Saturday 19 November 2011

Clear skies over Kent

After bleating about having no time to go birding in my last post, I decided to do something about it a take a day off. On Friday, my diary miraculously cleared. Unfortunately, on Thursday night, so did the skies over Margate, and the Eastern Black Redstart present since Saturday was nowhere to be seen.
Redshank - Walpole Bay, Margate
I spent a couple of hours looking for it and photographing waders on the beach before accepting the fact, and then salvaged something from the day by visiting some old haunts from my time as a Kent resident.

Marsh Harrier - Elmley Marshes
Oare Marshes was quiet but a Water Rail preened, partly obscured by the reeds. Lapwing were as photogenic as ever on the entrance track at Elmley Marshes, and a Marsh Harrier came surprisingly close.

Lapwing - Elmley Marshes
Dipping on the phoenicuroides was made worse by the fact that another in Northumberland was still present, with a Greater Yellowlegs nearby, but I had to be back in Dorset by 15:00 so a long-distance twitch was not an option. Despite this, though, it was all in all a therapeutic day, giving me my first glimpse of Turner Contemporary (looks like a posh fish processing plant) and a reminder that you can't see everything.
Water Rail - Oare Marshes

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