On arrival at Grove Ferry this morning the
sky was clear and the stars were out with Jupiter and Neptune both on show.
Alan was already parked up and as we got ourselves ready the cloud rolled in
and on the way to the Ramp little drops of rain were felt. We decided to go
straight to Feast hide and wait until nearer 5.45 to go to the Ramp and wait
for the Heron, on passing the Ramp a voice called out to ask if we were wimping
out on the Ramp. Norman McCanch was already in place long before we arrived so
we joined him, missed most of the light showers and waited for the target bird.
The Ruff was still present on the spit and was later joined by a Greenshank
while 2 Black-tailed Godwits were feeding on the far side, 3 Little Egrets came
out of roost and flew over and now 6 Garganey were feeding with the assorted
Teal, Shoveler, Gadwall and Mallard plus the 2 Wigeon Still. Norman got on a
small bird weaving in and out of the reeds in front of the Ramp but, as the
light improved it proved to be a young Water Rail. With Norman and I looking
towards the back of the pool we almost missed the prize, luckily Alan was
looking toward Stodmarsh when he picked up the juvenile Purple Heron flying
across the Feast hide pool and we all watched it fly out towards Marshside.
After this Norm went home for breakfast. Alan and I popped in to Feast hide
where a 3rd Black-tailed Godwit was in residence plus 2 Green
Sandpipers and another Water Rail. As we reached Harrison’s Drove we spotted 5
Whinchats along the fence line, it looks like it could be a good year with 3
two days ago and 3 in the spring, but the hide revealed only a close Green
Sandpiper.
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| Green Sandpiper at Harrison's Drove hide |
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| Green Sandpiper at Harrison's Drove hide |
Now joined by Sue Morton we headed toward the river and at 7.47am noticed,
what we thought was a, Marsh Harrier being mobbed by a pair of Kestrels. On
closer inspection, though, it turned out to be a nice Honey Buzzard the drifted
low over the Oxbow bushes and disappeared out of sight. We had hoped it may
have perched up but we could not relocate it by the time we got that far round.
Very little in the way of small birds apart from several parties of
hirrundines, notably several Sand Martins. There was almost nothing on the
Water Meadows except 3 Green Sandpipers and a short time at the lake in
Stodmarsh only gave us a Hobby, with no sign of the Great-white Egret. This
bird is probably still around as it does like to get in the pool/bay in the far
left corner (looking from Tower hide). The rest of the journey round gave us
little except 5 Stock Doves and back at
Feast hide just a Kingfisher livened up the morning. We missed all the showers
and managed to stay dry and all three of left just before midday.