Yesterday and today were almost exactly the
same, just like one of those competitions that has two pictures side by side
that look identical but have subtle differences to be looked for. Yesterday on
arrival at the Ramp there were 1 Greenshank, 1 Ruff and 2 Green Sandpipers on
the spit today, there were 2 Greenshank, 1 Ruff and 1 Green Sandpiper on the
spit, and so it was throughout the weekend almost the same but with little
fluctuations. Chiddy and I saw the juvenile Purple Heron from Harrison’s hide
at 6.20am yesterday today, Rick Smith and Chiddy had it from Harrison’s at
midday! Bothe days had 5-6 Turtle Doves, 1 Little-ringed Plover, 8+ Stock
Doves, 4 Grey Herons and a similar number of Lapwings. There were 11 Green
Sandpipers yesterday and 7 Today, 6 Black-tailed Godwits yesterday, 4 today.
There were other differences of course with just 5 Little Egrets in front of
the Ramp yesterday whereas today 5 flew North followed by another 5 a couple
hundred yards behind them before 5.30am while another 5 were from Harrison’s
hide mid-morning. There were 3 Garganey over the weekend, 1 Kingfisher, a
westward movement of 180+ Swifts, a trickle of Swallows and Martins, a Bittern
several small parties of Bearded Tits and 7 Marsh Harriers. All in all a fairly
quiet weekend with Reed and Sedge Warblers feeding young as were a few Whitethroats, Green and Great-spotted
Woodpeckers were seen and heard regularly and a Whimbrel flew south west
calling on Saturday. Two Ring-necked Parakeets today were the first for many a
month and the only other raptors of the weekend were a couple of Kestrels. A few
juvenile Water Rails are starting to show now so there may be some Spotted
Crake reports in the coming weeks, let’s hope they will be genuine!
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| Water Rail juvenile at Harrison's hide |
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| Water Rail juvenile at Harrison's hide |
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| Goldfinch at the Ramp |
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| Goldfinch at the Ramp |
Restharrow Scrape at Sandwich before work
every morning is still not producing much although the Duck and Geese numbers
are increasing but, no Waders as such yet save the odd Green Sandpiper. The
morning of the first did produce a Garganey which stayed the next two mornings
and the Mediterranean Gull numbers are starting to build up with a maximum of 3
so far. On Friday 163 Black-headed Gulls passed through the Scrape with every
one being a juvenile and also on Friday I had a Whinchat there, my first of the
Autumn. Stopping on the way home toady there were 3 Common Sandpipers there so perhaps now we may start getting something.
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| Common Sandpiper |
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| Common Darter |
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| Black-tailed Skimmer |
