A Quality Delivery at Reculver

After the past few days of seeing a good few birds in the Reculver area, it seems that I have the birding bug again and it certainly feels good to be back out and about on the patch. I had a leisurely 5 hour walk around the area today where I started at Shuart and walked out to the sea checking all the bushes on the way. From here I walked west along the seawall and inland at Chambers Wall where I then walked back along the road to complete the loop. There was some sunshine early on but it soon clouded over but remained quite pleasant out. I managed to note 66 species in the walk today which included some quality but also I missed a number of common birds. The day started well when I arrived and spent some time listening around the farm wood, the highlight being a Yellow browed Warbler which I heard calling for a few minutes around 8.20am. On my return some hours later, I also heard it again calling in the wood. Other birds of note today included 2 Ring necked Parakeet, 5 Common Buzzard, c20 Goldcrest, 1 Red legged Partridge, 4 Mistle Thrush, 2 Chiffchaff, 2 Sparrowhawk, 2 Grey Heron, 2 Great spotted Woodpecker and 4 Fieldfare. As I neared the railway crossing I could hear 2 Cetti's Warbler calling and unbelievably, a Dartford Warbler was also calling from a bush in the reeds. I waited a while and gained lovely views of the bird as it moved through the bush, occasionally coming out on top to look around. I took a few images but not a match on my shots the other day of this species. It seems to have been a good year for this species in north Kent. Moving on I noted 8 Long tailed Tit, 1 Little Owl heard, 2 Ringed Plover, c10 Siskin, c20 Reed Bunting, 2 Lesser Redpoll and as I arrived at Coldharbour I could hear Bearded Tits 'pinging' away in the reeds. I got ahead of them and got into a nice position to hopefully get a few photos and it wasn't long until I had 7 Bearded Tit in front of me showing well at close range. Despite the lack of sunshine, I managed some pleasing efforts and I just love this species, surely one of out best looking birds. I have included both a portrait and landscape effort of this species, possibly my best to date of this species. Walking on again I saw c40 Brent Geese, 9 Stonechat, 3 Little Egret, 13 Wigeon, 1 Grey Wagtail, 2 Wheatear, 5 Rock Pipit, 1 Jay and as I neared the car, 2 Swallow flew over north towards the sea. A great session with some quality seen and a few pleasing photos to end the session with. Hopefully more of the same tomorrow!

Male Bearded Tit