Shellness.... .. Isle of Sheppey !!!

Having been quite unwell this past week and over easter all my plans for birding trips were out of the window , so feeling rather down and bored to death with not getting out things were looking kind of poor , then news of a female Kentish Plover on Sheppey came to my attention , should i go and risk my health even further or should i except that i will do no birding until next weekend at the earliest ????

Well Sunday came around and although still not 100 % right i was feeling abit better and what's more the Kentish was still lingering at Shellnesss , that's all the temptation i needed , so of i set and before long i was driving down the track that leads you to a car park just before Shellness , now anyone who has ever been there knows how rough that track is , my god it was like driving through the Serengeti !!!! 

Sorry got abit carried away there ( some people would think that would be a good idea ! ) anyhow once on site i headed towards the blockhouse and soon located a small party of 6 Ringed Plovers and a scattering of Dunlin and also a very smart looking female KENTISH PLOVER , they are very distinctive waders , incomplete breast band , blackish legs , very pale in appearance compared to the Ringed that were present , quite a dumpy looking wader large headed which was also quite pale in appearance , a really good bird to add to my year list and also it was a patch tick .

A Great day in Dorset !!!!

I don't often venture out of Kent birding these days my last twitch being the Brown Shrike (see earlier post for details of this trip) last year , but the Bufflehead is a bird i have never seen and also Portland is as good as anywhere to see migrants , so of i set in the hope of adding this superb duck onto my life list !

I had reached Weymouth when my pager alerted me to the news of an Alpine Swift flying around Radipole at 10.21am . i was stuck in traffic less than 5 minutes away , shall i just dump my car a run there (those who know me would laugh as running is not an option) , finally the traffic started to move and in less than 5 mins i had parked the car and started to scan the sky over the reserve , i got on to a Common Buzzard being mobbed by two Herring Gulls , and as luck would  have it the Alpine Swift flew underneath the Buzzard and preformed for a couple of minutes than flew off in a northerly direction , wow what a start to the day more or less the first bird of the day ! Here is a picture of an Alpine Swift that i saw in Kent a few years ago .

Alpine Swift.

Really chuffed with seeing this i than headed to Abbortsbury swannery where the Bufflehead had been seen of late , on arrival i met a  couple of birders who had just seen the Bufflehead and they said it was hanging around with some Scaup which would be an added year tick for me , so of i went paid my entrance fee and headed to what should be an easy tick , or so i thought , on arrival i joined the other gathered birders only to be told it had just flown of down the Fleet out of sight.

Oh no i cant believe i have come this far for a more or less nailed on lifer to be told it has JUST FLOWN OFF ! the chap said don't worry it done this earlier but returned within half an hour  , well that did not fill me with confidence , i remember a story about a birder who went to see along staying Stellers Eider in Scotland when he got there it had just flown around the headland out of sight , he was told the same thing that it does that and will return in ten or so minutes only it was never seen again !! 

Anyhow i scanned the remaining ducks and was soon adding 3 male and 2 female Scaup to my year list , than two small ducks caught my eye flying in and i was straight on to the BUFFLEHEAD it landed a fair way out but there was no mistaking it , what a really smart looking duck , it was keeping company with a female Goldeneye , sadly i don't have a photo as it was to far out .

Well i was on a roll two great year ticks and a lifer , what a day but it had not finished yet , the pager alerted me of a Hoopoe on Portland so after some lunch of i set and when i got there i met a birder who said it is mobile and hard to pin down , i got a little bit of info of where it had last been seen then headed of to try and find it.

I drove down several roads until i found the site , and there were four other birders already onto it , and there it was a really stunning Hoopoe , i have seen several Hoopoes over the years but there is nothing quite like it when you see one , they are so colourful and this bird was constantly feeding but it was yet again a fair distance away and although i got great views through my scope i was unable to get a photo.

