Oare and Elmley

Spotted Flycatcher

I woke early this morning and decided to take the Jims down to Faversham as they still hadn't seen the Black Kite. We arrived on site at around 7.30am and had to wait around an hour before we had a distant sighting of the target as it flew along the far ridge of the valley but it was enough for them to tick it. We waited a couple of hours but it didn't return despite several Common Buzzard and a Sparrowhawk showing. We left to search the local lanes and found a pair of Turtle Dove before pulling into the local church were we found Spotted Flycatcher and a Hobby flashed through too. Then the pager buzzed into life with the message MEGA ALERT : Pacific Swift Trimley Marsh. Now we were in Kent over a hundred miles away and thought the swift would be a fly through so we carried on birding in Kent with a visit to Oare Marsh  followed by a trip to Elmley with the pager buzzing with messages of conflict ranging from "not seen since xxx" to "re found at xxx" along with "police on site issuing parking tickets" and "park in village and WALK to the reserve then follow the track for THREE miles" so we decided to give it a miss which could be a decision we live to regret but hopefully the bird will show again as it makes it's journey down the east coast. Swift dilemma aside we had a decent day down in Kent.

Meadow Pipit at Oare Marsh

Little Egret at Elmley

Oyster Catcher at Elmley

Marsh Harrier and Lapwing

Swallowtail Butterflies at Strumpshaw Fen

I took a drive up the A11 today with Suzanne and Tia. After walking the dunes on the coast we headed back towards Strumpshaw Fen in the hope that the warmer weather might bring a few Swallowtail butterflies out to play. We parked up and made the short walk around the back of the reserve away from the visitor centre. A short way down the track we found the flower garden we were looking for and after a short wait a couple of Swallowtails flew in and started to feed. Large White, Peacock, Orange Tip and Brimstone also enjoyed the flower bed whilst we had views of Marsh Harrier from the garden and could hear Cuckoo and Bittern too. We enjoyed a nice pub lunch on the banks of the Broads at Burlingham and then we made the journey south.

Swallowtail butterfly

Swallowtail

Swallowtail

Swallowtail

Swallowtail butterfly

Brimstone Butterfly

Long Tailed Duck at Canada Water Rotherhithe WHY?

After reading a couple of blogs regarding the Long Tailed Duck that has decided to spend some time in the middle of Rotherhithe on a small area of water in the middle of a retail park next to Canada Water station I couldn't help but take the short fifteen mile drive to check it out.

Long Tailed Duck

Long Tailed Duck

Firstly I was amazed to find free parking, that's not expected anywhere in London but I parked up and walked across past the station to view the water. I quickly found the Long Tailed Duck in the middle of the pool so occupied myself with Heron and Cormorant while I waited for the sea duck to come closer and eventually it did as did a pair of Common Tern as the male brought fish to the female before mating took place.

Grey Heron

Cormorant

Reptile Eyes

Common Tern (with Stickleback) 

Long Tailed Duck

Why this sea duck has decided to drop in on a fresh water pool and taken a liking to bread is beyond me but it appears healthy enough and dives for almost a minute at a time so hopefully it'll find it's way home soon.

Black Kite at Selling near Faversham Kent

I was down at Pegwell Bay this morning at 6am looking more in hope than expectation for the Bee-Eater that spent the weekend there. I thought I heard the bird around 7am but couldn't find it despite a good search. A pair of Turtle Doves, a Cuckoo and several Ring Necked Parakeet kept me entertained but as I stood watching with the warden and another guy at around 8am they saw the Bee-Eater take flight and head off high to the west but I have to admit that I couldn't be sure I'd got it in my bins which disappointed me.

Black Kite

Black Kite

I searched the reserve again and walked through to the playing fields beyond searching wires etc as I went but only found a Peregrine Falcon for my trouble sitting on the old shell of the power station.
At 10am news came through that a Black Kite was still present at Selling so I decided to try for that and made the 25mile trip back toward home up the A2 exiting at the M2 junction and driving the narrow lanes toward Selling. I parked up on the triangle and walked back to the area where Lee Evans and a few other birders had gathered and just in time too as the Black Kite flew in across the valley and came really close before turning and heading back over the trees only to be re found sitting in a tree giving excellent scope views. The bird is very flat winged with obvious fingers and light shoulder lines with that obvious kite rudder of a tail but not the fork we are used to seeing with our Red Kites.
This is my first Black Kite and moves the year list to 250 too.

