Oare Marsh "they've got it right"

The people looking after Oare Marsh have got it spot on. The management team should be congratulated on a job well jobbed. Water levels are perfect, fringes well managed, the grazing is well controlled and the whole thing is just spot on. A big well done!

Seven species in this frame......(listed at the foot of this post!) 

We visited last Sunday and I left convinced I'd found a small sandpiper but not quite sure enough to nail it. When on Monday morning a White-rumped Sandpiper was reported that gave me the ID I'd been looking for. Bad light and distance preventing a guaranteed ID on the day.

Bonny!

Where's Bonny.......You can just see the head to the right of the Avocet behind the Golden Plovers head.

A return was on the cards and today we arrived at first light and enjoyed the reserve until late afternoon but failed to find the WRS with reports that it was flushed by a Marsh Harrier and then failed to settle yesterday.
But our failure to refind the target and nail the ID was quickly forgotten with the rewards that the marsh delivered today.

Black-tailed Godwit (One of several hundred on East flood today)

Blackwit.

Cormorant

Wood Sandpiper

Little Stints

Little Grebe

Pochard

10 Little Stint
5 Curlew Sandpiper
3 Knot
4 Little Ringed Plover
12 Ringed Plover
18 Ruff
16 Greenshank
1 Woodsandpiper
1 Common Sandpiper
4 Greensandpiper
I Spotted Redshank
1 Peregrine
1 Swift (think that may well be the last for the year)
1 Bonapartes Gull (Getting harder to find in winter plumage)
1 Great Black-backed Gull
2 Common Gull
Dozens of Black-headed Gull
2 Lesser Black-backed Gull
3 Common Tern
1 Whinchat (Jimmy found this little gem on the western side where it spent the whole day)
3 Snipe
16 Yellow Wagtails
Loads of Dunlin, Golden Plover, Black-tailed Godwit, Redshank, Lapwing and Avocet
Along with a steady list including hundreds of hirundines.

Oh and we had some entertainment with the Red Arrows and a Vulcan flying through.

The Red Arrows

Vulcan

Overall a cracking day watching birds even if the WRS failed to make it on the year list despite being 99% sure we'd seen it last week.

Answer to the seven species question above........How did you do?  
Black-headed gull, Golden Plover, Little Stint, Dunlin, Avocet, Redshank and Bonapartes Gull.