 I am still struggling to combine photography and birding, still i will get there in the end , finally i called into the New Forest on the way home to look for the Great Grey Shrike but i failed on that one although i did add Treecreeper to my year list and i saw some nice looking ponies  .

Here are some photos that i did take today at Abbortsbury :

Mute Swan on a nest.

Mallards.

Pheasant.

Park Wood & Seaton

                                                           

Great Tit.

Woodland watching has to be said is not my favourite aspect of birding , mainly down to dog walkers and dogs bounding up to you with big teeth growling at you , this has happened a few times over the years , plus the woodland i used to bird was over run by gypsies and all the problems that brought put me off a little bit , anyhow i was tipped of about Park Wood near Challock and thought i would check it out, its only a small woodland and within minutes of entering i could hear a distant Marsh Tit calling and then was greeted with a fly over Green Woodpecker , ten minutes in and i had really good views of 2 Coal Tits  which was my first year tick of the day.

I soon added Great s Woodpecker and several Chaffinch onto my days total , then i connected with one of my main target birds , i noticed this smallish bird fly into the top of a tree then it turned around flashing its stripy back ! yes , Lesser Spotted Woodpecker sadly i tried to get closer but it didn't hang around for very long , never mind i did get good views , i moved on and heard a distant Tawny Owl calling , abit further around and i encountered a roving tit flock that held several Long t Tits , Great and Blue Tits plus 2 Marsh Tits and 1 Goldcrest which were both year ticks bringing my total to 4 year ticks on this site , its a wonderful woodland and it took me approx 1 hour 45 mins to do the full walk around , no dogs or walkers too !!! Oh the picture of the Great Tit ( above ) was the only pic from Park Wood .

Little Egret.

                                 
I called into Seaton which is near Grove Ferry in the hope of catching up with any lingering Goosanders that seem to be evading me this winter , on arrival the first birds i saw were 1 male and 2 female Goosanders , wow how lucky was that , i checked through the rest of the wildfowl and noted 1 female Goldeneye and 50+ Wigeon which were inter mingled with the more regular ducks on this site , there was a Little Egret standing on the trail and i tried to get a photo , well i did get a photo but i couldn't get close enough to be any good but here it is anyway  (see above) . Other than that all i really added at this site was five Common Buzzards passing over together , i could only manage to get four in a photo at anyone time .

Four Common Buzzards .

KENT TICK on way home from work !!!!!

I finished work early (for a change) and on my way home i was approaching the Prospect roundabout at approx 2.10 pm when i noticed a large raptor drifting low over the road , really broad winged , longish broad tailed , heavy bodied , OMG it was a stunning close up view of a GOSHAWK , wow what a magnificent bird to see , the only problem was i could not stop anywhere as i was right on the start of the A299 so i drove really slowly annoying all the other motorists , but at least it gave me a slightly longer view of this superb bird, and although i have seen Goshawk before its the first one i have seen in Kent, sweet.

Dungeness RSPB & ARC pits

A trip to Dungeness was the order of the day , my instincts were telling me to head straight down for a sea watch but the weather was awful , standing in heavy rain was not a good idea as i am still getting over an illness , however i wish i had now as some really good sea birds were seen .

Still i had a good day on the reserve and arc pits , started of with a Smew from the Makepeace hide , plenty of gulls and Cormorants but not alot else to be honest , so i headed of to the Denge marsh hide in the hope of catching up with Slavonian Grebe which i missed earlier this year, and within a couple of minutes of scanning there right in front of the hide was a Slavonian Grebe. 

Slavonian Grebe.

Really pleased with my view of this wintering grebe i continued to look through the rest of the wildfowl on offer , lots of the more regular ducks you would expect to see plus 11 Ruddy Ducks  and i noticed alot of " grey geese " in the fields behind the pool , scanning through these produced my 2nd year tick of the day , a superb 5 White-Fronted Geese (year tick 109) , whilst watching these everything took to the air , there was a raptor about and then a really close view of a Peregrine ( year tick 110 ) darting across the pool right in front of the hide was brilliant , unfortunately i was to slow with my camera to get a picture , i added another Slavonian Grebe and Curlew, Oystercatcher and Lapwing were also added from this hide before i decided to dodge the showers and head back to the visitor center.