Black Kite

The images are from distant and heavily cropped but I hope capture some of the birds character.

Good birding at Minsmere

We took a trip up the A12 today to the RSPB's top reserve that is Minsmere. It's 110 miles from home so we set off early and were walking down the North Wall before 7.30am before the visitor centre opened and had the reserve pretty much to ourselves.

Bittern in flight from Island Mere hide

We stopped at the Stone Curlew watch point where a pair have made the reserve home this year but we failed to find them and the Red Backed Shrike reported yesterday looked to have moved on too and you couldn't blame it as the temperature was around 5 degrees, the sky was grey and the wind was quite strong too which caught us be surprise after the recent warmer weather but must have caused the Shrike to rethink it's locale.

Bittern

A couple of Bearded Tit pinged briefly whilst Cetti's, Sedge and Reed Warbler were noisier and a little
more showy. We had the bonus of an Otter run across North Wall in front of us and it showed again fishing in front of East Hide a few minutes later where we also had a pair of Garganey and displaying Avocets.
From the public hide we picked up a pair of Little Terns along with a summer plumaged Knot.

Avocets

Marsh Harrier

Otter

I picked up a distant Skua on the sea which I'd like to say was Pomarine with it's soft flappy flight but in truth it was too distant to be sure. From South hide we picked up Little Gull and Jimmy found a summer plumaged Little Stint to give us all a year tick. Ringed Plovers were present in good numbers with a couple of Dunlin and a few Black Tailed Godwits. Lot's of Marsh Harriers showed even giving us a food pass before we enjoyed good views of no fewer than three Bitterns. In all the day delivered 82 seperate bird species which in the conditions was a reasonable count for June.

More of Oare and a bonus Bonaparte's Gull

I made a trip to Oare Marsh today with Suzanne, she likes this reserve because you can park up and see the birds from the car so while I walked Tia around she sat birdwatching (reading her book) in the car.

Bonaparte's Gull

Anyway dog walked I got down to some birding and quickly found the Bonaparte's gull amongst the Black Heads on one of the islands. This was a bonus being my second Bonnie of the year and a bird I hadn't gone looking for today. Lot's of Black Tailed Godwit had been pushed onto the reserve by the rising tide of the Swale and a couple of pairs of Avocet waded around with Redshank and Oystercatcher.The creeks held a few Little Egret and a Grey Heron. On the duck front I counted Pochard, Shelduck, Shoveler, Tufted, and Mallard along with Greylag Goose and Mute Swan. As for the smaller guys just Linnet  Meadow Pipit, Skylark, Swift , Swallow and a Yellow Wagtail were noted. As for Raptors I only saw a Kestrel and a Marsh Harrier today. (Oh and a couple of Buzzard on the drive down so not a bad day out)

Little Egret and Redshank

Black Tailed Godwit

Little Grebe chick

Swift

Black Tailed Godwits 

The Swift is the start of a mission to get a better Swift photograph this year.

Now...where to tomorrow?

Ring Necked Parakeet at Richmond Park

I had the pleasure of dropping my youngest and his girl at Heathrow this morning as they head out to San Francisco for a week with the family and then a week in Vegas (It's a hard life!). The M25 gave us a little drama but luckily I've worked west London over the years and managed to duck around the orbital car park and get them to the terminal in good time. Being in the area I decided on a stop at Richmond Park before making the drive home where I found both Red and Fallow deer in large numbers and eventually found a few Ring Necked Parakeet low enough for the camera to come out of the bag and snap a couple of shots.

Ring Necked Parakeet

Ring Necked Parakeet

Ring Necked Parakeet

Ring Necked Parakeet

Ring Necked Parakeet

Red Deer

Fallow Deer