Despite all the revision I had agreed with my mum that I could have one day to go birding. After a bit of organising I decided to have my first visit to Oare Marshes in Kent, which was right near the top of my 'Places to visit' list - I asked Calum if he wanted to join me, and it was an obvious yes, so on Halloween we met at Oare at around 11am.
However, it wasn't just another birding trip. After months of constantly forcing me to get the bird recording app BUBO, I made an account just to please him 2 days before. I was pretty shocked to find that my life list wasn't at 191 as I thought, but 199. With one bird away from 200, which I didn't expect to get this year, we had one obvious target.
As my mum drove to Oare, we parked up behind Calum with birds flying around everywhere. Getting out of the car was already brilliant - just the sight of Golden Plover everywhere was pleasing to me, having only seen one before properly. Within 30 seconds, I was scrambling to get all my kit out of the car as Calum casually called me to say he'd found a Little Stint on the East Flood. A few seconds later I was looking at my 200th UK bird through his scope, and we'd barely gone anywhere yet. To say I was happy with the somewhat meagre achievement would be an understatement.
I'd never visited Oare before, but I realised it was one of those places where there's no break in seeing things - you could just stand in one place all day, as proven when a surprise tern species flew in and landed on some mud. I got onto it expecting to see a late Arctic or Common Tern, and was surprised that it was actually a very late 1st-winter Eurasian Black Tern. The tern was around for a good 15 minutes, performing and fishing rapidly for the 8 of us present, before disappearing onto the West Flood and off to sea. It was a brilliant start.
We stood there for a good while, where we counted numerous wader species and passerines that seemed to be everywhere.
After a good while, we headed on to firstly look at the mud for waders, where there was nothing new, then to the hide to have a look for the recent American Golden Plover, or a Little Owl. We found neither though among the hundreds of European Golden Plover and ducks Calum was up to standard with his great spotting skills, finding a tagged Black-tailed Godwit.
We then decided to head on towards the Swale rivermouth, where there were still plenty of waders. Skylark were in good numbers after what seems to be a decent breeding season, and a single Knot was added to the growing list of waders (ending on 16 by the end of the day I think.) The Golden Plover were repeatedly flushed, with a single Marsh Harrier and another raptor we didn't identify sadly. There were also a few Grey Plover wandering around, just as we approached the seawatching hide.
From here we had a colony of Avocet (I counted 132,) as well as a lot of Dark-bellied Brent Geese a long way offshore. It was nice to meet Rob and Andrew (young birder,) where we talked as we watched some of the waders offshore.
Though there were no Leach's Storm Petrels or Auks etc, we had several Marsh Harrier on Sheppey. When I eventually decided to stop being lazy and actually do some looking I managed to pick up a couple of small Egrets heading down the coast, often disappearing into the long grass. They seemed a good candidate for Cattle, though it was too distant to get onto confidently. However I then picked up another egret that was much larger, and I was more sure that it was a Great White Egret.
The most numerous waders nearby were Dunlin and Common Redshank, that came fairly close to the hide (the camera I use is awful for wader photography as their heads move too fast for any pictures.) Nonetheless it was good to watch them.
For a good hour or 2 we were in that area, but as it got darker and the tide began to come further up we started to head back so we could watch the Golden Plovers reassembling on the East Flood.
Walking back we got more distracted, first by me falling into sedge with my scope and then by all the waders; while I looked for Shorelark or Rock Pipit Calum looked for SEO and Hen Harrier on Sheppey, though we were unsuccessful in all. An unidentified bird flew over with a Skylark though, with a raspy 'whit whit' call. We looked at each other, were clueless, so carried on walking.
By the time we were back at the car all the waders were starting to come back on to the flood, and we looked through all the birds hoping for something else to appear. And Calum wasn't finished, refinding the Little Stint with some Snipe and Dunlin by the reedbeds. However, just as he notified all birders of his refind I'd found another bird some way away from his, as it ran through a flock of ducks, meaning that there were at least 2 present. While my bird flew onto the mud, Calum's was better, as it flew on to the mud about 15m away from us. It showed pretty well for a few seconds, where we showed it to another birder Alan who we'd seen a few times around the reserve. I confess I'm slightly disappointed with the pics I got of it in the end, though when I upgrade my lens for the new camera hopefully it will improve.
We left on a high note, with waders everywhere.
Before we went I was thinking Oare wouldn't be as good - it looked so small on the map, and I didn't expect any of what I did see. So arguably the best birding day of the year in the end!
Thanks for reading :)
However, it wasn't just another birding trip. After months of constantly forcing me to get the bird recording app BUBO, I made an account just to please him 2 days before. I was pretty shocked to find that my life list wasn't at 191 as I thought, but 199. With one bird away from 200, which I didn't expect to get this year, we had one obvious target.
