Sunday 18 May 2014

A Hot Reculver

It was back to birding this morning at Reculver where after leaving home at 4.30am I had a brief drive around the lanes looking and listening for anything singing, ideally a Golden Oriole would have been nice but not this morning. I did see a Little Owl perched on a telegraph pole and there were plenty of birds in full song making for a nice dawn chorus. On my wanderings I also managed to hear 2 Nightingale singing, 1 Cetti's Warbler was heard, a year tick, 2 Chiffchaff, 1 Lesser Whitethroat, 3 Whitethroat, 2 Green Woodpecker, 3 Cuckoo, 1 Barn Owl, 1 Mistle Thrush and 5 Blackcap. After parking up at Reculver the sun was already out and after losing a few layers I walked on down the seawall to Coldharbour and inland to Chambers Wall before returning along the seawall. It was a very warm morning with little wind which made for a nice walk. Birds were busy collecting food for their young and small groups of juvenile Starlings were chasing the adults everywhere. Birds noted this morning included 25 Sandwich Tern east, 4 Swallow, 1 Sand Martin, 15 Oystercatcher, 5 Tufted Duck, 10 Linnet, 6 Meadow Pipit, 3 Redshank, 5 Ringed Plover and as I reached Coldharbour I was greeted with the emergence of thousands, if not millions of little flies. They soon become annoying but these attracted a few Yellow Wagtail and a few showed nicely for the camera allowing me to grab a few shots for the day.


Yellow Wagtail

Moving on I noted 1 Kingfisher, 4 Sedge Warbler, 5 Reed Warbler, 3 Turnstone, 4 Pheasant, 3 Common Tern, 1 Bar tailed Godwit, 1 Common Sandpiper, another year tick, 1 Grey Heron, 1 Shoveler, 1 Whimbrel, 2 Gadwall. In a mad 10 minutes at Chambers Wall I managed to add 1 Tree Pipit, 1 Grasshopper Warbler reeling c100yds east of the crossing, 2 Grey Partridge and 2 Mediterranean Gull flew west. As I walked back to the car I saw 1 Swift flying east at height, yet another year tick and my first Wall Brown of the year was on the roman wall. I then drove around to Bishopstone where I wanted to look for a Green Hairstreak, a butterfly that eludes me every year at Reculver. I checked around the gorse with no luck, only seeing 1 Common Blue but as I got back to the car 1 small dark butterfly flew by me and landed. I couldn't pick it up in the bins and as I moved forward it suddenly flew up and over the trees. All I could say was that it was dark, quite possibly a Green Hairstreak but I shall have to try again. I then spent an hour at Westbere photographing the dragonflies but I will save that write up for another day as I suspect I shall not be out much this week after work. One more week to go, then a week off, I can't wait!



Yellow Wagtail

Whilst sitting out in the garden this afternoon relaxing and having a drink I kept an eye on the skies, a few Swift passing over was about the best but at 4.25pm I caught sight of a large bird flying over which at first I assumed was going to be a Gull. As I continued to look at it, I noticed it had very dark wing tips and so run indoors to get my binoculars. As I refound the bird I was astonished to see it was a male MONTAGU'S HARRIER, garden gold. I tried to run indoors to get my camera and had my eldest daughter watch the bird. When I returned a few seconds later the bird was flying away and I was unable to lock on to it with the camera. Never mind, just goes to show, you never know whats out there. 

3 comments:

  1. Lovely colouring on that yellow wag Marc, did you have to get down to its level, or was it sat up nicely for you?

    Oh! and whats the saying......always have your camera with you! ( even when sitting in the garden!) :-)

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  2. Oh precious, these are fantastic Marc, how did you do it?????

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