Trip reports

Oare Marshes

Sunday, 20 September 2009

We arrived at Oare Marshes car park thinking that the weather had let us down. The previous day was warm and sunny, but the new day dawned dull, overcast and there was some dampness in the air. So we all wrapped up warm and set off along the sea wall. A few grey plovers, curlew, redshank and ringed plover were feeding on the mud, a hobby flew over which was nice. In the damp air we were keen to go inside the sea wall hide. Here we found a large flock of black tailed godwits. Also present were two bar tailed godwit, a little egret, ring plover and a dunlin. Further out there were greater black backed gulls, cormorant and shelduck. We lingered while a shower passed over, but as we emerged the wind dropped and the temperature began to rise. Here we caught site of breaded reedling, reed bunting, a snipe and a reed warbler. In Faversham Creek there was a greenshank, but by far the most black tailed godwit we have seen at Oare. A surprise was a single little grebe by the wreck. At last we reached the east flood hide to view the birds that had come in because of the high tide. There were big groups of black tailed godwit, redshank and golden plover. The challenge now was to pick out anything different. There were dunlins arriving and mixed between them and the godwits were two little stints and a few knot. There were avocet, little egret, shovelor, teal, shelduck, mallard, grey heron, common gull and lapwing. As we continued closer to the road there were also ruff, ringed plover and a single curlew sandpiper. Back at the car park for lunch a willow warbler feed in the small trees and both common and sandwich terns were on the Swale. After lunch we moved to the Elmley reserve on the Isle of Sheppey. On the long drive in there were marsh harrier, kestrel and a buzzard. We particularly wanted to spend some time around the farm. Here there were house sparrows and pied wagtails galore. In the oak trees we spotted a cuckoo and a little owl. There were several wheatears here and a group of pheasants. The final bird of the day was a yellow wagtail that as we left was engaged in a fierce fight with a pied wagtail.