Sunday 7 February 2016

A quick dash to Sheppey

I had a couple of hours spare today so decided that now Sheppey is less than half an hour away it was long overdue a visit to see if the SHORE LARK was still around. After a brief encounter with a smart SANDERLING, a group of three birders approached with the same goal in mind, what was nice is that I found they lived very close to me so hopefully it would be good catch up with them around Boughton Monchelsea, so Barry if you are reading this hope to see you again. One of the group quickly found the Shore Lark as it made it's way towards a group of fishermen it gave brilliant views and was happy to pose for photos until it ran out of beach to explore, when it flew off not too far to start again.
Camouflaged Sanderling



Great views of this Shore Lark


With limited time it was either head to the local patch or take a quick look along the Elmley entrance track, I decided on the latter. As ever birding from the car afforded great views of the many birds spread along the track, from a distant PEREGRINE hunkering low to the ground, to splashing STARLINGS throwing water everywhere. There were good numbers of BLACK TAILED GODWIT, GOLDEN PLOVER, CURLEW and RUFF as well as 2 BUZZARD and at least 5 MARSH HARRIER. As I left a LITTLE EGRET hunted in a pool close to the track, a gust of wind produced a chance to see what Little Egrets would look like with hair gel!!!!!
Lapwing

Ruff

Ruff

Stylish Little Egret
Starlings making a splash!!

8 comments:

Sam Place said...

Great shots Alan, nice to see you at Minster and later at Elmley would be good to catch up locally along with Barry. Hope to see you soon, Sam (the youngest of the three in the group).

Maria said...

Lovely images! the Little Egret is so cute! And I love the Shore Lark!
It brings back nice memories. I saw some Shore Larks many years ago in the Netherlands.
Lovely post!
Have a nice week!
greetings,
Maria

Alan Pavey said...

Thank you for the comments Sam and Maria. Nice to meet you Sam looked like you got some nice shots Sam, hope you saw some more stuff at Elmley, I should have got some contact details for you all hopefully we'll bump into each other and we can swap numbers and stay in contact.
All the best
Al

Sam Place said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Helma said...

Beautiful pictures Alan!
For the Lark and the egret are gorgeous
I like picture 3, 4 and 8
Greetings, Helma

Ana Mínguez Corella said...

Hello!!! beautiful images and pretty birds. Happy Day

Simian said...

love the Sanderling pic....very good....!

Ornitocampero.blogspot.com.es said...

A shorelark , nice one!
Very nice wader pics.
Saludos camperos!