Patch Birding
With the light rising later in
the mornings I didn’t arrive at Grove until 5.00am to find Alan Ashdown waiting
in his new car. A quick chat as we got ready then on to the Ramp for another
gruelling session at the ‘Patch’. A Hobby came out of the gloom while hawking
over the reed bed soon after our arrival while Little Egrets were dropping in
from the back pools with a total of 12 individuals seen before they dispersed
around the reserve. Counting through the Teal I came across a 1st
year type Garganey and at 6.15am a 1st winter Mediterranean Gull
flew over the pool and headed up the valley with a couple of Black-heads while
back on the pool a further 2 Garganey appeared. There were 5 Water Rails
showing, it’s amazing how showy they become this time of year, but no matter
how hard we looked we couldn’t make any into Spotted Crakes. Joined by Sue
Morton we attempted to view the pool at Harrison’s Drove but it was mostly
obscured by very large stands of Willowherb leaving just a small distant area
on show, we did however see 6 Green Sandpipers and 1 Wood Sandpiper here. A
walk to Marsh hide proved fruitless so we trudged back to Feast hide where a
Kingfisher proved active in its fish catching suggesting it had a brood nearby even perching on the 'Chiddy Stick' for a while.
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| Kingfisher at 100th of a second in the early gloom |
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| Kingfisher at 100th of a second in the early gloom |
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| Kingfisher at 100th of a second in the early gloom |
A single Common Tern was seen, 6 Marsh Harriers including 3 juveniles and 1
male were noted and there was a single Dunlin on the Ramp pool. The journey
home had me stop at Restharrow Scrape at Sandwich Bay for an hour and half
where there were 2 Little Grebes attending their nest, 2 Little Egrets and 5
Canada Geese. There were 66 Lapwings but a young Peregrine Falcon buzzed through
a couple of times sending all birds out of the scrape although after they had
settled back a Ruff dropped in as did a Green sandpiper and a juvenile
Yellow-legged Gull.
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| Immature Peregrine Falcon |
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| Immature Peregrine Falcon |
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| Juvenile Yellow-legged Gull |
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| Juvenile Yellow-legged Gull |
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| Over exposed!! Juvenile Yellow-legged Gull |