Eleonora's Falcon at Sandwich Bay

                                                   26th May 2022  :  Sandwich  Bay

Caspian Tern with Black-headed Gull.

Yesterday morning we started off at Pegwell Bay to hopefully see the Caspian Tern with a slim hope that the Kentish Plover might also make another appearance.

However no luck with the Kentish Plover but we had decent views of the Caspian Tern, the tide was fully in so it was decided to head to Sandwich bay and return later in the day to Pegwell bay to catch the tide on the way out.

Eleonora's Falcon photo by Tony Hambrook.

We arrived at Restharrow scrape at approx 09.10 and eventually made our way around to the new hide. As AE wanted to do some sound recording from there we left camera & scopes in the car (fatal mistake i hear you say !!) , AE was busy recording a Corn Bunting whilst i was just generally  birding looking at an Avocet on a nest wondering what the chances  of it's offspring's survival will be.

AE then picked up on a Falcon on the far side of the scrape , my initial thoughts were Hobby , however on closer inspection it appeared to long winged & tailed also it seemed quite big compared to the Corvids mobbing it plus the blackish underwing-coverts were clearly seen.

 There was no red on the undertail coverts but a reddish tinge to the body, the face pattern also appeared more white (having looked at Tony's photo's it shows it was lacking a second moustachial stripe !!)

We were trying to workout all the possibility's and even though Eleonora's Falcon was the obvious answer neither of us have seen one before and then the bird was gone , bugger we had no photo's to refer to and no experience with Eleonora's Falcon !!

Being mobbed.

Unknow to us at the time Tony Hambrook was thankfully  also on site and managed to get some photo's which clinched the ID of this incredible bird through the power & knowledge of Twitter .

We had left Sandwich by the time Tony had tweeted his photo's and we were still discussing the id features , however once we had seen Tony's photo's and reading  some of the expert comments from twitter it confirmed our thoughts that this was indeed a Pale morph Eleonora's Falcon.

Eleonora's Falcon photo by Tony Hambrook.

Many thanks to Tony Hambrook for letting me use his superb photo's of the Eleonora's Falcon on my blog and a huge congratulations to Tony on clinching the ID of this bird with them.

Of note Martyn Wilson also saw the Pale morph Eleonora's Falcon later in the afternoon at Stodmarsh, congrats Martyn !!

 

                                                                  

Stodmarsh & Grove Ferry

                                                                 16th  April  

                                                            GROVE FERRY

              

Sedge Warbler at Grove Ferry.

I really enjoy both Stodmarsh & Grove Ferry in the spring , the sound of newly arrived Sedge & Reed Warblers is a magical sound coming from the reedbeds.

We started at the Grove Ferry end and bird song was in full force starting with 3 Bullfinch along the entrance track, Cetti's, Sedge & Reed Warbler were in abundance all over the reserve, plenty of  Blackcaps & Chiffchaffs in full voice made it a very pleasant walk.

STODMARSH

Male & Female Garganey

After a successful walk around Grove Ferry we headed to Stodmarsh and had superb views of a pair of Garganey in front of the reedbed hide.

On the main lake there were 5 Common Terns making their presence felt , we also had superb views of a pair of Treecreepers near the path, i even attempted to digi-scope them !!!

Treecreeper.

18th April  :  STODMARSH

News of a Purple Heron (Great find by Martyn Wilson) near the Marsh hide had me heading there asap, and to keep a long story short i missed the Purple Heron by a few minutes as it had flown out of view before i got there.

Despite waiting for it's hoped for re-appearance for nearly  2 & half hours it never came back (but did appear later in the afternoon long after i had gone !!!).

We did see some really good birds whilst we waited in vain including a cracking Little Ringed Plover.

Little Ringed Plover.

I also heard my first Cuckoo of the year plus 2 Bittern's were heard 'Booming' , another close view of a male Garganey in front of the hide was most welcome to.

Garganey

On the way back we also saw the Little Owl on the old farm building.

Little Owl.

21st April  :   STODMARSH

Second time Lucky !!!

Purple Heron walking in the reeds.

