Brian's birding blog: Catching up

Just realised I haven't written a diary post on the blog since 18th May so here's a little catch up post....

A busy day on 19th meant I didn't get any time for birding but a trip to drop the grandchildren to school on 20th gave an opportunity for an hour at Rainham whilst letting the traffic die down a little. The walk from the top car park to the visitor centre and back gave up 52 species without highlight.

The 21st saw me back over the George for a couple of hours and a count of 54 species with the highlight being 3 Sanderling found by Ian L before I arrived. The birds lingered until the contractors took the mower on to the causeway and flushed them. Also present was the a single Common Sandpiper and 3 Raven with one showing on the footpath and two up on the pilons.

Raven

Mowing the causeway

On the 22nd I headed down to Thursley Common with Dad and Jim arriving around 6am we walked out to find the common alive with bird song. We had good views of multiple Wood Lark. Tree Pipit and Dartford Warbler and managed a short view of a female Common Redstart before we headed back to the car for the 15mile journey to our chosen Honey Buzzard watchpoint. Again we were hearing Wood Lark, Tree Pipit and Yellowhammers as we watched the regular Red Kites and Buzzards. Eventually we had good views of a couple of Honey Buzzard, a Goshawk and a Sparrowhawk but all remained distant and having left my camera battery at home I was quite pleased I hadn't missed too many opportunities today although the Dartfords did show really well at Thursley.

The 23rd saw me walk the George again finding a single Whimbrel, Common Sandpiper and Oystercatcher for my trouble. A single Raven was seen but it appears the youngsters have moved on to better feeding grounds now.

Whimbrel

Common Sandpiper

Sand Martin (or Bank Swallow if you like)

I didn't get any birding on 24th but was back on the George first thing on 25th. I found 2 Little ringed Plover on the causeway and a Whimbrel still lingering with 3 Common Sandpipers. On south basin I found both Oystercatchers resting and managed a picture which isn't easy as they're usually very flighty.

Oystercatchers

Great crested Grebe

South basin

Mallard

Yesterday (the 26th May) I headed up to Wallington and enjoyed a nice walk around the local fields. I enjoyed a brief view of a single Spotted Flycatcher for a year tick and then had a brief view of a Little Owl which was lost to view (and on private land) before I could get the camera on it. Red Kites flew around me and a walk further down the road delivered great views of numerous Corn Bunting and Skylarks but proved a tad early to pick up any calling Quail. I enjoyed watching the local Hares too.