Kent Birding Highlights for July 2026

                                             6th

                                                  OARE  MARSHES

                                                                         

Bonaparte's Gull.

News that the Bonaparte's Gull had returned to Oare marshes on the 3rd July (Found by Martyn Wilson this year, well done Martyn) and remarkably has now returned for it's 14th year in a row.

I headed over there on the 6th July with AE and had superb views of this stunning bird, it was in full summer attire and looked in great condition.

There was a report of 2 Grasshopper Warblers on the reserve which would be a welcome year tick, however on listening to one of the birds near the seawatch hide AE who has a remarkable ability on bird songs & calls said in his opinion that was a Savi's Warbler !!!

Unfortunately for me i have developed tinnitus which effects my hearing which in windy conditions makes it even harder to distinguish certain songs & calls (that's my excuse anyway...), however i trust AE knowledge on these matters 100%.

I contacted Murray.W. and he said he would check it out in the morning and he messaged me to say , ' Yep that's a Savi's ' , well done Andrew .

We also had some great views of Turtle Dove & Bearded Tits.

Bearded Tit

Turtle Dove.  Photo from 2024

11th

OARE  MARSHES

Bonaparte's Gull

Another visit to Oare Marshes on the 11th produced more great views of the Bonaparte's Gull & the Savi's Warbler was still 'Reeling away', i could hear it better this time thankfully.

GODMERSHAM

It was fairly quiet at Oare Marshes so we decided to check out Godmersham, a walk up & down the road didn't produce the hoped for Spotted Flycatcher and a look over the river , which was quite low not surprisingly didn't produce any Banded Demoiselle.

So we headed to the cemetery and heard a Firecrest which showed briefly, then AE picked out 2 Spotted Flycatchers !!

Spotted Flycatcher

13th

STODMARSH

Garganey ♀ 

A brief visit to Stodmarsh and the Reedbed hide in particular was rewarded with a reasonable view of the ♀ Garganey that had been lingering in the area for sometime.
  

14th

OARE MARSHES

American Golden Plover

MW messaged me to say Geoff.B. has just found a full summer plumaged 

American Golden Plover on the East Flood.

Quick arrangments were made and i picked up MW and headed straight there, there was already a small group of birders on site on our arrival, we didn't waste time and soon had this superb wader in our scopes.

Great find GB, i believe this is only the 3rd record for the site ??!!

Here are some photos i took :

American Golden Plover & Bonaparte's Gull

Bold markings

American Golden Plover.

29th  &  30th

OARE  MARSHES

Our third American visitor of the year was this time found by Murray .W.  on the 29th July.

MW had  a tantalising view of a small wader on the 28th which he only saw briefly and couldn't quite confirm his thoughts on what it could be, however on the morning of the 29th said wader had reappeared giving MW much better , longer views and he could confirm that indeed he had found Oare Marshes 7th ever record of a 

White Rumped Sandpiper !!!

I grabbed all my birding gear and headed straight over there, unfortunately by the time i reached MW the WRS had frustratingly walked out of sight, after a tense 15 minutes or so the WRS walked back into view.

Great find Murray and thanks for the heads up !!!

The White rumped Sandpiper stayed loyal to the reedy area in the middle of the flood and was very tricky to see most of the time, however on the 30th it showed much better out in the open most of the time but still remained distant.

Here are a small selection of photos ;

White Rumped Sandpiper.

The Bonaparte's Gull is beginning to moult around the base of it's bill plus there were 16 Cattle Egret's including plenty of young birds.

Good numbers of Butterflies were around including both  Clouded Yellow &  Painted Lady.

Moulting Bonaparte's Gull

Adult Cattle Egret

Juv Cattle Egret

Clouded Yellow

Painted Lady

 

Long-tailed Shrike.........Long awaited Lifer

                                            EASTLEACH DOWNS

                                     in Gloucestershire

                                        21st July 2026

Long-tailed Shrike.

Long-tailed Shrike has been on my most wanted list for quite a few years , i had a birding holiday to Kazakhstan in 2017 and had many target species i wanted to see including a top 5 targets , Long-tailed Shrike being one of those Top 5 !!!!

Well unfortunately i was approx a week to late for them at the only site we had as they had already bred successfully and moved on.

Fast forward to 5th July 2026 and low and behold only  Britain's 2nd ever  Long-tailed Shrike had been found in Fife.

The only previous British record of Long-tailed Shrike was in the Outer Hebrides in November 2000.

Long-tailed Shrike.

Only problem i had with the Fife bird was getting there, it was roughly 10 hours drive from my home to where the LTS was being seen, eventually i managed to get a lift but the day before we were due to go the LTS had moved on , beginning to feel a bit cursed with this particular species now , i guess at least it did the decent thing and disappeared the day before we were due to go ,saving on a long wasted journey & expense.

Preening it's long tail.

The story doesn't end there, news of remarkably another Long-tailed Shrike on the Gloucestershire / Oxon border on the 8th July (overlapping the dates of the  Fife LTS).

