St Margarets Bay to Sandwich Bay Bird Observatory with Mandy and Peter Wells.

2 POSTS IN 2 DAYS! WHATS HAPPENING?

At 9.00am this morning Mandy and I set off to visit my friend Peter in St Margarets for a session of birding, we had to go via Daves house as he kindly lent me his large lens as I have not yet purchased one!

We set off and arrived at Peters soon after 10.00am, where we were kindly greeted with an offer of a nice cup of Coffee before we set off into the gloom that was all around.

We drove from Peters house down to the car park in the bay for a spot off sea watching where we spotted the following species:

Fulmar (1st sighting for Mandy and I)

Black Headed Gull

Herring Gull

Red Throated Divers ( a small flock of 16 Peter counted) another 1st for Mandy and I

Lesser Black Backed Gull

Carrion Crow

Cormorants

Robin ( in the trees within the car park)

From the bay we made our way towards Sandwich along the coast road and we spotted on the way with a few various stops the following:

Green Woodpecker

Lapwings

Curlew

House Sparrows

Guinea Fowl

Rooks

Barnacle Geese

Greylag Geese

White Fronted Geese (1st again for Mandy and I)

Jackdaws

Common Gull

We got to the bird observatory where we had a needed cup of Tea before going off towards the railway line to see what was about and the list is as follows:

Pheasant (m)

Reed Buntings

Mistle Thrush

Chaffinch

Collared Doves

Stock Doves

Kestrel (f)

 Yellowhammers

Blackbird

Moorhen

Coot

Fieldfare

Redwing

Blue Tit

Widgeon

Water Rail

Pied Wagtail

Dunlin

Golden Plover

Great Tit

Goldfinch

Song Thrush

A total of 41 Species, which with the weather situation we think was a good days birding.

The photos below were taken with Daves 70-300 Canon lens in murky conditions:

 Greylag and Barnacle Geese

 Common and Black Headed Gulls (Common on the left)

 From the front: Herring Gull, Curlew and Lapwing at rear, cannot ID the one on right?

 Greylag Geese with Golden Plovers in foreground

Deal Pier

Once again a big thanks to Peter and Nancy for their hospitality.

Click link to see a RED THROATED DIVER
http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/r/redthroateddiver/index.aspx