With very little to keep the interest going
on the patch I thought I’d delve into some of my past birding adventures.
Why 1993? Well, that was the year I started
to get the twitching bug. Although my first proper trip for rarities was when I
saw my first ever Waxwings in Gillingham on 19th January 1992 and
until recent years they remained a very scarce visitor. In 1993 my first real
rare was the two Alpine Swifts at Reculver on 25th April.
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| Alpine Swift at Reculver photo by Rob Wilson |
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| Alpine Swift at Reculver photo by Rob Wilson |
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| Alpine Swift at Reculver photo by Rob Wilson |
On the 6th
June came my next “twitch” when I saw the Great Reed Warbler in a reed filled
dyke along the entrance path to the hides at Elmley on the Isle of Sheppy.
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| Great Reed Warbler at Elmley photo by Mike McDonnell |
A
month later, on the 25th July it was a Marsh Sandpiper on the Radar
Pool at Cliffe followed by a Short-toed Treecreeper in the Lighthouse gardens
at Dungeness on 19th September.
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| Marsh Sandpiper at Cliffe Pools photo by Mike McDonnell |
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| Short-toed Treecreeper at Dungeness photo by Mike McDonnell |
The next big rarity was a little
closer to home, in fact just 6 miles away, at Worth, with an Isabelline Shrike.
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Isabelline Shrike at Worth photo by Mike McDonnell
The show stealer for that year however, was to come on the 5th of November.
After a week’s holiday in Cornwall with the then girlfriend I drove the coast
roads to Dorset and a visit to the Winspit Valley where Britain’s thirteenth
Red-flanked Bluetail was putting on a show. Twenty years later though they are
a regular Autumn vagrant with even the odd spring record.
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| The 13th Red-flanked Bluetail for Britain at Winspit Dorset photo Mike McDonnell |
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| The 13th Red-flanked Bluetail for Britain at Winspit Dorset photo Mike McDonnell |
