers, Black-Tailed Godwits, some Little Egrets.
So a good little trip to take me up to 230 ticks for the year, this is well down on last year but with me being out of action due to the new knee & no Scotland & Wales trips this year not to bad a total & I also missed out on the Palled Harrier that the boys got as I decided to stay at home that day, I had been six times for that bird & the one day I can't go they get it, sometimes life is not fair.

4 Year ticks at Dungeness & Oare.

Up & out by 5 am & arrive at Dungeness with Brian & Jimmy at 6.30 am, really nice to find the hide on the beach open & only one person inside, there's a fairly strong wind blowing so nice to to get inside & even better to get to sit down & scope the sea for a couple of hours.
We pick out 3 year ticks here when 2 Balearics pass by followed by a couple of Manx Shearwater & some Arctic Skua.
Also seen plenty of Gannet, a few Scoter the odd Fulmar, Black,Common,& Sandwich Tern all help to make it a very pleasant couple of hours.
We decide to head off to Oare to look for a Curlew Sandpiper that would be a  year tick for all of us.As we leave we think we see a Honey Buzzard but had nowhere to pull over to confirm it, but later one comes out on the pager, so we can't add to our year list but it seems likely that it was the bird that we had seen.
The water level is really good today & the east flood is full of birds & the place is really busy with many people enjoying what was now a very warm sunny day.
Our target bird is picked out after only being here a few minutes & we see at least five more Curlew Sandpipers.
Three Little Stint, a Spotted Redshank,many Golden Plover, Black-Tailed Godwit everywhere you looked, Avocet,Redshank,Dunlin,Ruff, Knot,Turnstone, 1 Greenshank, 1 Yellow Wagtail,1 Kingfisher,1 Water Rail,& before we leave over 20 Ringed Plover drop in.Before we leave the Bonaparte's Gull is picked out, with hardly any black left to see on the hood it's a good effort to pick it out with the amount of Gulls on show today.
So a good morning that we hope to round off with a visit to Elmley but on arrival we find it all as dry as a bone with not a single bird to see.
Great to get out & see the year list moving again.

Kestrel at Dunge photo from inside the car

Thank God for Brian's camera

Nice morning at Minsmere.

I spent a nice morning with the boys walking around Minsmere. The aim was to try to see the Honey Buzzard that had been seen a few times over the last few days in the area.
We start off  walking anti clockwise & stop to look form the hide just in case the Western Swamphen had shown up after not having been seen on Saturday, sad to say we see no sign of it but that was what we expected so not to much of a disappointment & worth a look as you never know.
On the scrape we see Common & Green Sandpiper, Ringed Plover,Dunlin, Godwits, Avocets,many Sand Martins speeding about all making it a nice pleasant morning with the sun starting to really warm up.
A walk round to the sluice area gets us a single Wheatear that stayed about for some time for some photo opportunities.the Swallows were entertaining us & a Kingfisher showed up to add some nice colour.
A walk round to the next hide gets Jimmy & I a year tick when about 10 Little Gulls are seen on the back of the scrape along with over 20 Spotted Redshank also a Greenshank seen.
With no news of the Swampy we set off in search of the Honey Buzzard.
We head down a long winding narrow road until we reach a clearing & find a few cars already parked up & looking for the Buzzard, it had been seen very early on but we spend over two hours scanning the sky & it never showed for us, it was now a fairly breezy morning & that didn't help.
While here I do pick out a Spotted Fly & a tree Pipit to help with the year ticks.
While here we meet up with a couple that we have not seen for a couple of years so a good old catch up, memo to self really must ask people for a their name.
So no Honey Buzzard & no Swampy but over all a really nice morning birding.


                                                             

Wheatear

                                                                                 

                                                                       

Back on the move with White Stork ( Lifer )

Nice to get out early 4 30 am for the short trip to Hackbridge it's only 30 miles from home but we don't arrive till around 6 am. The White Stork has been around all week, so not being able to go earlier we hope it has stayed around for us today.
Jimmy had got some info from Alex as to where to park & it worked well as we found the tile shop on London Rd,then walked down a narrow public footpath on Mile Rd for about 5 minutes that opens up looking over the main lake.
Now do we go left or right, I see a couple of Herons looking to our left so we scope that way & bingo the Stork is right there, so another lifer for both of us & we have only been here for a minute that's good going. It's a long way off for my camera & looking through a wire fence but not a bad record shot for me.
A text to Brian to tell him we had our bird & on he's text back he tells me not to head back home at that time of day as we will just sit in traffic & to head to Oare marsh instead for the Bonaparte's Gull.
It sounds silly as it's 60 miles away but we decide to go & we make good time.
Once there we scan the East flood that is full of Black headed Gulls & a large group of Golden Plovers we also see Ruff, Green Sandpiper, Dunlin,Godwits,but no sign of the target bird.

So we head down to the boat ramp for a quick scan before heading off & manage to pick out the Bonaparte's on the creek, so a good bonus year tick for us & silly I know but we got a year tick with the Ruff as well.

White Stork