What a Hobby ...... Grove Ferry

Hobby

This was one of 20 + Hobby i saw at Grove Ferry today , sorry about the cheesy title of this post by the way , i had a wonderful time looking at and checking these Hobby from " the ramp " today , there was also up to 3 Marsh Harriers about , i was hoping to find a stray Red footed falcon amongst the the high number of Hobby but sadly had no luck with that .

 Hobby.

From " the ramp " i headed through the reed bed out towards the " water meadows " and added my first Turtle Doves of the year as 2 birds flew over my head , there were several Cettis , Whitethroat and chiffchaff calling from every bush and Sedge and Reed Warblers calling from every section of reed bed.

Swifts and Sand Martins were flying around with the Hobbies , i did not know where to look first, i finally reached the " water meadows" and instantly connected with my second year tick of the day in the shape of 2 Greenshanks which had a Redshank for company , not much out on the meadows until i found this male Garganey sleeping, there was also a female present briefly before it disappeared out of sight  .

 Garganey sleeping honest !!!!!

The weather was beginning to close in abit so i started heading back along the river and heard then saw a superb male Bullfinch which rather surprising was a year tick for me, i clearly don't get out enough !! plenty more Swifts, Swallows and approx: 100 Sand Martins but strangely no House Martins , then even though i had heard several today i actually saw my first Reed Warbler of the year , plenty of Grey Herons around but no sign of the earlier reported Purple Heron . I headed back towards  " the ramp " for a final look but other then more views of Hobby, i didn't really add much else to my days total.

Hobby

Lucky Tern

Whiskered Tern over New Diggins.

I planned a trip to Dungeness today and when i left home at 7.30am the weather was not very good, dark sky's and rain , however on my way there the pager went off alerting me to the news of a Whiskered Tern at the " Patch " at Dungeness , great i am half way there , then i thought it wont hang around to long at the patch and then sure enough the news came through that it had flown of with Common Terns .

Damn and blast , but i kind of thought it would not hang around to long , anyhow i made my way down to the sea which was my original plan anyway , as i arrived some birders were heading back to there cars and kindly informed me the Whiskered Tern had been relocated at New Diggins , wow  only 5 mins from where i was standing , so of i shot and headed there , and within minutes of arriving i was soon on this great looking bird , its the 2nd Whiskered Tern i have seen in Britain and both have been in Kent , the 1st one was at Stodmarsh and yet again i turned up not even knowing it was there !

Two more record shots of the Whiskered Tern. 

I watched this bird for  approx: 1 hour noting all the key features , it really is a fine bird ,from here i went back to the sea an added male and female Black Redstart to my year list and i had a flock of 27 Whimbrel fly over head , the sea was very quite , i only added 50 Common Scoter, 1 Red-t-Diver and 2 Gannets to my days totals.  

The " patch " held about 150 Common Terns and 1  very smart Arctic Tern , i then decided to check out the site where the Purple Herons had been seen of late , i spent nearly 2 hours there and bumped into the original finders of the Tern , i year ticked a fine Hobby and then my patience was rewarded with although very brief an appearance of the Purple Heron , it basically flew up from the reed bed and then dropped back down again, one of the other birders present did see it in flight abit earlier , so all in all a good days birding at my favourite area to bird in Kent , of note there were hundreds of hirundines and Swifts about today just a bit surprised there were no reports of any Red Rumped Swallows in Kent today. 

Iberian Chiffchaff

Iberian Chiffchaff.

When i was at work yesterday the pager alerted me to the news of a Iberian Chiffchaff at Walderslade in Kent singing and showing well , i have never seen one before and i was on my way to Southampton on an over night delivery EEK !! , will it stay or just pass through ????

Fortunately it stayed and i managed to get to the site at about 6.45 pm tonight , i met a birder on the way out and he said it was still around and showing well , so of i set and found roughly the area this guy had told me about , i heard Chiffchaff on the way in and then i heard the unmistakable song of the Iberian Chiffchaff and what's more i had it all to myself , eventually it appeared on a bare ash tree more or less in front of me and started singing , i got some pictures : 

Iberian Chiffchaff singing .

Iberian Chiffchaff 

It did seem rather long tailed but that could be because it seemed to be missing some under tail coverts ?? the song  is very diagnostic in the id of this species in my opinion , still a tricky bird to catch up with and i am very pleased to have seen one at last especially in Kent .

Red-Rumped Swallow

Red Rumped Swallow.

News of this superb bird at Minster near Ramsgate proved to good to resist , i got down there at about 10 am and parked in the fishermans car park, and was greeted with plenty of bird song , Whitethroat , Chiffchaff , Willow Warbler and Cettis Warbler were singing there hearts out, but there was not a swallow to be seen, or any other birders to get any info from, although i could see the sewage works there is no access to it and i searched round to try and find a vantage point to see over it .