And some great views of the Purple Heron in flight.

Purple Heron coming into land.

23rd April  :  STODMARSH

New Bird for my Valley Bird List 

1 of  2  Bar Tailed Godwits.

After checking my bird records i was very happy to add Bar Tailed Godwit to my Stour Valley Bird List, in fact there were 2 birds present from the Marsh hide.

2 Bar Tailed Godwits.

It was also great to see at least 3 Hobby on route to the Marsh hide including one bird perched on a distant fence post.

Distant Hobby.

Hobby in flight.

We were also lucky to once again  see the Purple Heron in flight between the Alder Wood and Marsh Hide.

Purple Heron in flight.

A quick look in the Reedbed hide produced a pair of Garganey sleeping and a very close Green Sandpiper.

Green Sandpiper.

Bit of a Catch Up ...........

                                        31st March 2022  :  Cliffe Rspb

                                                       

Temminck's Stint.

I have to say Cliffe  is not my favourite destination as everything always seems so distant to view there, no doubt it's a wonderful haven for birds and has a superb track record for turning up many scarce & rare birds over the years.

On the 31st March a trip there was made to try and see the Temminck's Stint and a scan from the aptly named  ' Hope Mound ' proved successful, the Temminck's Stint was always distant and the above Digi photo was taken through my scope on x70 magnification !!

We also saw a single Little Stint which offered great comparisons next to the TS, we also saw 2 splendid Spotted Redshanks.

2nd April  2022  :  Worth Marshes

White Stork   (photo taken in 2021)

A trip to Worth Marshes on the 2nd April started of with distant views of the  unringed White Stork  near Willow farm.

We walked around to the Great wood and heard 2+ Chiffchaff & 1 Blackcap in full song, we continued our walk checking the pools and were lucky enough to see 2 Little ringed Plovers quite close to the path in one of the pools.

1 of 2 Little Ringed Plovers.

7th April 2022  :  Dungeness Rspb

5 Glossy Ibis

I remember the time when lots of birders would use to congregate along the Lampen wall at Stodmarsh in the winter for the Harrier roost and also await the 2 Glossy Ibis coming into roost.

 Back then in my very early days of birding i was awestruck watching these prehistoric looking birds coming out of the sky in almost darkness to land in the reedbed for the night, nowadays Glossy Ibis are seen on a almost weekly basis in several different sites .

However on the 7th April i was once again left awestruck by seeing my personal record count of 5 Glossy Ibis along the Dungeness Rspb track.

All 5 in flight.

From Dungeness we called into Oare Marshes and watched a Marsh Harrier quartering low over the reedbed in the hope it might flush up a Bittern however we were very lucky indeed as the Marsh Harrier flushed up a Jack Snipe giving us a really great view before it flew straight back into the reeds again, there was also 2 Common Snipe flushed as well.

9th April 2022 

Stodmarsh

We started of at Stodmarsh where we saw a male Garganey near the Marsh hide plus 4 superb Cattle Egrets feeding out on the marsh, they are coming into a superb plumage now.

We also managed to see at least 3 Water Pipits which are also showing a superb pink flush to their plumage.

I also saw & heard my first Sedge Warbler of the spring just before the Marsh hide, it was great as ever to catch up with MW & gang , whilst we were chatting an adult Med Gull flew over our heads.

Conningbrook

Ring Ouzel

Conningbrook is not somewhere i visit very often however it's always a very pleasant walk around the Lake and news of a Ring Ouzel (Great find by Kev Ellse) near the sports stadium made our minds up where to go after Stodmarsh this morning.

With some local info from Neil.B.  (thanks Neil) we soon found ourselves watching the fantastic Ring Ouzel, it showed well at times but was quite flighty which is typical of this species.

Broad white breast band.

Ring Ouzel.

9th & 10th April  :  Swalecliffe

Whilst walking around Godmersham church yard news came through that a Hooded Crow had been seen at Swalecliffe, well without haste we headed there in the hope of seeing it. well to cut along story short we missed the Hooded Crow by approx 5 mins !!!!

