Thursday 27 March 2014

Hoopoe at Snodland and Oare Marshes




Hoopoe in Surrey in 2011.

I called into Snodland today to try and see the Hoopoe that has been seen there recently , i parked up behind the golf club house and proceeded to walk around the various locations it has been reported from , i bumped into some other birders who had seen it earlier and they showed me the area they had seen it from , however it had flown off when they had seen it , it only took a few minutes for one of the other birders to pick out the Hoopoe a bit further back in an adjacent field , it was to far to get a photo but lovely to see all the same , the above photo was one that i took in Surrey 3 years ago and that bird showed alot closer.

I watched the Hoopoe for about 15 minutes before it had walked out of sight so i decided to head off to Oare Marsh for a quick look , there was not alot around other than a single Ruff and approx 100 Black Tailed Godwits , there was also 2 Avocet amongst the godwits

Black Tailed Godwits with 2 Avocet for company.

Ruff .

Another pic of the Ruff.

Wildfowl numbers were quite thin on the ground with just a few Shoveler , Teal , Mallard , Gadwall and only 3 Pintail. I did see a single kestrel hovering over the East Flood.

Kestrel hovering over the East Flood.