OARE MARSHES KENT

I am nearly up to 150 bird species for the year now, thanks to sightings of four new species during my visit to Oare Marshes last week. 

It was sunny but with a cool breeze for my visit, but I was hopeful of seeing a few additional species for the year at this Kent Wildlife Trust reserve on the Swale estuary. I visited earlier in the year so I found the reserve without difficulty and parked up. The wind was cold and I began to wish I had brought my hat and gloves, but as the morning passed it did warm up. There were good numbers of birds on the East flood; every so often a whole group of lapwing or dunlin would be disturbed and rise up together and swirl over the water before settling once again. 

I stopped in the hide and was grateful to a visitor for pointing out a greenshank roosting at the back of the flocks of lapwings and black tailed godwits. The same visitor left the hide then returned, to say that a regular little owl could be seen well in a hawthorn  bush about 50 metres away so  I and another bird watcher went out to look, and sure enough we could make out the small shape of the owl (tick) viewable amongst the red berried  bush.

As I walked back towards the carpark, I stopped at another viewpoint. I could not identify a group of waders and waited to enquire from a group of three visitors coming in the opposite direction. Golden plovers I was told, we then located a group of common gulls,(tick) two curlew sandpipers,(tick) plus some whimbrels and a marsh harrier which were viewable on the opposite side of the road. As I neared the car park a group of long tailed birds flitted across the road and landed amongst the reeds; the orange tinge told me that they were bearded tits ( another tick).

Highlights of my visit included:
bearded tit
little owl
common gull
golden plover
curlew sandpiper
marsh harrier
whimbrel
little egret
green woodpecker
black tailed godwit
ringed plover
greenshank
redshank

golden plover

little owl

green woodpecker

RETURNING WHITEFRONTS AND A JACK SNIPE

I paid an afternoon visit to WWT Slimbridge today; a mild and bright afternoon. There had been reports of a Jack Snipe from the Martin Smith Hide over the past few days but there had been no reports yesterday or this morning, so I was not exactly hopeful of seeing this elusive bird, which would be a nice tick for my list for the year.

On arrival at the centre, I made for the hide in question, but, unsurprisingly, it was empty, and although I scanned the islands no snipe was evident. I did the rounds of the other hides on the Holden Walkway then ended up at the Holden Tower. Whilst there I heard rumours that the first four white fronted geese of the season had returned, and could be seen from the hides but later I was told that they had moved away. From the tower could be seen a couple of cranes, and a large flock of greylags which were put to flight by a low flying helicopter. Apart from that it was pretty quiet. 

A visit to the South lake hides, produced views of snipe, further cranes, black tailed godwits, ruff and the usual ducks but I was most interested to hear that the 'guide in the hide' had seen the jack snipe that morning but it had retired to a spot behind the reeds. With that news, I decided to return to the Martin Smith Hide and as I approached it I could hear voices and indeed, inside, a number of people had their telescopes and lenses pointing at the island. The jack snipe is back, I was told, and I could immediately see it, feeding and bouncing as is its habit. It was great to watch it  for a while, not having seen one before. As a bonus, the four white-fronts  could be now seen amongst the greylags. All in all a pleasant afternoon with a some nice highlights to end the day.

jack snipe

video of jack snipe (apologies for  voices in the background!)

common snipe

teal

crane

 

FARMOOR RESERVOIR

A very warm but breezy afternoon at Farmoor reservoir brought the crowds in.. of birds that is. Over a hundred Canada geese plus a few greylag were resting along shoreline along the causeway, together with large numbers of coots on the water. A few little grebes were among them. Also good numbers of tufted ducks. A few pied wagtail about, and a female red crested pochard also amongst today's sightings. 

geese along the shoreline

and in the other direction

this one preferred to be away from the crowds!

little grebe

fem red crested pochard

MORE CLOUDED YELLOWS

With warm sunshine forecast all day, I couldn't resist another opportunity to see clouded yellows at Chimney Meadows. There was a slight breeze so I did wonder if this would affect the butterflies' behaviour.

I was pleased to note higher numbers than last week's visit. I would guess there were at least half a dozen, maybe 8 or 9, but they are fast flyers and although I saw them in different places in a large field, it's always possible that some were the same ones! 

Again, it was hard to photograph them as they rarely stopped, and if they did settle on a flower it was only for a few seconds, hardly time to get my camera pointed in the right direction before off they went again. 

It wasn't until I was well on the way back to the car that I finally found an obliging individual, a brightly coloured male, that stopped several times, once or twice on flowers but several times down amongst the grass. 

This photo just shows the male's wing pattern.

EGRETS

On my way home from school at lunchtime, I decided to check out reports of great white egrets at a small nature reserve on the outskirts of Lechlade. There are two lakes here, the first can be viewed from a bench a few metres away from the car parking area. 

On arriving at this viewpoint I saw a kingfisher fly past, which landed on a post on the far side of the lake. I also spotted some sleepy shovelers, green sandpiper, black headed gulls, mallards, gadwall and wigeon. I then made my way down some steps along the path to view the second lake. From a gap in the hedge I spotted the large shape and yellow beak of a great white egret, side by side with a little egret and only a metre or so from its relative, a grey heron!  I walked further around the lake to get a slightly closer view but after a while each bird flew off so I returned to the original lake from where I could now see two little egrets amongst the black headed gulls. In the hedgerows were flocks of blue and great tits, as well as goldcrests and a robin.

autumn lake views

heron and egrets

great white egret

great white egret

little egret

two egrets

green sandpiper

sleepy shoveler

CLOUDED YELLOWS AT CHIMNEY MEADOWS

Having completed my butterfly tally for the year I hadn't looked at the local butterfly conservation sightings for a while, so when I casually checked the Upper Thames group website,  I was amazed to read that 10 days ago, up to 100 clouded yellows had been seen at a nature reserve in Oxfordshire! Several days later, numbers had reduced (20+) but whilst chiding myself for not checking sooner I reckoned there might be a chance of finding one of two still around now.  However with weather for Saturday not looking good I quickly realised that today might be the only opportunity. The sun was forecast to appear late afternoon with temperatures around 20 degrees, which was just as well as I was on a school trip till 2pm. So on my return I drove the half hour trip over to Chimney meadows, which I've visited only once before ( and incidentally saw my first water rail there) .

By the time I arrived, it was almost 3 o'clock; the sun had started to appear through the clouds and as I walked along the edge of a field to the reserve, I  straightaway found a couple of small coppers  and common blues.  Could some clouded yellows still be around too?  Then whilst crossing a meadow on the reserve itself, I suddenly saw my first one, flying fast over the grasses, into the distance. Then another, zig zagging quite low, occasionally looking if it was about to settle, then off it would go again.Eventually one settled long enough for me to approach it and grab a couple of photos.  The sun was intermittent, but each time it shone through a hole in the clouds, one or two of these bright golden butterflies seemed to appear from nowhere, fly around for a while and then disappear into the distance.  

By now the  sun had disappeared and with the time approaching four o'clock I decided that  I was unlikely  to have many more sightings so returned to the car, happy to have at least one photograph at last!

clouded yellow

 a brightly coloured small copper

CATCHING UP WITH THE LOCALS..

A sunny hour spent at my local country park at Stanton, gave me the chance to reacquaint myself with the local inhabitants... bird sightings included most of the common species; nuthatch, tree creeper, pheasant, marsh tit, coal tit, blue tit, great tit, long tailed tit,  goldcrest, robin, wren, blackheaded gull,  mallard, great crested grebe. Other species seen included red admiral on ivy and a number of grey squirrels. 

tree creeper

marsh tit

 grey squirrel

nuthatch

red admiral