Saturday 22 June 2019

King's Wood & Elmley Track & Seasalter

                                                                15th June :    King's Wood

                                                                 
Tree Pipit displaying.


On Saturday 15th June we headed to King's Wood near Challock in the hope of seeing Tree Pipit and after finding a suitable habitat we soon heard a Tree Pipit , we eventually located it and had some really good views of this bird displaying .




Parachuting display.


We also saw the Tree Pipit perched quite a few times.




Tree Pipit.


We saw 2 each of Tree Pipit & Garden Warbler here plus we heard at least 2 Willow Warblers.


From here we decided to head to Elmley and just drive the track leading to the reserve with no real target birds.

This proved very successful with superb views of Yellow Wagtail.



Yellow Wagtail.


On the way back down the track we saw plenty of chicks,  with Lapwing chicks at various age & size.


Lapwing chick.


We also saw a superb Redshank chick , we didn't stay to long looking at these for obvious reasons.


Redshank chick.


Our bonus bird was a stunning Bittern flying past us as we were driving along the track near to the entrance.




Bittern


Wow what a treat and most unexpected , this was a new bird for my Sheppey bird list.


Various Dates : Graveney Marshes

I have been checking the Graveney marshes over the last couple of weeks and have had several sightings of Barn Owl over this time , including 2 birds together on one visit.



Barn Owl.

I also saw Common Whitethroat and heard Lesser Whitethroat on all my visits , on one occasion i saw 400+ Common Swifts low over the marsh which was an amazing sight.

Common Whitethroat.

















Tuesday 4 June 2019

Day Trip to East Anglia

Great Grey Shrike


On Saturday the 1st June i had a day trip to East Anglia, the first location was Needingworth in Cambridgeshire, and the target bird was a Great Grey Shrike.


Very confiding bird.

On the walk down to the quarry entrance (many thanks James for directions) we heard several Turtle Doves & a distant Cuckoo, there was also a Lesser Whitethroat calling but remained unseen.

Having reached the quarry entrance the Great Grey Shrike was on show pretty much the whole time we were there, only disappearing into the quarry and returning with a large dragonfly to eat every now and again.

Watching us watching him.

Having a preen.

Great Grey Shrike.

Next stop was Rspb reserve Lakenheath in Suffolk , i was hoping to see Bittern here and although my companion did see one , i missed it  !!!!!

We had some really great views of  2 Cuckoo's playing chase.


2 Cuckoo's.

There were several Marsh Harrier's & Common Buzzard's plus good numbers of Hobby

Close view of  Hobby

Whilst watching the Hobby 2 Common Crane's flew over head.

2 Common Crane's

There were several birds with young and i was especially pleased to see a pair of Great crested Grebes with 2 young, one hitching a ride on an adult's back.

'Humbug' Chick.

Trying to get a lift.

Adult & Chick.

It was also great to see this Moorhen chick so close.

Moorhen Chick

The final destination was Weeting Heath which is just over the boarder in Norfolk , this is the site i saw my first ever Stone Curlew many years ago.


Head of a Stone Curlew.


We went into the West hide and was told there is only one Stone Curlew present another kind birder pointed that bird out to us , as i watching this bird i saw another Stone Curlew appear from behind the first bird and then a 3rd Stone Curlew (wow) appeared, although distant we had great views through the scope of these superb birds.

An Eurasian Curlew dropped in nearby and soon got a rebuff from the Stone Curlew.


Stone Curlew.

A really great days birding in East Anglia in great company .