Returning Bonaparte's Gull & 200 up for Oare Marshes

                                                7th July 2022  :  Oare Marshes

                                                         

Bonaparte's Gull on East Flood.

On the 7th July i was checking the East Flood and saw the Adult Bonaparte's Gull roosting among Black tailed Godwit's , this is it's 10th Year running it has returned to Oare Marshes , first being seen in 2013.

The Bonaparte's Gull is always in pristine condition when it returns for the summer and this year is no different.

Bonaparte's Gull.

200  Up For Oare Marshes

Night Heron with Little Egret.

First seen on the 6th July late in the evening by Johnathan Boyce Leigh it was then all systems go on the evening of the 7th July and we were all waiting and hoping the Night Heron would do a repeat performance and thankfully it did .

It flew in at about 21.40 landed briefly in the North east corner then walked into the reeds out of sight.

Flying into the North east corner of East Flood.

I went again on the 9th & 11th July as well, on the 9th the Night Heron landed near a Little Egret and had a walk around for approx 5 mins, whereas on the 11th it flew straight in and dropped out of sight behind the reeds straight away, both nights it came in at roughly 21.40-45.

Black-Crowned Night Heron.

The Night Heron is my personal 200th bird species for Oare Marshes.

Of Note : The Night Heron was the 1st record for Oare Marshes so congrats to JBL on his superb find.

 

                                    

Special Visitor to the Garden ....

                                             27th June  to 5th July 2022

                                            Special Visitor to my Garden

                                                             

Juvenile Turtle Dove on my car roof !!!

On the 27th June in the late afternoon we had just had a storm with lot's of thunder and heavy rain , for no particular reason i happen to just look out the back window and noticed a Dove sat on top of my car roof , well i get lot's of Collared Doves visit my garden but very rarely do they sit on my car.

My first thought was it could be unwell or trying to avoid 1 of the 3 'Terror Cats' in the area which i have nicknamed : 

' Killer Cat ',  a fat black & white cat that i have seen chase down Grey Squirrel.

'Wild Cat', a Tabby which seems quite docile but looks very much like a Wild Cat .

'Shadow', a black cat that used to use my garden as a toilet and lurks in the shadows !!

Nothing like an active imagination to make the day go by i guess..... anyhow back to the mystery Dove on my car roof, well i grabbed my camera and took a couple of distant photos and on checking them i realised i was looking at a Juvenile Turtle Dove !!!!

Having a feed on mixed seed.

I only have a very small urban garden and certainly never expected to see such a special bird like a Turtle Dove here.

Waiting for me to put some more seed down

Often spent time sleeping in next doors tree.

Liked this aerial for some reason.

Lovely markings.

Having another snooze.

I feel very privileged to have had this wonderful Turtle Dove make a brief appearance in my garden and share a small part of it's life with me.

I first saw it on the 27th June and last saw it on 5th July , so in total it spent 9 days on & off here, by the time it departed it was beginning to show some neck markings .

Turtle Dove.

 

Wandale Farm & Bempton Cliffs Rspb

                                                         2nd July 2022    

                                                         Wandale Farm

                                                                 

Turkestan Shrike adult ♂

An early morning trip to Yorkshire with RR & AE on Saturday 2nd July was rewarded with superb views of an adult male Turkestan Shrike which was a new bird for all of us.

Initial views were distant as it remained in a distant hedge row but as the day warmed up the Turkestan Shrike become much more active and eventually flew alot closer.

Here are a selection of Digi-scoped photos i took :

Turkestan Shrike.

Really enjoyed seeing this bird to the back drop of Yellowhammer & Corn Bunting which were in great voice, also plenty of Tree Sparrows were in the adjacent fields and a Little Owl put in an appearance for a short while.

Bempton Cliffs Rspb

Black-Browed Albatross with Gannets.

A short walk back to Bempton Cliffs was very rewarding with superb views of the Black-Browed Albatross resting on the Cliff amongst Gannets.

Black-Browed Albatross.

Eventually the Black-Browed Albatross had a fly around often very close to the cliff !!

Black-Browed Albatross 

A truly wonderful experience especially when you factor in the 1000's of seabirds on view including Puffin, Razorbill, Guillemot & Fulmar.

 

Caspian Tern at Dungeness Arc

                                     25th June 2022 :    Dungeness Arc 

                                                

Caspian Tern hidden behind Cormorants.

A bit late with this blog post, however on the 25th June i was sitting in the Hanson hide at Dungeness Arc with AE and looking for Black necked Grebes without luck, i moved to another part of the hide to have another scan for them when AE casually as you like said and i quote ' I have got a Caspian Tern '.

My immediate reaction was to look at him and he repeated what he said and added it's behind the Cormorants !!

Sure enough i found myself soon looking at a stonking Caspian Tern, another great find by AE.

The Caspian Tern took to flight giving some great views close by the hide, we put the news out to the locals and the bird news services.

Ploddingbirder was the first to arrive followed by the Dungeness Obs crew and one or two others , thankfully the Caspian Tern stayed on view for approx 50 minutes so most people got to see it.

Here are a selection of photos taken by AE :

Caspian Tern.

Also seen on the deck.

With a Common Tern.

Having a wash.

With a Black headed Gull.

Caspian Tern.

Of Note :   This bird was unringed

Recent Kent Highlights

                                     27th May  2022  :    Worth  Marshes

                                                       

Eleonora's Falcon.

Where else to start than Worth Marshes , having seen the Eleonora's Falcon briefly the previous day (26th) from Restharrow scrape news that it had been re-found at Worth Marshes by AL & ND had us heading out there later in the day for much better views.

Eleonora's Falcon.

Also present on the 27th May at Worth Marshes was a superb 1st summer Red-Footed Falcon.

Red-Footed Falcon.

30th May 2022 :  South Foreland

After only having a very brief view of the Sardinian Warbler on Saturday afternoon (28th) and not even hearing it call or in song left me feeling a bit disappointed , although i saw the bird the view was very poor and in all honesty and after alot of soul searching  i really felt i could not add it to my Kent Bird List on those views.

However another early morning trip on Monday the 30th was very successful, the Sardinian Warbler was heard in song several times plus i also heard it call frequently , i did see it in flight several times and perched briefly in a bush, so i can now happily with a clear conscience add it to my Kent Bird List !!!   

2nd June 2022  :  Worth Marshes

Eleonora's Falcon.

I couldn't resist another look at this magnificent bird at Worth Marshes which has delighted so many people during it's stay , not only is it a first record for Kent but i believe it's the first ever twitchable  Eleonora's in the UK .

Eleonora's Falcon.

There was also a very good supporting cast including a Honey Buzzard over the car park plus several Hobby over Great Wood and the Red Footed Falcon also flew over the car park.

Distinctive white head.

Red Footed Falcon.

As i write this the last sighting of the Eleonora's Falcon was on Saturday morning (4th June) and the last sighting of the  Red Footed Falcon was on Saturday afternoon also on the 4th June.

Many thanks to the RSPB  & SBBO for arranging & manning the car parking on site.

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 !!