Trip reports

Gillingham Country Park

Sunday, 18 October 2009

Our first visit to Gillingham Country Park coincided with superb sunny weather and an RSPB Autumn watch special event for the general public. Fortunately we arrived early and the mud was still exposed by the low tide. We started at the lookout where a party of long tailed tits passed us and the first of many dunnocks appeared in a nearby bush. Greenfinch and robin were also seen. Out on the mud there were large numbers of birds. We saw turnstones, grey plover, lapwing, redshank and teal. Further out there were brent geese, shelduck and cormorants. As we reached the point the tide had started to cover the mud flats. A single avocet was feeding on the water line and several great crested grebes were fishing on the open water. We continued to stroll along the river bank path. A grey wagtail and a ringed plover were seen on a rusting barge. There were a large group of waders roosting on the small islands in the river. There were redshank, dunlin, grey plover, black-tailed godwit, curlew, and a single knot. In addition there were little egrets, both lesser and great black-backed gulls, black-headed gull and herring gulls. Returning to the car park we passed through woodland where there were mixed tit flocks and a song thrush.
After lunch we decided to travel to the RSPB reserve at Cliffe Pools. Here we found a huge number of little grebes, pochard, plus the usual coots and moorhens. The majority of birds were to be found on the gently sloping eastern shores of the pools. Dunlin, black-tailed godwit and redshank were found in the first pool with canada geese and greylag geese. In the second pool there were a large number of avocets and great black-backed gull. There were also shoveler, mallard, tufted duck, teal and a few pintail.