This sighting was kept quiet until the 18th July due to understandably logistic reasons.

Great field work by dedicated local birders re-found the Gloucestershire / Oxon bird on the 19th July.

Game was back on, will i eventually connect with this stunning bird after all. well yes i did , i joined AE, RR & PG on a very successful trip on the 21st July and had some wonderful views of this cracking bird.

We watched it for well over 2 hours , it was constantly feeding on Bees & Grasshoppers.

It did some preening and i would think it will stick around for  a little while longer.

Great organisation by local birders & farmer with parking and onsite instructions, many thanks to them.

Here are some pics of the stunning

Long-tailed Shrike

Long-tailed Shrike

                                                

Hudsonian Godwit in Suffolk

                                               CATTAWADE in SUFFOLK

                                                                  17th July 2026

                                                

Hudsonian Godwit.

A trip to Cattawade in Suffolk on the 17th July proved very successful, we parked up at Cattawade picnic site and walked a short distance to view the splendid Hudsonian Godwit.

When we joined the assembled birders we were told the Hudsonian Godwit was present but had just walked out of sight behind a large grassy mound.

Thankfully after only a few minutes the Hudsonian Godwit reappeared and although distant at least we could see it, this bird was a welcome year tick for me & a lifer for AE, the heat haze made viewing difficult but thankfully the Hudsonian Godwit made a slow but steady pace walking done the side of the estuary  feeding as it went & getting closer by the minute.

Eventually it came quite close but heat haze was a problem as far as photos go but seeing this cracking bird was well worth the journey.

We saw it wing stretch on a couple of occasions and the black underwings were clearly seen.

Here are a selection of photos :

Hudsonian Godwit.

ABBERTON RESERVOIR 

Ruddy Shelduck

We called into Abberton Reservoir on the way home and had some superb views of nesting Cattle Egrets, plus it was great to see several Little & Great white Egrets, there was good numbers of Grey Heron & at least 5 Spoonbills.

Nesting Cattle Egrets 

There were very large numbers of Egyptian Geese & although not tickable there was  a stunning ♀ Ruddy Shelduck.

Ruddy Shelduck & Egyptian Geese

Day Trip to North Wales

 

Western Reef Heron

News of a Western Reef Heron on  Saturday 6th June 2026 at Foryd Bay in North Wales got the birding community in a state of panic as this would be a first record for the UK & Ireland !!!

Unfortunately for me i had no way of getting there until the following Wednesday, then this trip was cancelled and i thought my chance had gone.

The WRH was showing well for pretty much the whole time every day, then i got a 2nd chance of a lift for Sunday the 14th , will it stay , i had everything crossed.

Saturday the 13th came around and negative news on the WRH, then a brief sighting in the morning & no more news until another brief sighting later in the day, both sightings were brief & in flight.

We decided it was to much of a risk to travel that far on that news , it turned out to be a very good call as the WRH was not seen all day on the Sunday.

I thought my chance had finally gone , but then the game was back on , the WRH had been re found in a new location in Conwy on the 17th, plans were put into place to go Saturday 20th if the bird was still showing on the Friday.

News was positive on the Friday although the last report of the day was a bit concerning when it said it was present then just flew off !

However we stuck to the plan, leaving Kent at 3.25am on Saturday morning, we were greeted with  negative news on route , damn was a milder thought then i actually had , and then 10 mins out from Conwy and positive news came out.

 

Western Reef Heron  still on the Estuary near Conwy Rspb reserve, everything fell into place , we nabbed a close parking space and there it was , the holy grail

Western Reef Heron !!!

Here are a selection of the many photos i took :

Feeding well

Digi scoped

Seen in flight several times

WRH, Little Egret, Grey Heron & Little Egret

Resting on Rspb Conwy

Western Reef Heron

We spent all morning at Conwy enjoying this superb bird,  then we headed of to check a couple of different woodlands, we added Pied & Spotted Flycatcher plus SC managed to see a brief Wood Warbler.

We ended the day at Aber Falls and had more views of a Spotted Flycatcher plus a superb pair of Common Redstarts.

Common Redstart

We also saw several Dark Green Fritillary's .

Dark Green Fritillary

A really great trip , many thanks to Steve .C. who did all the driving & organised the trip, the man is a machine.

  

Red Kites Galore

                                               30th  &  31st May

                                        Over my Garden

                                            

Red Kite

Over the weekend of the 30th & 31st May i added Red Kite to my garden bird list, in fact i added in total 146 Red Kites !!!

Every year we get a large movement of Red Kites through this part of Kent but this is the most i have personally seen pass overhead.

I have only been at my new address for 18 months so was very pleased to add this wonderful bird to my Garden list, i also added over the weekend  3 Cormorants, 2 Great Black Backed Gulls & a single Greenfinch.

Here are a few pics i took of some of them :

Red Kite

I also saw 2 Common Buzzards but not sure if they were local birds or birds caught up in the Red Kite movement.

Common Buzzard