Sadly it had been flushed which is not that surprising considering the location, however we had more than compensation with fantastic views of a Water Vole near the Brook.

Water Vole.

We also saw 2 Swallows  and a male Eider on the shingle.

Male Eider

On the 10th news that the Hooded Crow had been seen again had us heading to Swalecliffe once more and this time we had superb views as the Hooded Crow was keeping company with 25+ Carrion Crows in the nearby bushes before eventually flying back towards the shingle.

Hooded Crow with Carrion Crows.

Hooded Crow.

Of Note :  This Hooded Crow (Great find by Geoff Burton)  is only the 2nd site record , the first one was seen in 2003 !!!

 

 

Oare Marshes & Stour Valley

                                                      19th March 2022

                                                        Oare Marshes

                                                           

♂ Garganey

After an early morning walk at Reculver which didn't produce anything out of the ordinary the plan was to head to Oare Marshes , news of a drake Garganey on the West flood came through whislt we were on route.

Once again a walk out to the West flood was successful , the Garganey showed well but was obscured alot of the time as it swam through the reeds, this was a most welcome year tick.

Stodmarsh & Grove Ferry

There was also news of several Garganey being seen in the Stour Valley so that was the next location !!

A walk around to the Reedbed Hide soon produced superb views of both male & female Garganey.

♂ Garganey with  ♂ Shoveler

♀ Garganey

♂ Garganey having a preen.

♀ Garganey having a preen.

Garganey.

I think Garganey are really stunning birds and always make me feel spring is not to far away.

A  visit to Grove Ferry was rewarded with a Ruff from the ramp  and a fly over Water Pipit near the David Feast hide, good to see Martyn .W. who kindly pointed out the Ruff. 

Rye Harbour & Pett Level Plus Dungeness & Oare Marshes

                                                        5th March 2022 

                                                Rye Harbour Nature Reserve

                                              & Pett Level & Dungeness Rspb

                                                             

Iceland Gull.

A trip to Rye Harbour on Saturday was eventually very successful, our target birds were Iceland Gull & Green-winged Teal.

We made our way to the Gooders hide  which already had some birders set up looking for the Green-winged Teal  but there was no sign so far.

We had a really good scan seeing lot's of Golden Plover, Dunlin, Ringed Plover & Grey Plover, there were plenty of Gull's and various ducks however neither of our target birds could be seen.

Eventually other birders turned up and the noise levels got quite noisy in the hide and also quite crowded so we decided to have a walk .

We bumped into BW & JH further along the path who kindly pointed out the Iceland Gull (Thanks guys ,it's great when birders share info with each other !!).

We also saw a Sandwich Tern which was a nice surprise, the Iceland Gull remained just behind an island partially obscured the whole time we viewed it.

Iceland Gull & Golden Plover.

With no sign of the GWT we decided to have a walk around the reserve to check different areas without any luck, as we were heading towards another hide we were kindly informed the GWT was now showing from the Discovery centre, we soon made our way around there and eventually enjoyed good scope views of the Green-winged Teal.

On the bank

Having a swim.

Green-winged Teal.

From Rye we had a quick look in at Pett Level and added 2 Great White Egrets, 25+ White Fronted Geese & several Med Gulls. On the sea there were 5+ Red throated Divers, 25+ Common Scoter and some distant Gannets.

On the way to Dungeness Rspb we saw 4 Cattle Egrets and on the reserve the highlights were a male Brambling by the feeding station and 3 male & 4 female Goldeneye on Burrowes.

Oare Marshes

When we were leaving Pett Level news reached us that there was a Green-winged Teal on the West flood at Oare Marshes (great find by CG).

So after we had finished at Dungeness we headed to Oare Marshes , however by the time we got there the GWT had done a bunk , we had a good scan and enjoyed seeing plenty Common Snipe & Redshank roosting out on the West flood, there was plenty of Pintail, Teal & Gadwall however the weather had changed and most ducks were sleeping & sheltering out of the wind.

The highlight was a 1st winter White fronted Goose close to the seawall , normally you only get fly overs here or distant views of the birds on the Sheppy side of the Swale.

White-fronted Goose.