OARE MARSHES

 

I had an unexpected opportunity to do a bit of Kent birding this afternoon  so headed over to a popular birding site near Faversham known as Oare Marshes owned by Kent Wildlife Trust.

It was a beautiful autumn day with temp of 16°and with a low tide there was a large area of mud flat exposed which was attracting a variety of waders.  I spotted  up to a dozen avocet, several redshank,  a couple of curlews along with some other  distant waders which I was unfamiliar with but checking with the information boards, I realised they must be winter plumaged grey plovers which I hadn't seen before.   There were also half a dozen or so  ringed plovers. 

A face book post earlier the day had also mentioned the presence of an eider duck but I  wasn't sure if it was still there or where it might be. So I was pleased when I found someone who pointed it out in the estuary  though  very distant. I could just make out its distinctive black and white plumage and bill shape to enable me to include it in my year list. Perhaps I will make 150  after all!

 a few avocets on the mudflats

the eider is the white speck towards the left of the photo!!

redshank

VERY QUIET AT SLIMBRIDGE

 It's half term this week and with nothing planned I decided to pay a visit to Slimbridge. The weather was rather dreary but it was nice to get out and see how the numbers of wildfowl are increasing ahead of winter. 

Some newly returned pintails were on the Rushy Pen; hopefully it won't be long before the first of the Bewick swans start to return too. I believe morning feeds have already started and there were certainly large numbers of geese and ducks there. Most of the other hides were pretty quiet, I waited for an hour or so in the Martin Smith hide where a bittern has been seen on a couple of occasions recenlty but not today. A sparrow hawk passed through quickly, and there was a flock of wigeon grazing on the field behind the pool. There was also a little egret and heron. Other than that there weren't any particular highlights although I did see a respectable total of 39 species. 

GETTING IN A KNOT AT FARMOOR

 

With still 9 species to find to achieve my minimum yearly target, I was pleased to notice that a knot had been reported at Farmoor Reservoir. It was a sunny afternoon with a bit of chilly wind as I reached the car park before heading up to the shores of the reservoir. As the knot had been reported on the eastern side of F2, I  turned south rather than heading straight for the causeway as I usually do.  

I couldn't see any photographers along the eastern bank, not could I see any waders, so I began to think the knot had departed;  through my binoculars I could only  see a few crows and black headed gull on the shore line.  But then  noticed a slightly smaller bird beyond them, was it the knot? I approached cautiously and was pleased to see that  the wader was, in fact, the knot I had been hoping for. I sat on the wall and waited to see if the bird would venture closer which it  eventually did and I was able to take some photos. 

I continued around this part of the reservoir, the larger of the two sections, then took the path leading to the  Shrike hide and meadow. There were a few common darters about, and I waited a short time in the hide  but there was no kingfisher around nor much else apart from a moorhen and wood pigeon. 

Back on the reservoir, I returned via the causeway, where I found a couple of dunlins and a juvenile ringed plover. A large number of cormorants were resting on the rafts; there must have been  up to a hundred in total. I also noted a few little grebes, great crested grebes, tufted ducks and mallards, greylag geese ( and feral snow goose)  and plenty of coots. 

feral snow goose amongst greylags

little grebe

ringed plover (juv)

A FLASH OF PURPLE AT THE PALACE

 

Blenheim Palace is about 45 minutes from home and for a while I've known that you don't have to go in the tourist entrance in order to have access around the park and lake as there are some public access points.  However, I hadn't known exactly where to go until I was speaking to one of the birders whilst waiting for the wryneck at Lark Hill earlier in this week and asked him. I was interested to find out on this occasion due to the presence of a purple heron on the main island in the lake  in front of Blenheim Palace which was a bird I also hadn't seen before. 

It was another fine sunny day today so after lunch I thought I'd see if I could work out where exactly to go; even I didn't see the heron it would doubtless be a pleasant walk around the lake and parkland. I'd heard there were also some juvenile cattle egrets that gave good views. 

I arrived at Woodstock where Blenheim is located and after finding a place to park in a side street, I walked down to the A44 which I crossed and passed through a pale green painted wooden gate which looked as if it was leading to a dwelling but in fact went down a small drive and then opened through another gate onto the parkland. 

I knew from reports I'd read,  that there would be a good view of the island  in the middle of Queen Pool   where the  purple heron was often found,   by standing on the Grand  Bridge  in front of the Palace  which divides this lake from the Great Lake , so made my way around  the lake as far as this bridge As I expected there were a couple of birders/photographers there already looking over the bridge and they informed me the heron had been seen at 8. 30 that morning but not since then, and they weren't exactly sure if it was still on the island or somewhere else in the reeds. 

I could see the juvenile cattle egrets on the grass by the lake and while I watched they flew across in front of the bridge and around the side of some trees out of sight.

An hour passed with no heron seen so I decided to walk around over the bridge and see if I could see the cattle egrets which I found preening themselves perched in one of the trees. There was a still a good view of the island from here so I decided it was worth waiting a bit longer. The other photographers also had decided to change their location too and one of them took his tripod further round the lake. 

