Brief Visit to Oare Marshes

Male Pintail.

I paid a brief visit to Oare Marshes last Saturday the 23rd January in the hope of seeing the drake Scaup  (a species i don't see to many of during the course of a year) , i parked in the car park and walked back to view the East flood and instantly saw several Pintail and as it was high tide there were lots of waders on the flood including good numbers of Black Tailed Godwit , Dunlin , Avocet & Grey Plover.

Drake Scaup.

I had a quick scan over the flood and found the drake Scaup at the back of the flood more or less straight away , it was keeping company with a small amount of Tufted Ducks ,although it was awake when i first located it the Scaup soon went to sleep!!!

Sleeping Scaup.

I then proceeded to check through the waders and located the winter plumage Little Stint which was busy wading through the Dunlin .

Little Stint photo taken November 2015.

I also saw two Peregrines on one of  the pylon's near Faversham creek , i had a quick look over the Swale where there were plenty of Avocets & Grey Plovers on the river bank on the Sheppy side of the Swale plus i could see a distant Marsh Harrier hunting over the fields on Sheppy , there were plenty of Dark Bellied Brent Geese on the Swale including a very close bird.

Dark Bellied Brent Goose.