Pallid Harrier...... Near Harty Church

Juvenile Pallid Harrier.

Regular readers of this blog will know i am quite an avid twitcher and i am often of on my travels to try and see the latest rarity on offer , however one of the consequences of twitching is you often miss great birds turning up on your own doorstep which has happened to me many times over the years , however i have decided to slow down on my twitching habit this year and have been rewarded with no less then 7 new bird additions to my Kent bird list the latest being the quite glorious Juv. Pallid Harrier which showed exceptionally well both flying over and landing in the corn field below Harty church last Saturday on the 1st October.

Many thanks to Frank .C. for putting the news out that it was still present on Saturday morning , i was undecided where to try and view it from (either Oare or Sheppey) but was very pleased i went to Sheppey as it was much closer from there , it was also great to catch up with Martyn .W. amongst many other familiar faces. Here are a selection of photo's i took of the Pallid Harrier.

Digi scoped photo of the Pallid Harrier.

The weather was really awful as the morning went on with heavy downpours but our patience paid off with superb views of this cracking bird .

There were lot's of Swallows around getting ready for their long migration , plus there  were plenty of Marsh Harriers & Common Buzzards in the area.

Swallow.

Meadow Pipit.

A really enjoyable birding session in great company.

Osprey at Oare Marshes

Osprey on a post below Harty Church.

I called into Oare Marshes on 26th September to try and see the Osprey which has been around for the last few days , i parked up near the slip way and walked along the sea wall towards the sea watching hide and scanned across the Swale towards Harty church and located the Osprey perched on a post feeding on a recently caught fish , quite distant views but quality views  through the scope , i took a couple of digi phone scope pics which are pretty poor quality at that range .

Osprey eating a fish.

I could hear both Bearded Tit & Cetti's Warbler in the reeds & bushes behind me but they never showed themselves , i saw a few distant Grey Plovers and a single Whimbrel flew along the Swale.

I decided to have a look at the East flood although the tide was a long way out , however there was a scattering of waders here , there and everywhere but in much smaller numbers , Black Tailed Godwits , Lapwings & Redshank were well represented plus 10+ Ruff , 8+ Knot & single Ringed Plover & Common Snipe were seen , i also saw 2 juv Little Stints.

Juvenile Little Stint.

There was also good numbers of Golden Plover on the East Flood in various state of plumage .

Golden Plovers in various plumage's.

A scan over the West flood produced a single Hobby & 2 Swallows.

Rose-Coloured Starling at Dungeness

Juvenile Rose-Coloured Starling.

Yesterday lunch time on the 19th September i heard there was a juvenile Rose-Coloured Starling near the moat at Dungeness showing well , i have never seen one in Kent before so was quite keen to try and see this one .

Rose-Coloured Starling all fluffed up.

I soon arrived at Dungeness and more or less was straight onto the Rose-Coloured Starling which was keeping company with approx 40 Starlings , it was mainly perched high up on one of the pylons but often dropped down behind the bushes onto the ground , great scope views of this cracking bird were obtained , this is my 6th new bird for Kent this year.

The Rose Coloured Starling at one point flew down near the road into the Obs and fed on the blackberries.

Feeding on backberries.

I really enjoyed watching this bird before i decided to pop into the Rspb reserve on the way back , from the Dennis hide i saw 1 Great White Egret plus i noticed a few waders nearer to the Firth hide which needed investigating so i headed of there.

Great White Egret.

I soon located the waders once i had settled into the Firth hide and they were 1 juv Little Stint , 3 Ringed Plver , 2 Common Snipe & 2 Dunlin. There was also another  Great White Egret which soon flew off towards the other end of Burrows Pit.

2nd Great White Egret.

I had a look from the Makepeace hide and added a single Pintail plus lots of Cormorants.

Cormorants.

There were plenty of Chiffchaff in and around the bushes plus good numbers of Swallows passing overhead , another really enjoyable birding session.

Pleasant Couple of Hours at Dungeness

Red Necked Phalarope.

I spent an enjoyable couple of hours at Dungeness yesterday , my primary aim was to see the Red Necked Phalarope which was being seen at the southern end of the Arc pits , viewing is not easy at this end of the Arc pits because you are more or less standing on a very busy road , i have often wondered why there are no pull ins along this section or even a hide ??

Anyhow i managed to park my car off road near a gate and walked back to view the Arc pits , the Red Necked Phalarope was quite distant but great scope views were obtained although the digi scoped photos are very much record shot only , it often spent alot of time out of view staying behind the hedge row but every so often it appeared in full view  , i also saw a single Little Stint which flew across the pits towards the back.

Whinchat .

After briefly calling into the Rspb reserve to use the facilities and having no luck in locating the Cattle Egret i headed to Galloways to look for migrants and was rewarded with 4 Whinchats and a single Wheatear which was unfortunate to have a 'tick' on top of its bill.

Whinchat.

Wheatear.

Standing tall.

Wheatear with ' Tick '

Oare Marsh ..... New Patch Tick

Juvenile Little Stint.

I paid another couple of  visits this week to Oare Marshes firstly on the 29th August , a really enjoyable session with 17 different species of wader seen , the obvious highlights being the great numbers of both Little Stint & Curlew Sandpipers.

6 juv Little Stints.

It's really hard to get an accurate count of these tiny gems as they are always on the move but i counted at least 1 ad & 13 juvenile Little Stints at one time , there were probably alot more , i also counted 5 adult & 20+ juv Curlew Sandpipers .

2 juv Curlew Sandpipers .

There were so many waders to sort through and know doubt other birders will have different numbers to what i saw ,  a single Greenshank was constantly calling and 3 Spotted Redshank flew out to the Swale.

3 Spotted Redshanks.

But the highlight of the day was an Osprey which was picked out flying over the Swale by Alan Pavey (good to meet you), this was a new species for my Oare marsh bird list.

Osprey photo taken on North Uist.

On the 31st August i arrived about an hour before high tide , the usual large numbers of Black Tailed Godwit , Avocet , Redshank & Golden Plover were obvious and there seemed to be Little Stints everywhere with a conservative count of 21 (19 juvs & 2 ads) .

There were two Wheatears on the West flood which were good to see.

Wheatear.

There was also 2 or 3 Reed Warblers showing near the pull in .

Reed Warbler.

After checking through all the waders i walked past the East Flood hide and saw a Whinchat on the fence line , there was also 2 Clouded Yellow's  along the track .

1 of 2 Clouded Yellows.

Other birds of note were 8 Curlew Sandpipers (all juvs) & 1 Greenshank.

Baird's Sandpiper at Reculver

Baird's Sandpiper at Coldharbour Lagoon Reculver.

News of an adult Baird's Sandpiper showing well at Reculver on the evening of Friday 26th August was to good to miss , i have seen several before but never one in Kent .

Having a feed.

A really cracking bird to see at close quarters , it was keeping company with a Curlew Sandpiper alot of the time .

Curlew Sandpiper & Baird's Sandpiper.

Redshank , Baird's Sandpiper & Curlew Sandpiper.

There was also a single Black Tailed Godwit which are scarce birds here and a juv Little Stint was also present along with 5 Dunlin.

Black Tailed Godwit.

Little Stint.

Little Stint .

Other birds seen here were single Greenshank & Green Sandpiper plus 30+ Oystercatchers flew west , there was also approx 30 Swallows passing through.

A really great find by Matt Hindle , and after checking my records the Baird's Sandpiper was not only a Reculver & Kent tick i also added Little Stint , Curlew Sandpiper & Black Tailed Godwit to my Reculver bird list.

Baird's Sandpiper & Curlew Sandpiper.