White-Rumped Sandpiper.
I went to Oare today in the quest of seeing the White-Rumped Sandpiper , i arrived at Oare late morning and made are my way around to the east flood where the usual large numbers of Golden plover and Black -tailed Godwits were easily seen , there was a scattering of Ruff here and there and amongst the Godwits were several Redshanks , i continued around the flood towards the sluice and joined the already assembled birders who informed me that the target bird was showing really well about 10 mins ago but has now gone behind the nearby island out of sight (oh joy !!!)
White Rumped Sandpiper.
Well whilst i was waiting for the hoped for re-appearance of the Sandpiper i checked out Faversham creek and added several Curlew Sandpipers and a scattering of Dunlin flew along the Creek , there was also several more Redshank seen here.
I walked up further along the sea wall and re-located the White Rumped Sandpiper tucked in a little channel preening , its white rump was easily seen whilst preening , then it went walk about and its extended primaries just beyond its tail were very obvious , this was a very welcome year and patch tick for me , the bird spent a lot of time on the island and then went onto the mud feeding , sorry about the poor quality of photos but you can just make out the extended primaries in photo 1 (Ok i know you have to look hard ...lol )
Other birds of note seen here were Peregrine , Hobby , at least 6 Little Egrets and 10 Avocets , plus there were a few Common Seals basking on the sand bank.
I then set of to Grove ferry to try and see the re-found Wilsons Phalarope as i was hoping to get better views than i had the previous week , I soon arrived at Grove and went to the viewing ramp and would you believe it ?? once again i were told that it had just flown into the inaccessible pool out of sight , damn and blast birding can be very frustrating some times ..lol
Well i waited and waited some more than i thought i would go and check out Harrisons drove as it might have flown there un-noticed , and not more than 5 minutes had gone by when news broke it was showing at Harrisons !!!! i set of and within 15 mins i was enjoying good scope views of the Wilsons Phalarope , now if you think my record shots of the White Rumped were bad you have seen nothing yet...lol
Wilsons Phalarope right hand bird (Honest !)
I was really pleased to see this , it was walking around the pool feeding very well , its feeding motion was really interesting with continuous jabbing motions as it was walking around this shallow pool , one bonus point if you can i.d the wader on the left !!
I also saw a small lizard which not being an expert on lizards or anything else really i thought was a Common Lizard , sorry no photos as i would have been strangled by the other birders who were straining to get better views of the Wilsons , with time against me i had to head off after about an hour here , i did see Marsh Harrier and 2 Ruff from the ramp and heard several Cetti's warblers .
