Oare Marshes................ Finally !!!!!!!!!

Little Egret.

A trip to Oare Marshes today  proved very rewarding , i ended up with 55 species at this superb reserve and i FINALLY got some half decent pics of Little Egret and Sedge Warbler .

Sedge Warbler

Little Egret

Sedge Warbler

Little Egret

Sedge Warbler

Other birds of note were Hobby , 4 Avocets , 3 Black-t- Godwits , 2 Marsh Harriers  plus a couple of summer plumage Little grebes , not a bad way to spend a Sunday morning  !

                                          

Great Lifer............... In Wales !!!

Marmora's Warbler.

My destination was Blorenge in South Wales and my target was a superb 1s male Marmora's Warbler , and within minutes of arriving on site i was treated with good but brief views of this mega , it perched high on a gorse bush , then flew to are left and landed on another gorse bush then flew across the road into some low lying ferns out of sight , obviously i was relieved to have connected with this bird but wanted longer better views .

Whilst i was waiting for the hoped reappearance of the Marmora's i had very good views of Whinchat which were in magnificent breeding plumage and were not shy to show of either , also there were several Tree Pipits constantly keeping everyone entertained with there parachute display flights and there wonderful song .

And then the Marmora's reappeared on top of a holly bush giving everyone a much longer view , pale throat , grayish flank , upperparts and tail , bright red eye , orangery legs and bill with a darkish tip were all clearly seen , it was constantly calling and it was similar to a Common   Whitethroat call , i also saw it do a couple of display flights , quite simply brilliant.

Marmora's warbler.

Other birds of note were 3 Common Buzzards , a calling Raven which was only heard and not seen , a superb male Stonechat and a distant Cuckoo calling once again only heard but not seen , there was also a couple of Willow Warblers being quite vocal but shy in showing themselves.

I was about to leave when i thought i would  give it another 10 minutes and thankfully i did as i was treated to my best views of the Marmora's Warbler , i had seen it on several occasions on various bushes and it finally came to say goodbye to me by landing on a stone wall very close by and sang its heart out giving me a very prolonged view and allowing me to get some photos , ok i know my photos are not great its just i could not resist looking at the Marmora's through my scope !

On my journey there and back i counted 4 Red Kites and approx : 4 Common Buzzards .

Marmora's Warbler

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 .