Saturday 20 April 2013

Catching up on some Migrants ......... At Oare Marshes


Avocets in flight.

I spent a couple of hours at Oare Marshes this morning in the hope of connecting with some migrants , i saw a single Swallow on the overhead telegraph wires as i drove down the access road to the reserve , i parked up by the East flood and scanned across and instantly saw a Common Tern  amongst the many Black Headed Gulls , there was a few Avocets  on the flood with 2 birds quite close in .

2 Avocets .

I then headed down to the car park by the slip way hearing several Sedge Warblers  as i went ,  as i was getting my gear ready by the car i met Barry and Sam who said hi and we then went off together along the sea wall towards the sea hide , there were several more Sedge Warblers along here and we managed to see at least 3 different birds  , i showed Barry and Sam the Common Seals which were out basking on the sand bank , there must have been about 20 of them , the most i have seen here , just as we passed the hide Sam picked out a Bearded Tit  flying over the reed bed which was good to see , and then we came across another Sedge Warbler .

Digi scoped Sedge Warbler .

I noticed a Whimbrel land on Faversham creek which was a welcome year tick , there were plenty of Avocets and Redshank along the Creek plus good numbers of Shoveler , Tufted Duck and Mallard out on the East flood , there was a scattering of Greylag Geese with a couple of Canada Geese amongst them , i parted ways with Barry and Sam and headed back towards the slip way to try and locate the Garganey which had been seen just west of there a couple of days ago whilst Barry and Sam continued around the reserve  , well i did not see the Garganey but i did see another Whimbrel plus two Common Snipe  were having a fly around , i heard a Med Gull but could not locate it , i then decided to head back to my car and bumped into Barry and Sam again , very good to meet you today , a really pleasant morning in sunshine and 3 year ticks to add to my total.