Saturday 10 February 2018

North

.....as far as Sheppey....

0630 - 1200 clear to start but clouding over, eventually rain, cold....colder.....colder still...SW f1-3

It started off so nicely too....

Sun does rise...early in the morning....

Okay, I was somewhat early really.....but it having been a clear night I didn't really want to miss the harriers leaving.....so a sit in the car for a while after setting up my scope.

Eventually it became light enough to start making out some birds.....several (how many is a covey?) Red-legged Partridge took flight from the field next to the car and headed down the hill to the marsh....though at least two or three remained and gave good views....in the meantime heres a couple by the farm at the church that didn't give good views, but its not too bad....

Red-legged Partridge

The first obvious candidate at this stage were several Barn Owls, always a rewarding sight.  I could hear Teal and some Geese in the semi dark.....the Geese eventually turned out to be Greylags.

In the meantime a few Marsh Harriers were performing their morning ritual of gliding and diving with languid flapping.....at least two Buzzards joined the parade.  Most were silhouettes against the landscape so it is possible I missed a Hen Harrier at this point.  Though the amount of Marsh Harriers already was most impressive.

From the high viewpoint, and now daylight, some geese flew in to view, which after a little hesitation, as they were still very distant upon landing, when they turned in to the sun it became obvious these were the White-fronted Geese, faces glowing......I thought I could make out 3 Whooper Swans on the creek.....it was time to move down to the corner to see what was about....

Having walked along the footpath a little way I still couldn't confirm the Swans identity though there were many Mutes around......the White-fronts were now a little closer and could be identified more comfortably.

At the raptor point the combined Marsh Harrier / Buzzard morning procession continued.  A Lesser Black-backed Gull was on the pile in front of the car parking area.  A Marsh Harrier was feeding on something out in the crop over the road, mostly hidden apart from an ever watching eye.  I found a solitary Corn Bunting here too.

Throughout the day several Stonechats appeared.  To add to this a Cettis Warbler sang whilst I was at the viewpoint.

I oved on toward the church but stopped at the farm buildings just before the church as a very large flock of, mostly, Chaffinches had been joined by Greenfinches and Reed Buntings with a few Goldfinch.

I found a few Bullfinches with some more Chaffinches at the top of the row of Poplars.

I headed down to the church and wandered off to the row of Poplar trees....the first field had Pied Wagtails and Meadow Pipits in, the second Skylarks.....then my first Hen Harrier of the day closely followed by a second.  Hunting along the far hedgerow.  I wandered down to the gate to the reserve, where the trees become a little more dense and give more shelter which was a quite a relif to get out of the cold wind.

At the gate many Marsh Harriers could be seen across the reserve.  I could get five or six in my scope at any one time.  Over all I was really impressed with the numbers present and eventually found one in the reeds eating a late breakfast.  There was also one with green wing tags but I could not read any details as it was a bit distant.

A number of Brent Geese flew in to join the ones already present....


There was one Barnacle Goose at this time....possibly an escapee from somewhere.

At one point a Marsh Harrier landed, seemingly to distract the birds on the ground as others were to the right of the ditch, below.

Marsh Harrier

Returning to the car I found some Stock Doves and managed to catch two sitting on the line...

Stock Doves

I decided to drive back to the corner to see if I could catch up with the White-fronted Geese again.  I managed this and also found they had Barnacle Geese with them.  These looked totally different from the one I had seen earlier.  A distant Hen Harrier appeared.

I also managed to confirm the Whooper Swans presence...heres 3, though a 4th bird flew off and it may also have been a Whooper.

Whooper Swans

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