Friday 22nd. January 2016

A catch up on a couple of outings , for a change this winter , in sunshine .
The first was supposed to be straight to the Isle of Sheppey , but found the A249 completely shut at the M2 . The roundabout was completely grid locked , but the slip road onto the M2 was running , so made a split moment decision and headed for Oare Marshes . With no other hitches , I arrived to a cold , windy Oare , but there was some milky sunshine , which made anything on the East Flood

almost a silhouette , like these two drake Pintail as they dabbled for their breakfast . The other side

of the road provided better opportunity , even though only Teal were on show . The far end of the road near the car park was flooded , as was the surrounding grass areas , but it did provide feeding

opportunities for this Black-tailed Godwit , along with a few Redshank . Along the sea wall , amongst the swaying phragmites , the ' pinging ' of Bearded Tit was heard , but not seen . Almost at the sea

wall hide , a female Stonechat bounced along infront of me for a short while . On the Swale , the tide was well out and any birds were just dots on the strand line . Beyond the hide , the track resembled ' The Somme ' , so I about turned and retraced my steps , finding a group of about a dozen Avocet ,

feeding and constantly on the move out on the mudflats . The BTGodwit had moved on when I got

back , to be replaced by a small flock of Wigeon . With little else found , I made a stop at the track to the East Hide , searching the ditch for a Penduline Tit , which wasn't forthcoming , having seen one

there a couple of years ago . But I did find a female Reed Bunting , that was only too happy to pose .
Leaving , I decided to retry to get to Sheppey via Sittingbourne , and for once luck was on my side and I managed to get there without much hassle . At Elmley , the track looked great with plenty of

water in the ditches , but the sightings were confined to Starling , Lapwing , Redshank , Mute Swan , Grey Heron and a very distant male Marsh Harrier . On the return , a Brown Hare showed momentarily in the seed crop , and although I stayed for a while , it didn't re-appear . Almost at the

entrance , a raucous Rook announced my departure , and even the Little Owls kept out of sight . Heading for Capel Fleet , I changed tack , deciding to try for the Shorelark on Minster beach . I found the shingle ridge easily enough , then slowly drove along the top , looking for the tiny bird as I did so . I was almost at the far end , when I saw two people looking down from the top of the ridge with binoculars . They said they were watching the bird , but in the shade and amongst the shingle , I

couldn't . Then , a small movement and there it was , less than 5 metres away . It spent it's time like a wind-up toy , constantly on the move looking for food , always in the shade , but after ten minutes or

so , it moved into the sunlight and then onto the top of a gravel ridge , and posed . Shortly afterwards , it flew to the strand line and out of view . With no sign of it returning I left , heading for Shellness , whre one of the birders had had views of the Richard's Pipit during the morning . Having ' rocked and rolled ' down the track to the car park , I made my way along the sea wall towards the hide , seeing almost nothing along the way . Mind you , the sun was sinking and I was walking into it which didn't help . 3/4 of the way to the hide I met another birder who was looking at a distant Hooded Crow , and

I mean distant . I took a record shot and with maximum cropping it still doesn't look convincing , but through the other birder's scope , it showed much better . With the light fading , we made our way back to the car park , both searching for the Pipit . With the car park in sight , we had just got a distant sighting of the bird , when we noticed a wildfowler coming towards us and more importantly , towards the bird . Just before the bird flew from the long grass at the bottom of the wall , I got a

record shot , heavily cropped again , for what it's worth . The fillings took another battering on the return along the track and on reaching the sea wall at Leysdown , found several Turnstone out on the

road , battling with the gulls for a few scraps that had been thrown down . One of the gulls involved

was this winter plumaged Herring Gull .
My other trip , before ' the return of the rain ' , started at Pett Level , hoping to see the Glossy Ibis that had been showing well along the roadside . Had , being the word , as it was not seen whilst I was there , and has only showed sporadically since . Some compensation though came in the form of

about 25 White-fronted Goose that were in the fields beyond the roadside pool . The Ibis was

probably doing the same as this pair of Shellduck . From there , I made my way to Scotney Pits between Camber and Lydd , finding things quiet apart from the Barnacle Goose flock near the double

bends , and amongst them , a few Emperor Goose type birds . Moving on to Dungeness RSPB , a check on the feeders at the farmhouse failed to find any Tree Sparrows on the feeders and a similar failure to spot the LEOwls in the willows behind the dipping pond . Mind you , nobody I spoke to had seen them . With what looked like a volunteers fire behind the hide by the car park , the large numbers of duck , mostly Shoveler , Tufted , Wigeon and Mallard , were dozing in the sun , midway or further out at the other end of Burroughs Pit . From Scott Hide , a female Goldeneye was the only

bird close enough to photograph , and that was only between dives . Not a sign of a Smew , Great White Egret or Bittern . Across at ARC car park , I had just started up the track to the hide , when I fortunately met a birder coming back and asked if it was worth the effort . He replied that there was absolutely nothing outside the hide , everything was over the other side / end of the pit . With that , I returned to the car and headed for the beach for yet another attempt to see the Caspian  Gull which has always evaded me on previous visits , or even the Glaucous  Gull would have been good . Plenty

of gulls were seen , especially at ' The Patch ' , the warm water outlet from the power station , both birds could well have been amongst them . With the day running out , I decided to call in on the Purple Sandpipers at Hythe on my way home . I checked out both rock groynes , failing to find a single bird . It could well have been because several people were sitting on each groyne , enjoying the sunshine . Giving up , I headed home , but it was nice to be out and about in that sunshine .