Eventually i come across to a small muddy mound and stood on this and at last i found some Swallows , there were approx 15 Swallows and 3 House Martins ( year tick ) and after about 3 mins the  Red-Rumped Swallow put in an appearance , its  rump clearly visible, longer tail streamers and pale buff collar were all clearly seen , its overall appearance was much more slender than Barn Swallow , it was showing well but was just to far to get a picture , i then drove round to the other side of the sewage works and bumped into another birder who hadn't seen it and whilst i was giving him directions it flew over us and landed on the wires just to the right of where we were standing . 

Red Rumped Swallow.

Although i have seen Red-Rumped Swallow in Kent before this was a new Thanet tick for me and i am only 6 away from 200 species in this area now .
Here are some more record shots , sadly i never got any clear shots of its rump .

Red Rumped Swallow

Other birds of note were : Common Buzzard , 2 Cuckoo and 1 Yellow Wagtail .

Clowes Wood and Grove Ferry

Tuesday 20 th April 2010

My target bird at Clowes wood was Common Crossbill , as local birders had been seeing them there on a regular basis's and to rub it in they have been getting decent photos of them too !

Willow Warbler.

I was late getting there not arriving until 10.30 ish and the car park was full, damn either loads of dog walkers or god knows what , i instantly heard then saw Willow Warbler which was a welcome year tick , so of i set to the area roughly where the Crossbills had been seen , plenty of bird song greeted me in the form of Chiffchaff , Willow Warbler and Blackcap but no sign of any Crossbills .

I saw Goldcrest and approx 7 Goldfinch flew over plus distant Great Spotted Woodpecker calling , i then bumped into another birder who had just seen a Nightingale further along the path but he said there was an army of ramblers heading that way ( hence all the cars in the car park ) , whilst chatting 2 more birders in the hunt for Crossbills turned up , Mike Gould and Steve Ashton, and we teamed up in are pursuit and headed of to where the Nightingale had last been seen , on nearing the location we could hear it calling , we left Steve who was busy photographing Willow Warbler .

We reached the location of the Nightingale but it had stopped singing so Mike played the song on his mobile and within seconds the Nightingale flew from behind us and showed really well for a good 30 mins , i even managed half decent pics myself !

Nightingale

I was really pleased with adding this glorious songster to my year list , normally you only hear or get a brief glimpse but this one showed really well , and more than made up for missing the Crossbills .

Grove Ferry was my next stop to see if i could catch up on some more migrants and as i approached the Ramp i saw my 3rd year tick of the day with a Common Whitethroat which gave it self up after a couple of minutes of singing deep inside a bramble bush , this was very quickly followed by my first Sand Martins (100 + ) of the year , not a bad start.

I spent a little time at the Ramp but only added 2 Ringed Plovers and all the regular ducks you would expect to see there , i then headed of to the water meadows on route there i had a brief view of a Cetti's and heard another 15+ also Sedge and Chiffchaff were very vocal i also saw 3 Common Swifts which were also new for the year and quite early too , on reaching the water meadows i saw 3 Black-tailed Godwits plus 6 Green Sandpipers which were my fourth year tick at this site , 2 more Swifts flew over and a Little Egret put in an appearance , on the way back i had a really pleasant encounter with this Long-Tailed Tit .

A really pleasant day with six year ticks making it all worth while .

Grove Ferry

I decided to do some local birding today and ended up at Grove Ferry at about 10.30am in the hope of catching up on some spring migrants , rather overcast with a fresh wind but the sun was trying to break through.

At the car park there were the usual birds around the feeders , Great tit , Blue tit and so on , i met the guy who was there flogging " In Focus  " gear and whilst chatting to him i caught sight of my first migrants in the shape of 3 Swallows , i took a picture not very good but if you click on it the dot does turn into a Swallow , honest !!!

Distant Swallow.

After this i headed for the " Ramp " and soon added Sedge Warbler to my year list and all the usual ducks were seen out on the flood although there seemed to be quite a high number of Gadwall , 3 more Swallows flew by and there was at least 2 Cettis warblers singing near by , i spent roughly 30 mins here and added Marsh Harrier and Sparrowhawk to my days total , i then headed of towards the Marsh hide and added 2 more Sedge Warblers and i was soon adding my third year tick of the day in the shape of a fine male Blackcap , there were several Marsh Harriers up in the air , i counted 4 males and 3 females and even managed some photos : 

male Marsh Harrier

female Marsh Harrier

Female Marsh Harrier  being harassed by a Lapwing.

After enjoying prolonged views of these superb birds of prey i then headed off towards an area called the Ox Bow in the search for Water pipit but after a long search and scan of the area i had no joy , although i did add my final year tick of the day in a fine colourful Yellow Wagtail , my main counts were : Cettis Warbler 10 heard , Chiffchaff 5 heard , Sedge Warbler 1 seen plus 2 more heard ,  Blackcap 1 male ,Swallow 6 , Yellow Wagtail 1 , Sparrowhawk 1 and Marsh Harrier 4 males and 3 females , i finally got back to my old banger at 1.30pm having seen 49 species plus 2 Peacock butterflies and hearing several Marsh Frogs .