Saturday 25 November 2017

Green-Winged Teal .. 2nd Record for Oare Marshes


Green Winged Teal.


On the 23rd November i called into Oare Marshes in the hope of seeing the ♂ Green Winged Teal , i parked up in the pull-in and scanned across the East flood for about half an hour and although there were plenty of Teal the Green Winged Teal was playing hard to get !!!

I bumped into Murray who informed me he had seen the GWT earlier but it was flushed and he hadn't seen it since , i decided to check from the Faversham creek side as there were more Teal around that side of the flood (Can't remember seeing this amount of Teal here before?!).


Record shot of the GWT


I reached the sea wall and more or less saw the Green Winged Teal straight away as it was having a preen near the reedy Island out in the middle of the flood , surprisingly hard to pick up amongst the Teal , it took me about an hour to locate it but thankfully i had decent scope views in the end and happily added it to my Oare Marsh  & Year lists !!


Having a preen.

I also saw the long staying Long Billed Dowitcher and 1 Little Stint.

I saw the Green Winged Teal again early on the 24th as well more or less in the same area as on the 23rd out in the middle of the East Flood, I also heard a Chiffchaff in the bushes by the car park.





Tuesday 21 November 2017

Black Throated Diver in Ramsgate Harbour

Black Throated Diver.

Yesterday the 20th November i went to Ramsgate Harbour to hopefully see the Juv Black Throated Diver , it didn't take me long to see the Diver out in the middle of the harbour.



I bumped into Jonathan and Don and we eventually got some really close views of the Black Throated Diver, here are a few photos that i took.




Having a wing stretch.




Notice the thigh patches.

Black Throated Diver.

I also saw a Kingfisher on 3 separate occasions  plus a single Rock Pipit and plenty of  Turnstones.


Turnstone.




Tuesday 14 November 2017

Snow Buntings at Reculver

Snow Bunting.

Yesterday the 13th November i went to Reculver in the hope of seeing the Snow Buntings that have been seen recently there .

 I was a bit surprised with how much it now costs to use the car park by the Towers , 80p per hour , last time i went it was only approx £1.00 for 24 hours !!!!




I walked along the sea wall towards Cold Harbour Lagoon keeping my eye out for the Snow Buntings , i met 2 other birders on their way back and they kindly informed me they were near groyne 6 , so of i headed , i couldn't locate them and then i saw a familiar face further along the sea wall near groyne 8 .



I eventually joined Johnathan who was busy photographing the 3 Snow Buntings which were very tame indeed , they came to close to photograph at one point, i love the colour's on these birds , they blend in so well with all the shingle and foliage.


Great Camouflage. 


After spending some quality time with these birds i headed back towards the towers when i met another birder busy looking at a ..... Snow Bunting !?!? i thought the ones i had been watching further back must of flown past me without me noticing or at least one of them had.

But then the 3 Snow Buntings joined this bird making 4 Snow Buntings in total .


Fantastic markings on this male bird.

Snow Bunting.








Wednesday 8 November 2017

Long Billed Dowitcher at Oare Marshes

Long Billed Dowitcher.

I called into Oare Marshes on Monday the 6th November in time for the high tide , i saw the long staying Long Billed Dowitcher (first seen in August) on the East flood showing quite well from the road.

Showing well.

Eventually the Long Billed Dowitcher made its way over to one of the island's where it had a snooze, i also saw 2 Little Stints out in the middle of the flood near the reedy island.

Landing on one of the islands.

There was at least  1000 Golden Plover on the flood and despite several scans through i couldn't find anything unusual amongst them .

Golden Plover.

There was large numbers of  Black Tailed Godwits , Dunlin & Avocets with approx 15 Bar Tailed Godwits, 10 Grey Plover & 10 Knot.

Black Tailed Godwit.

I also saw 20+ Ruff and several Lapwing.

Lapwing.

There was a distant Peregrine Falcon on one of the pylons plus i saw an Apache Helicopter fly over the reserve flushing thousands of birds.

Apache helicopter.