After school had restarted on the 4th September, a week in to my A Levels and it felt like I hadn't been out birdwatching in years. So I was unsurprising thrilled when
Shaun Ferguson offered me a lift to go to Kent for a day's birding, with the main aim of twitching a mobile American Golden Plover on the Isle of Sheppey.
Shaun kindly picked me up at around 05:30am, we reached Sheppey shortly after first light, and so headed towards the raptor viewpoint. Regardless of the American Golden Plover, I was sure that I'd have an awesome day as the weather was promising and it was my first trip to Sheppey (even if there weren't any owls...) As we drove towards the viewpoint, dozens of Red-legged Partridge were collecting in groups alongside the road, while our first Wheatear of the day (the first time I'd seen a male) appeared to have woken up on a fence post. Fortunately, the light was unbelievable and a photographer's dream, so watching Brown Hare and the Partridge glowing in the golden light was the dream start to the day. A brief stop for a few Buzzard and Marsh Harrier was interrupted by 3 Green and 1 Common Sandpiper, while Western Yellow Wagtails were constantly calling overhead.
Once we'd scrambled our way on to a steep bank, with rubbish dumped at the base in the car park, and admiring a female Wheatear down below us, the whole group of Goldies were suddenly spooked from the field we had been previously been looking in. Luckily, they flew straight towards us. In a scramble of trying to see if it was hidden in the flock of a hundred or so birds, I rattled off as many shots as possible on the wrong settings, and it was a relief to hear Shaun say he could definitely see the bird, which I quickly got on to. This was confirmed soon after by the incoming stream of birders arriving on site, and so we were really pleased to have got such good views of it in flight. Unfortunately, the fields were opposite a popular nudists beach, making an already awkward job of carrying binoculars, telescopes and cameras all the more difficult! By the time we left around 80 minutes later, we had enjoyed views of various other birds (with Yellow Wagtails being the soundtrack of the day) while many more birders arrived to see the bird showing distantly and intermittently. Here are some pictures showing the ID between the American and European Golden Plovers.
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| Spot the AGP |
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| Spot the AGP |
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| Spot the AGP |
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| AGP with European Golden Plover - bird at the bottom |
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| American Golden Plover |
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| American Golden Plover - ID features in these pictures. Slightly smaller size with a dusky-coloured underwing (European has a white underwing;) the American Golden also has a much more extensive supercilium (the white band over the eye,) with an overall darker plumage. Though not obvious in this, the legs project beyond the tail, unlike the European Golden Plovers. |
Our departure from Shellness was in good spirits and so we decided to have a look at Elmley NNR. Barely a bird was seen along the track, with the exception of several migrating Meadow Pipit, Yellow Wagtail, Marsh Harrier and Buzzard. Of course, while the winter brings 5sp of owl, 10sp of raptor and lots of wildfowl to the site, the autumn brings much less, and so we left a tad disappointed...
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| Common Buzzard |
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| Common Buzzard |
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| Common Buzzard |
Since it was only around 09:30am, and the day was turning out to be very warm and dry, we headed down the coast to Oare Marshes, my favourite nature reserve in the South-East. One of the first birds seen a mere few metres from the packed car park was a showy female Wheatear. Wheatears, alongside Swifts, are my favourite birds, so having this confiding bird show so well in front of us on the coastal path was a joy to see. As usual, having waders such as Redshank and Black-tailed Godwits whizz past us was a privilege to experience along the river, from where we also noted Ruff and several Reed Bunting , as well as hundreds of darter dragonflies on the wing. A brief stop for a Clouded Yellow butterfly resulted in Shaun finding a male Whinchat behind the hide, which was another very good bird to see. The heat haze made the ID much harder than it should've been especially as it was peak Stonechat migration season, but eventually we confirmed it and moved on.
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| female-type Wheatear |
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| f Wheatear head shot |
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| f Wheatear portrait |
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| f Wheatear |
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| f Wheatear - as you can see this is my new cover photo for the blog :) |
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| f Wheatear |
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| f Wheatear |
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| f Reed Bunting |
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| f Reed Bunting |
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| record shot of a m Whinchat |
A brief stay in the hide for a spot of early lunch/escape from the heat didn't stop the quality of birding. While scanning through the Dunlin I spotted a juv Curlew Sandpiper near the road, a bird that had been seen there for several days in a row. We also saw several Ruff tucked away outside the main flocks of waders, which was mostly made up of several thousand Lapwing, Golden Plover, Black-tailed Godwit, Avocet and Redshank.
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| Oare Marshes |
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| waders at Oare |
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| waders at Oare |
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| Ruff |
As we headed back round to the road, failing to catch sight of the Turtle Doves (I'd love to see one again before it's too late...) we had a Hobby pursuing dragonflies, while a few Marsh Harrier were joined by a Peregrine as they hunted over the West Flood. The highlights from the road included a smart Greenshank, several dozen Ringed Plover and the juvenile Curlew Sandpiper, which showed extremely well very close in. Typically, after such a good morning, my brain had switched off and I'd got the wrong camera fixed on - by the time I realised this it was too late...
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| juv Curlew Sandpiper |
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| juv Curlew Sandpiper |
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| juv Curlew Sand |
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Greenshank top right
Redshank left
Ruff bottom right |
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| juv Curlew Sand and 2 Dunlin |
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| juv Curlew Sand and Dunlin |
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| juv Curlew Sand and Dunlin |
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| take-off |
By this point, as Shaun needed to get back, we headed back towards the car and began the journey home, which included a lot of food and drink, something we both forget about whilst birding!
I then spent the evening sat in the garden reading a book for my English Literature A Level, only to hear Meadow Pipits streaming over in the stunning late-summer sunset. It was another epic day out and all down to Shaun for offering me a lift; I'm so grateful to him and the other birders who have offered me similar opportunities, and I know I would never have such opportunities without them.
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| Marsh Harrier |
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| Starlings at Oare |
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| juvenile Hobby |
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| Ruff |
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| Ruff |
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