As my mum drove to Oare, we parked up behind Calum with birds flying around everywhere. Getting out of the car was already brilliant - just the sight of Golden Plover everywhere was pleasing to me, having only seen one before properly. Within 30 seconds, I was scrambling to get all my kit out of the car as Calum casually called me to say he'd found a Little Stint on the East Flood. A few seconds later I was looking at my 200th UK bird through his scope, and we'd barely gone anywhere yet. To say I was happy with the somewhat meagre achievement would be an understatement.
I'd never visited Oare before, but I realised it was one of those places where there's no break in seeing things - you could just stand in one place all day, as proven when a surprise tern species flew in and landed on some mud. I got onto it expecting to see a late Arctic or Common Tern, and was surprised that it was actually a very late 1st-winter Eurasian Black Tern. The tern was around for a good 15 minutes, performing and fishing rapidly for the 8 of us present, before disappearing onto the West Flood and off to sea. It was a brilliant start.
We stood there for a good while, where we counted numerous wader species and passerines that seemed to be everywhere.
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| 1st winter Eurasian Black Tern |
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After a good while, we headed on to firstly look at the mud for waders, where there was nothing new, then to the hide to have a look for the recent American Golden Plover, or a Little Owl. We found neither though among the hundreds of European Golden Plover and ducks Calum was up to standard with his great spotting skills, finding a tagged Black-tailed Godwit.
We then decided to head on towards the Swale rivermouth, where there were still plenty of waders. Skylark were in good numbers after what seems to be a decent breeding season, and a single Knot was added to the growing list of waders (ending on 16 by the end of the day I think.) The Golden Plover were repeatedly flushed, with a single Marsh Harrier and another raptor we didn't identify sadly. There were also a few Grey Plover wandering around, just as we approached the seawatching hide.
From here we had a colony of Avocet (I counted 132,) as well as a lot of Dark-bellied Brent Geese a long way offshore. It was nice to meet Rob and Andrew (young birder,) where we talked as we watched some of the waders offshore.
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| Golden Plover congregation [1] |
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| Golden Plover congregation [2] |
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| Golden Plover congregation [3] |
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| Avocet colony (part of) |
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| Dunlin in flight |
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| Brent Geese |
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| Golden Plover congregation [4] - this was as they arrived in at 3ish |
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| Golden Plovers |
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| Golden Plovers etc |
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| Golden Plovers etc |
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| Black-tailed Godwits etc |
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| Dunlin, mud and a Stint |
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| Golden Plover in flight |
The most numerous waders nearby were Dunlin and Common Redshank, that came fairly close to the hide (the camera I use is awful for wader photography as their heads move too fast for any pictures.) Nonetheless it was good to watch them.
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| European Golden Plover |
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| tagged BTG (so many but couldn't read tags/identify all colours) |
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| Curlew - the best british bird call? |
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| Curlew |
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| Lapwing |
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| Common Redshank |
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| Common Redshank and Grey Plover |
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| Common Redshank |
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| Grey Plover and Curlew |
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| European Golden Plovers and Dunlin |
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| Dunlin |
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| Dunlin |
Walking back we got more distracted, first by me falling into sedge with my scope and then by all the waders; while I looked for Shorelark or Rock Pipit Calum looked for SEO and Hen Harrier on Sheppey, though we were unsuccessful in all. An unidentified bird flew over with a Skylark though, with a raspy 'whit whit' call. We looked at each other, were clueless, so carried on walking.
By the time we were back at the car all the waders were starting to come back on to the flood, and we looked through all the birds hoping for something else to appear. And Calum wasn't finished, refinding the Little Stint with some Snipe and Dunlin by the reedbeds. However, just as he notified all birders of his refind I'd found another bird some way away from his, as it ran through a flock of ducks, meaning that there were at least 2 present. While my bird flew onto the mud, Calum's was better, as it flew on to the mud about 15m away from us. It showed pretty well for a few seconds, where we showed it to another birder Alan who we'd seen a few times around the reserve. I confess I'm slightly disappointed with the pics I got of it in the end, though when I upgrade my lens for the new camera hopefully it will improve.
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| Little Stint [1] |
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| Little Stint [2] |
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| Little Stint [3] |
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| Little Stint [4] |
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| Little Stint [5] |
We left on a high note, with waders everywhere.
Before we went I was thinking Oare wouldn't be as good - it looked so small on the map, and I didn't expect any of what I did see. So arguably the best birding day of the year in the end!
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| Meadow Pipit- what was a possible Rock at first |
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| Skylark |
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| 1cy Herring Gull |
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| Calum - equipment everywhere |
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| Me after falling into the reeds with my scope, or as Calum put it 'bullied by reeds' |
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