Monday 30 January 2012

The weekend

A mixed weekend saw me cycling round Bedgebury, while Bec ran 11miles!! It also included a quick walk round the patch and a Sunday afternoon visit to the Dungeness area.
Bedgebury, whilst cyling without bins still produced a few bits and pieces, 2 Roe Deer ran across in front of us and I heard SISIKINS and CROSSBILLS as well as lots of COAL TITS and GOLDCREST. The walk round the patch didn't bring any new birds for the year but it was nice that the good flock of YELLOWHAMMERS was still around, there were also 30 SISKIN by the stream. Otherwise it was much of the same, MARSH TIT, TREECREEPERS, NUTHATCH, a LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL flew south and around 20 BLACK HEADED GULLS were over the fields.
Sunday afternoon I headed to Dungeness to look for Dotterel and Caspian Gull. I had a quick look at Lydd Airport where there were a few GOLDEN PLOVER, LAPWING, RED LEGGED PARTRIDGE and around 100 CURLEWS. Just before reaching the RSPB reserve, there were a few birders looking towards the reserve, I waited with them for a few minutes but while I was there the Dotterel didn't appear but the first of 2 GREAT WHITE EGRETS was sat near Boulderwall Farm. A quick stop to get a better look at the Great White proved fruitless as it disappeared in to a ditch but I did see MARSH HARRIER and had some good views of the well watched TREE SPARROWS at Boulderwall.
Tree Sparrow

Next stop was the southern end of ARC, there were good numbers of SHOVELER, POCHARD and GADWALL, there were a few GOLDENEYE and the second GREAT WHITE EGRET was seen with a couple of LITTLE EGRETS.
Great White and Little Egret

With Caspian Gull being the main target I spent sometime checking the roosting gulls, the GLAUCOUS GULL was found quickly but no luck with Caspian.
Glaucous Gull

The journey back across Walland Marsh found the BEWICK'S SWANS in residence, I counted 54 with just 6 young birds in amongst them.
Bewick's Swans

At the Woolpack there was a COMMON BUZZARD next to the lane as I approached. I waited with Trevor and Margaret Ford on the bank to see what came in to roost. BEARDED TITS called from the reeds and 2 MARSH HARRIERS were seen but didn't hang around, generally it was not half as busy as it sometimes can be. It was a good afternoon despite not finding the birds I had hoped for, as ever it didn't really matter :-)

11 comments:

Unknown said...

Buenas fotos y observaciones Alan. Curiosa la foto de las dos garcetas.
Un saludo!!

Marc Heath said...

What a good day, lovely shots Alan, a lovely Tree Sparrow and a nice size comparison with the Egrets.

Anonymous said...

Cracking set of shots again, Alan.

ShySongbird said...

Goodness! Having only seen Little Egrets, your photo shows just how large the Great Egret is in comparison.

Love the Tree Sparrow photo, they are very scarce here these days.

You certainly spent your weekend well.

Rachel J said...

Lovely tree sparrow and egrets.

Magia da Inês said...

º° ✿ ✿⊱╮

Olá!
Passei para uma visitinha.
Gosto de fotografias, principalmente de flores e pássaros.
Amei o seu trabalho.
Boa semana.
Beijinhos.
Brasil

º° ✿ ✿⊱╮

Mike H said...

Seems like you had a great weekend with some very good photos taken.

Tammy said...

Great variety! Your Tree sparrow lovely! Great job Bec on the 11 miles; I'm a runner too. I run along a river that has a great variety of birds:)

Greenie said...

Alan ,
A productive weekend , and no doubt tiring .
That Glaucous Gull must have got a British passport by now .

Alan Pavey said...

Hi Ramon, thanks, it was good seeing the egrets together, Saludos!!

Hi Marc, thanks it was an enjoyable day, certainly with some variety.

Hi Dean, thanks, hope you are well.

Hi Shysongbird, I was lucky the egrets posed for a bit.

There is a good Tree Sparrow flock at Dungeness in the winter these days, probably the easiest place in Kent to find them :-)

Hi Rach, thanks, catch up soon :-)

Hi Magia da Ines, thank you, I'm glad you like the photos, hope you visit again, Beijinhos :-)

Hi Mike, thanks, it was busy and enjoyable.

Hi Tammy, thanks, keep the running up, it must be great running out there with all those birds to see as you go :-)

Hi Greenie, it was generally a pretty enjoyable weekend. I think I spotted a passport under one wing, now you mention it!!

J said...

Some lovely shots there, Alan. The comparison shot of the two egrets is excellent. Also nice to see the Tree Sparrow, which is rather rare round here (it's possible there might only be one bird on the whole of Gower!).