Suddenly there was a shout.. 'It's flying' and sure enough the heron flew up from the reeds where the photographer was and made for the island where it perched in a fir tree for possibly  five to ten minutes giving clear but distant views.  This was about the best we could have hoped for!  Then it flew off to the left, circled around and passed over our heads to the lake on the other side of bridge and was lost to sight. 

I was pleased to have seen another 'lifer'  and also that I knew where to go when the next rarity was reported at Blenheim! 

purple heron

purple heron in the fir tree towards centre of the picture ( about a third of the way up)

purple heron flying

Blenheim palace

                  

WRYNECK - FOR THE RECORD

  I've never seen a wryneck before so when looking at the local Oxon Birding Blog I  was interested to see that one had been seen for a couple of days recently at Lark Hill, near Wantage. 

The location looked fairly easy to find, especially as someone had kindly given a link to the exact spot  where the bird was being seen and a description of a group of a few bushes which it seemed to be favouring. I waited till this morning to check to see if the wryneck was still there - it was-  so after lunch drove the half an hour trip over to Wantage. I arrived at the same time as someone else who introduced himself and I recognised him as a birder I'd met before at a couple of other sites.  It was about a half mile walk across an undulating track through  farmland but eventually we reached a spot where a couple of birders were already positioned . On the way we had met a returning birder who said  the wryneck had not been seen for an hour or more so I prepared for a bit of a wait.

As we approached we could see the two birders with binoculars looking down the track ahead   and we hurried to join them, guessing that the wryneck was in view. Yes they said, but it had just flown back into a bush! Bother!  However, it was not long before it reappeared on the path, and we had a clear view, albeit very distant, too distant for a photo. A few more birders now joined the group and someone tentatively suggested we move forward a little whilst still maintaining a respectful distance. 

We did so and the  bird reappeared  several times during the next hour or so I was there, but sadly still too distant for any photograph to give more than an outline of its dark shape. Apparently there have been wrynecks seen at this spot on four occasions over recent years. Maybe there is a convenient ants nest nearby for it to feast on!  It was difficult to get much an idea of its size and colouring from such a distance and   I have to say that, had I been on my own, I may have moved  closer but I didn't want to upset anyone!  A recent photograph on the blog gave rise to the consideration as to how close that photographer had actually got, or whether he had an extremely good lens!

There came a bit of a lull when the wryneck seemed to be remaining out of sight for longer than  usual so I decided to come away.  However, I was pleased to seen a 'lifer' and to have found a new location for birdwatching. 

The photo  shows the distance from where we stood to the bushes where the bird was seen on the track. 

Below is  a terrible picture of the wryneck taken from a distance. 

A GATHERING OF GREENSHANKS

 

I really wasn't sure what kind of weather to expect for my morning at Slimbridge today. Although bright at home, the initial forecast was for cloud followed by some rain at lunch time. As I neared Slimbridge it began to rain but looking towards the west it did look somewhat brighter so I tried to remain optimistic. 

However, I was pleased when it had stopped by the time I reached the Centre and the warm temperature soon dried things up. In fact as the morning wore on, the sun appeared and made for a very pleasant day, weatherwise.

In the carpark I checked the Slimbridge twitter feed and read that there were plenty of waders to be seen from the Rushy Hide, in particular some greenshanks which were currently quite close to the hide itself. I made that first stop, as it usually is, and quickly found two greenshanks which were a lot closer than I've seen them  before. But they were both asleep!  Other waders to be seen included redshanks, black tailed godwits, ruff, lapwing, green sandpiper and avocet. 

I made my way up to the Estuary hide  where I could see it was high tide. Birds of interest included  a wheatear, a hobby and a marsh harrier. There were also at least 9 cranes, curlew and greater black backed gulls. 

On my way back I popped in to the Rushy again; there were now   4 greenshanks, two of which came even closer to the hide and allowed some decent photographs compared to the one I took in the CWP recently!

The WWT centre was incredibly quiet I think I only saw a handful of children which I suppose was unsurprising seeing that the school are back. There was only one child on the  playground near the Zeiss hide. From this hide, you really need binoculars to see what waders are present on the water, but I did see a spoonbill flying, plus a white Ross's goose with the barnacle goose flock ( a small white goose shape in the distance!)  Earlier a bittern had been seen in  the reeds but didn't reappear. 

My final stop was at the Discovery hide where I had heard there had been a cattle egret as well as  some garganey. There was definitely no egret on site now, but I was unsure  about the garganey as they would be in eclipse plumage and therefore difficult to pick out. However, a WWT guide appeared and immediately got them in his scope and I was able to find them at the back of the reserve through my binoculars afterwards. 

With the sun shining, the buddleia outside the Rushy pen was attracting a number of butterflies; small tortoiseshell, small white, red admiral and three commas. 

avocet

gadwall

garganey

black tailed godwit

green sandpiper

the following are a selection of photos I took of greenshanks, apologies for the large number of them!

these two ventured close to the hide