Sunday 11 January 2015

Lesser Yellowlegs revisited ... Plus Dunge & Pevensey Levels


Lesser Yellowlegs .

I headed to Pett Level on the 10th January in the hope of seeing the Lesser Yellowlegs , on arrival there was only one other car there and the Lesser Yellowlegs was nowhere to be seen , after a short while it flew in and i was  soon enjoying some very close views of this cracking wader , i have seen several over the years but this is the best views i have had of one.

Lesser Yellowlegs alongside a Dunlin.

Balancing act.

Just to prove it does have two legs.

From here i headed to Dungeness checking out the Cattle Egrets along Denge marsh road and got some decent views .

Cattle Egret.

Both Cattle Egrets together.

I went down to the fishing boats to check out the gull roosts in the hope of a Caspian Gull but despite my best efforts i could not locate any , a quick look out to sea produced a few year ticks such as : Gannet , Guillemott , Kittiwake and Fulmar.

The weather was quite awful , very strong winds and lashing rain at times so i retreated to the RSPB reserve and saw a single Great White Egret and 3 Redhead Smew , i then called into the Hanson hide and saw the Kingfisher on its favoured perch performing for the crowd .

One of two Kingfishers .

I also saw Redhead Smew and several Goldeneye from here.

Redhead Smew.

Male Goldeneye.

I called back into Pett Level where i had some more really great views of the Lesser Yellowlegs .

Lesser Yellowlegs.


And then i headed to Pevensey Level where i had decent views of two Hen Harriers which were both ringtails , there were several Stonechats which was new for the year and also a Raven which was also a new bird for the year , my main purpose here was to look for Short eared Owl however whether it was due to the strong winds i never located any , i did see a  Dartford Warbler.

Record flight shot of the Dartford Warbler.

It was then time  to head home after a cracking days birding.