Sunday 21 October 2012

MEGA at Reculver this Evening

I was happily at home this afternoon helping my eldest daughter with her homework when I had a call from Chris Hindle. I didn't get to the phone in time but I had a voicemail from Chris alerting  me to an absolute MEGA at Reculver, an Olive backed Pipit that had been found by Matt Hindle. I quickly arranged to go out which did not go down well but a few minutes later I was in the car and hastily driving down the Thanet Way to Chambers Wall. After parking up I ran the rest of the way and joined Chris, Matt, Anne, Derek and a couple of other birders. Matt soon put me on to the Olive backed Pipit (173) which spent a lot of time crawling around the base of bushes and long grass but views were good enough to see the features needed to clinch this species. Other birders began to arrive and thankfully the Pipit sat up in a bush for a few minutes and allowed me to grab probably the worst shots I could have taken but considering the light and high ISO's they could have turned out worse. Photos or not, what a cracking bird to be able to study and it goes without saying that this is a new Kent and Reculver bird for me. With the light getting worse and the rain starting again I left the others to it and returned home a very happy man. This is Reculver at its best. A big well done to Matt Hindle for finding the bird and hopefully it will be around in the morning for others to see and appreciate. With a fresh north easterly wind forecast for this morning with rain I thought I had better do a seawatch as this is where most of my gaps in the year list seem to be. I arrived at a dark Reculver at 6.45am and as it got light Chidders arrived and pulled up in the car park. Not really wanting to leave the car as it was pouring down I made my way up to the towers where soon after I was in position in hope of a good seawatch. The wind was nowhere near as strong as predicted and we saw very little indeed. Birds we noted were c60 Oystercatcher, 3 Cormorant, 6 Brent Geese, 1 Rock Pipit and 1 Black throated Diver offshore still. For some unknown reason we then decided to walk along the seawall in search of Shorelarks and Snow Buntings. We got absolutely soaked to say the least but a little reward lie in wait as I found a Little Gull (172) sitting on the beach. We took a few shots as it sat looking very sorry for itself before it eventually flew off high west. I would publish one of the shots but they really were quite bad. Further along Chidders was just showing me where he had seen some Snow Bunting the day before when 1 Snow Bunting appeared on cue. It too, looked very wet and fed up but I took a couple of shots in the pouring rain. Normally this photo would never make it to be published but its the best I could manage today and shows how wet we all got today. Other bits seen through wet, soggy eyes and binoculars were 2 Rock Pipit, 4 Meadow Pipit, 2 Little Egret and c40 Linnet. Hopefully the week ahead will allow for a few better shots of the Buntings and Larks in sunny conditions.

10 comments:

  1. It really was a crap day weatherwise today Marc! At least you saw a few nice bits :-)

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  2. Bonita captura del Escribano nival.Saludos

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  3. Beautiful photo! I like the rocks and pebbles as a background. Lots of nice texture.

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  4. You have got two elusive birds, the Olive backed Pipit and the Snow Bunting, what a brilliant catch.

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  6. Sorry about the 'delete' Marc some poor spelling on my part....and you a teacher!

    Great stuff on the OBP, and at least some record shots Marc.

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  7. A great bird Pete and hopefully it will be around tomorrow for everyone to catch up with, maybe I will even get some better shots although I can't complain the last few days can I ?

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  8. Congrats on seeing the mega bird! The Snow Bunting photo is beautiful!!

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  9. I told you that your time will come. Well done mate

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