Saturday 3 April 2010

Oare Marshes and Sevenoaks Nature Reserve on Good Friday with Mandy

Yesterday, Mandy and I left at 09.15 and drove to Oare Marshes near Faversham, we arrived at around 10.15 and got the gear set up etc and started our walk.The first thing Mandy spotted was a black Labrador running around looking lost and as he came our way Mandy grabed him and was checking his name tag "Shadow" looking for a phone number when a few gentlemen appeared and turned out it was their dog.

 The tide was out and we managed to spot on the mud flats at lot of Black Headed Gulls, Curlew, Redshanks? and Shelducks. The wind was fierce and cold as well as refreshing and we could not really hear any birds calling, our next spots were Greylag Geese, Coots, Oystercatchers and a small group of Teals. Magpie was the next one along and this was soon followed by Mallards and Shovelors and what I believe to be Black Tailed Godwits? (see photos). Little Egret gave a good showing to us along with Moorhen and Tufted Duck, and as we drove out we spotted Pheasant and Blackbird. We only spent an hour and a quarter due to the fierce wind as a lot of birds must have been taking shelter from it.

These are Black Tailed Godwits
Little Egret


Black Tailed Godwits again

This is a Redshank
This is a Curlew.

All photos digiscoped.

From Oare Marshes we decided to go to Sevenoaks Nature Reserve as they have a nice visitor centre with a Snack Bar and toilets. The 1st spots from there were Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit and the raucous call of the Green Woodpecker.
Magpies were also spotted and a lone Pied Wagtail. We went to the Tyler Hide which overlooks the main lake, and on the way there Mandy spotted movement in a tree and we got the binoculars on it and it was a Chiffchaff, and from the hide we spotted Mallard, Lapwing, Coot, Moorhen and Mandy spotted not 1 but 4 Little Ringed Plovers.
 Chaffinch could be heard calling and then a lot of immature Common Gulls. Wood Pigeon and Carrion Crow spotted along with Teal and Tufted Ducks and we estimate at no less then 7 Snipes, Canada Geese and Greylag Geese and a pair of Cormorants and a Great Crested Grebe along with 1 Mute Swan and I am sure Swallows were darting about above the water surface feeding in large quantities. From the Tyler Hide we made our way back to the car park and went to the small hide and spotted Dunnock, Robin and Blackbird.

4 comments:

  1. All your birds ID'd correctly Phil well done mate!

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  2. Phil & Mandy ,
    Another good haul of species .
    Nice to see the Godwits as they come into summer plumage .
    Great record of 4 LRP at Sevenoaks .

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  3. Nice list for day and no problems with the ID Phil. Smart pics of the Little Egret. FAB.

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