I arrived this morning at 5 o’clock with a
low mist/fog covering the whole valley. It is fairly quiet at the moment with
most birds busy feeding young and not many migrants about as yet, however I walked
the whole reserve stopping at various vantage points for long periods and even
managed to meet other birders enroute including Sue Morton, Adam Faiers and
John Cantelo. Another birder I met on the Ramp was a visitor for Perth Western
Australia called Ian Mayer who originally comes from this area. He was
overjoyed to see the female Garganey that has been on the Ramp pool for the
last few weeks although she was playing hard to get and took a while to show.
Birds noted today were 112 Lapwings, 5 Grey Herons, half a dozen Skylarks still
in song, several Reed Warblers and Sedge Warblers now feeding young with many
Sedge Warblers in song. The Turtle Doves seem to be on a renewed charm
offensive with birds singing in the Paddock, the Jungle and along the river by
the Water Meadows with at least 5 birds seen/heard. The three juvenile Marsh
Harriers are still around the Marsh hide/Water Meadows with a lot of
interaction and air play undertaken and also there were 3 Males and 2 females
seen. A couple of Green Woodpeckers were heard, 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker flew
over Harrison’s, a few Swifts were swirling about and 100’s of Gulls were
passing through mainly Herring Gull and Black-heads with a few Lesser and Great
Black-backs with them also, 1 Common Gull dropped onto the Ramp pool for a
while. A Kingfisher flew upriver and landed on a overhanging branch in front of
me for a while and on the Water Meadows were 7 of the 9 Green Sandpipers of
today.
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| Kingfisher |
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| Kingfisher |
Other counts included 6 Tufted Ducks, 1 Redshank, 1 Greenshank, 2 Little
Egrets, 5 Stock Doves, 3 Kestrels, 3 Common Terns, 6 Gadwall, 19 Teal, 1 Canada
Goose, 108 Greylags, 3 Great-crested Grebes and 1 Snipe (drumming), there were
three Snipe yesterday with two of them drumming.
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| Common Tern |
Also yesterday there was a
juvenile Peregrine Falcon hunting the fields in front of Newbons Farm. The
canopy in the Alder Wood had a mixed flock of Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Blue, Great
and Long-tailed Tits while back at the Ramp there was a single Ruff and a
single Black-tailed Godwit plus the female Garganey that was yesterday joined
by a male. A family of Bearded Tits were in front of the Ramp and 2 Hobbies fed
overhead and 2 distant Common Buzzards were noted. A look at Collard’s on
Saturday revealed 5 Hobbies and a family of 7 Mutes Swan (2 adults & 5
juveniles) where two of the young were the white ‘polish’ individuals like the
one Steve Ray photographed on worth. Not a lot going on with my visits to
Restharrow in Sandwich during the week before work with just a Common Sandpiper
the only wader of note, I did however have the Quail singing again on Friday
morning and while at the gate to Restharrow talking to Nigel and his wife just
a few minutes after Mr Ray had left a beautiful adult Honey Buzzard drifted
over the Elms before circling towards the Obs then heading inland.
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| Honey Buzzard |
