A visit to Oare Marshes in Kent just what we needed.

After our visit to Ware in Hertfordshire yesterday we have the urge to travel a bit further today.
So Jimmy & I set off for Oare Marshes in Kent, it's not too far only 60 miles away.
It felt a bit strange to be heading out of the house at 5 am after so long of not being able to go birding.
With the roads clear it only takes an hour before we are pulling up at Oare.
Not sure what is about maybe a Garganey & we hope the Bonaparte may show. we set about scanning the flood, the water level is high so not a lot about, a few Blacktail Godwits, the odd Avocet, plus some Bearded Tits pinging away.
We head back up the road & head to the west side & scan the bushes & although we never got to see it we could hear a Turtle Dove purring away, this proves to be a bit disappointing not getting a view of the bird, we had already ticked one in Ilford before lockdown so not needed for a tick here but we did see that one. As we scan for the Dove a Barn Owl comes up right in front of us & we get a great display as it hunts the area, Brian would have loved that his camera would have been clicking non stop he loves a Barn Owl.
A walk around the flood on the eastside gets us a year tick when we find a Garganey on the bank with a few Mallard Ducks.
It's asleep but the head is visible & it gets up & moves a bit to preen before settling back down again.
So no swimming views but after so long not being to be out birding any view is a bonus.
We continue the walk around stopping to scan the mudflats in the hope that we might find the Bonaparte Gull, after 3 hours we give up looking & head off to a local cemetery for what we hope will be an easy tick.
On arrival, we park just outside the cemetery & walk down the main path & inside minutes we get to see a few Spotted Flycatchers flying down from the large trees & giving good views as they land on the gravestones all very nice.
After we had our fill of the Flycatchers we check to see if anybody had found the Bonaparte back at Oare, no news so we head back for home after a very welcome mornings birding again. Just waiting now for the time to come when the three of us can all head off birding in one car.

One of the Flycatchers

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The Garganey

Brian's photo same place but 2 days earlier, Spotted Flycatcher