Brian's birding blog: Solitary Sandpiper at Stodmarsh in Kent

Sunday 29 October 2023

Solitary Sandpiper at Stodmarsh in Kent

With the Jims still not able to travel I made a solo run down to Kent to give the Solitary Sandpiper a go. I arrived at 7.30am and took one of the last places available in the car park. At the reed bed hide I squeezed in and found some standing room with over thirty birders having beaten me to the front row. Viewing from a standing position was limited but I made the best of it watching as a Great White Egret dropped in, 3 Cattle Egrets flew over along with a couple of late Swallows. A Water Pipit dropped in to feed with a Grey Wagtail and a Green Sandpiper raised the pulse for a couple of seconds. Water Rail and Bearded Tit were both heard and a Kingfisher came in twice to fish in front of the hide. Marsh Harriers hunted across the reeds and I think a Ring tailed Hen Harrier was seen before I arrived.

Great White Egret

Kingfisher

Water Pipit

After four hours of standing enough people had moved on to let me have a sit down for a while. I enjoyed a chat with Graham J about his big year and generally the atmosphere in the hide was good despite the hours of waiting without news on the bird but that was to change as I started to get ready to leave when news came in that the bird had been seen flying from the pool behind Tower hide and this was followed soon by news that the bird was showing on the small mud patch by the boathouse. The hide emptied as we marched around to the boathouse and very quickly we were all enjoying good scope views of the target. Everybody was doing their best to get all the birders a view and the atmosphere was excellent as relief took over after such a long wait for the tick.