 On my way back i was keeping an eye out for Tree Sparrow but i had no luck with those today, however i did get a prolonged view of a Bittern flying over the reed bed , that's 3 Bitterns i have seen this year, quite remarkable considering i normally struggle to see one a year , once back at the car park a quick scan of the feeders produced 4 Great Tits, 2 Blue Tits, 2 Reed Buntings and  Chaffinch, oh i also heard Green Woodpecker .

I then made my way over to the Hanson Hide which overlooks the Arc pits , never been to this hide before and it does give you a good view over this extensive gravel pit , on entering the hide i heard a Cettis Warbler ( year tick 111 ) and shortly after setting up the scope i was on yet another Smew and managed a photo also i took this pic of some Shoveler in flight .

Smew.

Shoveler in flight .

I added my third Slavonian Grebe of the day here, plus 5 male Goldeneyes and 10 females, a total of 3 redhead Smew , 100 + Gadwall and a very showy wintering  Chiffchaff (year tick 112) , of interest i was told there was 2 female Scaup seen here earlier and after spending quite abit of time looking and checking everything there was no sign of them, however there were at least 2 female Tufted ducks with an awful lot of white around the base of there bills but they clearly had tufts on there heads, i am not saying the birder who told me about the Scaup was mistaken but it had me wondering ?? well that was about it for Dungeness today although i still had time to add one more year tick to my list on the way home in the form of a Grey Partridge (year tick 113) .

Successful trip to Oare Marshes

Two site ticks and two year ticks were gained in a very successful couple of hours spent at Oare Marshes this afternoon, i have not been out birding for most of the month due to illness and other commitments , my year list had come to almost full stop and of course i have missed getting out and about , so with a couple hours spare i headed off to Oare on the hope of adding Smew to my site list and with abit of luck connecting with the Spotted Redshank that i need for my year list.

On arrival i stopped in the pull in and scanned over the East flood and despite good views of Pintail and various other duck species there was no sign of the Smew and also there were very few waders to be seen either, not a great start , but hey at least i am out !

I parked up the old banger and then headed off towards the hide over looking the East flood adding Snipe , Grey Heron and Kestrel to my days tally , i know exciting stuff ...lol , anyhow on reaching the hide i bumped into another birder who had seen the Smew earlier but had lost sight of it, oh joy looks like i will miss out again on this elusive sawbill at this site . 

Still after several scans and adding Little Grebe, Tufted Duck and loads of Teal i still had not seen the Smew , then something caught my eye on one of the islands behind a small mound , i saw the top of a birds head , reddish in colour , what could it be...  and then the " Redhead Smew " stood up giving me great joy and delight in adding this to my sight list .

Waders were coming in to roost , 100 + Redshank , Grey Plover, Ringed Plover and then my first year tick of the afternoon in the shape of a Black-Tailed Godwit , scanning through the Redshank produced my second year tick in the form of a very fine Spotted Redshank , i think these are truly smart waders and never tire at looking at them .

Time was running out and one last scan over towards Sheppy where i could see a large flock of distant geese  which were to far away to id or though if i was a betting man i would have said " Brents " , anyhow whilst checking over these geese my second site tick flew across my vision and landed on a post, wow it was a Barn Owl , i didn't need it for my year list but it was a real surprise to get it just fly in front of my field of view , so really pleased i set of back to the old banger and had time to add a fly over Little Egret to a very good couple of hours birding, roll on next week !!!!

Mute Swan

Tufted Duck

Teal & Dunlin

I am still getting used to my camera and these are my latest efforts taken at Grove ferry  , top pic is two Mute Swans about to do some ice breaking, middle pic is a female Tufted Duck and the bottom pic is of  some Teal , can anyone spot the Dunlin  ???