Monday 9 January 2012

RUFF ROUND THE EDGES

Friday found four of us at Dungeness for the day with the sole intent of boosting the year list; messrs Wells, Woolhouse ,Mcvail, and myself went first to the fishing boats for the glaucous gull which was found easily enough the caspian gull was not.The ARC pits  had drake smew and goldeneye to drool over and a couple of chiffs on the willow trail were a bonus kingfisher and tree sparrow were good too.The long tailed duck was on the RSPB reserve and two great egrets were quite active.From here it was Scotney and finallyWalland marsh for the Bewick swans and the harrier roost with a Merlin for good measure..A very good days birding with lots of sunshine and about 70 species seen.
KINGFISHER ARC PITS

LONG TAILED DUCK

LONG TAILED DUCK IN A FLAP

LONG TAILED DUCK

GREAT WHITE EGRET

TWO OF THE 33 BEWICKS SAWNS ON WALLAND MARSH.
Apologies for the poor quality pics but nothing came close today.

Today Monday it was the turn of Oare to add to the list; I want to get to a 100 before going to India,I was picked up at 8 by Charlie Stokes and arrived about half an hour later. The light was dismal but there were plenty of ducks and waders on view,and a single greenshank from the west hide had the honour of bringing up my century,got there before Sachin Tendulkar(lol).After lunch there was time for a quick visit to Stodmarsh and a sticky walk to the marsh hide was rewarded with water rail, snipe,ruff  water pipit and redshank .
RUFF

WATER RAIL

WATER RAIL

REDSHANK

RUFF No 2 from the Marsh hide
There was no sign of the Glossy Ibis presumably disturbed by the ground works that have taken place recently,which should pay dividends in the spring.

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