Birding in Kent

A recent trip to stay for a few days in Canterbury gave the opportunity to try birding in some different areas. However, I wasn't very adventurous and ended up visiting a lot of places that I am already familiar with. Cliffe Pools twice, to see the Lesser Yellowlegs which I missed by about ten minutes on both occasions. Stodmarsh and Grove Ferry, where I hardly saw a bird all day, although I did have a fly by from a Marsh Harrier, so close that I had no chance of getting a picture. Folkstone and Dover Cliffs, looking for Ring Ouzels, which was a total waste of time despite all the reported sightings.

In the end it all came down to Dungeness, five Great White Egrets, a Spoonbill, and a small supporting cast. Even here there were some missed opportunities, A Pectoral Sandpiper that kept relocating every time I got near it and a Rare Bird Alert that reported Ring Ouzels within fifty metres of where I was standing but which were gone by the time I got there.

It all sounds a bit depressing but actually I had a great time wandering around the sites. I am just trying to convince the wife that I need to do this more often.

So, pictures taken at a rather drab and over cast Dungeness.

Spoonbill

Little Egret with fish

Great White Egret

Taking to the air - Five to six foot wingspan

Two of the five Great White Egrets present

Bar-tailed Godwit and Curlew Sandpiper

Greenshanks

 and one picture taken at Grove Ferry

Snipe hiding in amongst the Ducks

The most exiting spectacle of the day was a feeding frenzy of about thirty Cormorants on a shoal of fish, with an even larger flock of gulls trying to poach fish out of the Cormorants mouths. I must read up on how to use the video mode on the camera.