Friday 4th September - Oare Marshes
On Friday I met up with the Sussex birders Jenny, Tim, Sue and Kevin at Oare Marshes in Kent.
Following the appalling visibility at Ditchling Beacon yesterday it was a relief to see much improved conditions today which allowed the chance for decent views and photo opportunities.
We began at the slipway by the river where we saw a couple of curlew sandpipers feeding. The photographers amongst us began edging closer to the birds 10 metres or so at a time until we were probably about 30 to 40 metres away and they still did not appear to be concerned with us as they carried on feeding. After we had finished taking our photos we walked back up the slipway and started our circuit of the reserve. I was very grateful to Kevin who lent me his spare camera battery when I realised that my battery had no charge left and so he enabled me to continue taking photos for the rest of the day.
We had a brief look for the Bonaparte's gull which was somewhere on the beach amongst the black headed gulls but Jenny and I soon got tired of this as we had already seen it on our previous visit and so we moved on leaving Tim and the others to locate the bird which they eventually did.
Meanwhile we found a flock of avocets on the near side river bank and on the other side of the river some seals were basking in the sun.
When the others caught us up we all carried on round looking for movement in the reeds and bushes along the side of the path and our attention was drawn to a small brown warbler which we could not immediately identify. With a bit of patience it finally showed itself long enough for us to capture some images and as a result we decided it was probably a reed warbler. There was also a linnet in the same berry bush as the reed warbler.
Next we reached a point where there were views over the water where many birds were staring to roost as the tide was rising. Those of us with scopes were able to scan through the birds to look for any unusual waders for example another curlew sandpiper running around inside a group of roosting lapwings.
The next thing of note occurred when a passing buzzard caused all the birds on the water to take to the air in a dazzling display, the sun highlighting their feathers as they all changed direction.
Finally we finished the circuit back at the roadside and looked across the water of the east flood at all the waders. Amongst the black tailed godwits, ringed plovers, golden plovers, ruffs, dunlin and curlew sandpipers there was a little stint which was the nearest bird to us. As it is so small the photographs were a little disappointing and not as clear as I would have liked and definitely not as good as Tim's photo of a little stint at Cuckmere in July this year. Also of note was a pair of bearded tits feeding on the ground just outside the reed bed but these were too far away to photograph successfully.
A nice day was spoilt for me by the journey home which took three and a half hours instead of the normal one hour five minutes due to an accident in the Dartford tunnel. I was also worried about the pressure in my tyre which had a nail in it and whether it would allow me to reach home. Luckily the tyre was OK but it was too late to get it looked at last night and so I got it repaired this morning.
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