Wednesday 19 August 2020

Weather: 2 Birding: 1 19th August 2020



It was gloomy when I arose this morning and I still fancied pottering out somewhere but with so little rain falling actually in Medway I have still had to water my pots so thankfully I was up the garden post breakfast giving the Tomatoes a drink when the Pied Flycatcher started calling from the Sycamores.  I have had my ear and eye open when up the garden as my whole road has an almost unbroken corridor of gardens 200 feet wide and a mile and half a long with mature trees at the garden boundaries for its entire length.  I am always surprised that I have not had more go through over the years but was very grateful of this first.  It became my 76th species from the garden since the 23rd March.  I heard a Green Woodpecker for the second time since then yesterday but as yet have not had a Great Spot but there is still time as our Garden Lockdown competition is running through to the New Year now.

Anyway, I dragged myself out and down to Sheppey with the strange notion of finding some drifting migrants at Warden Point but to be honest I probably would have seen more if I had stayed up my garden. 


It was deathly quiet with one tacking Blackcap and not even a Tit flock. Rain was coming in as I walked back past some of the friendly signage on the local properties and a look at the calm but grey sea produced two Sandwich Terns but literally nothing else.




Myathropa florea
I retraced my steps to Capel Fleet where a microscopic Great White Egret was about a mile and half away in a field with a Grey Heron.  There were tractors ploughing and spraying in nearly every field as far as I could see.  

Can you see it?

Easy now!  And that is at 65x
 
Quality...
The rain was quite heavy now and a look at the Fleet produced a few Black-tailed Godwit, Green Sandpiper and some moulting duck so I headed for home via Funton Creek where I sat for a while and watched the tide come in.


I counted 112 Redshank, 17 Greenshank, 80 Lapwing, 85 Avocet and a solitary Golden Plover while 21 Little Egrets followed the fast moving tide as it headed for the saltmarsh. Swallows and a few House Martins hawked in the now persistent drizzle for flies kept down by the weather.

Redshank

Lapwings
 So, not the most glamorous of mornings out but if I stay indoors I will see nothing at all...

No comments:

Post a Comment