Walking along the foreshore of the Thames away from the stone barges the first tick is Water Pipit quickly followed by Rock Pipit,next up a Yellow -legged Gull adds to the list. The boys find 5 Snipe but I had to wait to tick just one when we scanned from the foreshore over the pools on the reserve.
A couple of Ruff add to the year ticks,so a very good visit & only 1/2 an hour from home.
On Saturday it's off to look for Red-necked Grebe that has been seen on Alpha Pool at Cliffe.
On a arrival we find that it's very very muddy as we struggle to get down to the Pool.Once we get in a position to scope the pool we find the Red-necked Grebe at one end of the pool & a bonus when we find a Black-necked Grebe at the other end of the pool so well worth fighting the mud to find them. Lots of Little Grebe all over the pool along with Great-creasted are nice. A Green Woodpecker gives Jimmy & myself another year tick. We have to be home early so just a very quick visit that still gets us 3 nice ticks.
Sunday sees us set off at 6 am & arrive at Dungeness by 8 am for the first visit of the year.
First up we head up to the beach & it's really cold, so after ticking our first Gannet & Razorbill we get ourselves back to the car & think we will easily tick Tree Sparrow by the entrance gate that we do every year but to our surprise we find the cupboard bare,plenty of Greenfinch & Tits on the feeders but whats happened to the Tree Sparrows.
A quick look at the mound gets us Cetti's Warbler & Bearded Tit to keep the ticks rolling.So a good 4 ticks. Off now for Purple sandpiper at Hythe, after parking up we find it's a longer walk as we find we need to be at the 2nd off the Groynes & that is a fair walk along the sea front.The bonus is when we reach the right place we spot 2 Purple Sandpipers within minutes, that's good as we want to head off to Chatham Marina on the way home.
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Hythe where we got the Sandpipers  |
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| Rainham's Stone Barges |
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| One off the Shags at Chatham Marina |
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