Tuesday saw the first rain of any sort in nearly two months
on my Strood garden and I have to admit it was a blessed relief even to the
extent that I spent the whole time out there tinkering and even just sitting in
it with a cup of coffee in hand. I was thus more hopeful of not having a
scorcher for a trip out into north Kent yesterday.
By 8am we were at Grove Ferry and although it was warm and
humid, there was some low cloud and thus the light was also good. We had barely got across the road when a
Turtle Dove started purring mechanically from the scrubby trees but we only saw
him when he flew from just behind the very top of a Hawthorn just a few yards
away. Always a star bird of any day out
nowadays.
The bushes were alive with tacking, ticking and hweeeting
and we were surrounded but a superb mixed flock of Warblers and Tits with silvery
Lesser Whitethroats, Blackcaps, Whitethroats, a Garden Warbler, Chiffchaffs,
Cetti’s, Reed and Sedge Warblers all clocked in quick succession. Dunnocks,
Robins and Wrens were also getting in on the action while the first Yellow
Wagtails called overhead.
The flood looks fantastic from the Ramp albeit with the ever
encroaching Phragmites from the left had hand side – the pool used to be twice
this size. A splodge of loafing Black-headed Gulls contained no other species
but they had a few Little Egrets and Grey Herons and a multitude of eclipse
Teal, Gadwall and Mallard for company and with a bit of searching a smart
juvenile Garganey was found having a bath at the front of the flock.
There were 11 Black-tailed Godwits, three Snipe, three Green
Sandpipers and a few Lapwing feeding on the muddy areas and a Kingfisher
energetically called as it flew towards us and disappeared into the front of
the reeds below us and out of sight where a couple of Bearded Tits pinged.
Scanning around added several orangey crowned juvenile Marsh
Harriers and a flock of flying Shoveler contained another Garganey but they did
not come down. Now, I know that last
week I waxed lyrical about discovering ‘my’ Marsh Sow Thistles at Fingringhoe,
well, Grove Ferry is covered in them!
How have I not noticed these towering plants before? The lined every invisible ditch edge within
the reedbed, reaching high above the Phrag.
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| Marsh Sow Thistles |
The Feast Hide added a flying Greenshank and a foraging
adult Water Rail that loosely had a still fluffy largely black youngster in tow
and another Green Sandpiper teetered in the island. Little squelchy sounds of Reed and Sedge
Warblers came from all around and I imagine that young are still being fed.
Some furtive ornithological behaviour from within the hide
caused me to follow those who left and before too long we were also watching
the immature Purple Heron as it flew in a considerate circle around us near
Harrison’s Drove (which is now almost completely reedbound). This was my first in the UK for many years
and quite possibly my first juvenile and it was a UK tick for a happy Gloria.
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| Purple Heron |
It leisurely lumbered its way back towards the Ramp area so
we left it to find a secluded spot and continued out towards the distant Marsh
Hide. It was now warming up but it was
very peculiar as you would literally walk into hot pockets of stifling high
humidity air before a cool breezy spot would take its place for a while. If you could have coloured the air
temperatures it would have been a strange swirl
of shades.
I sort out some Frogbit on the ditches and was pleased to
find some still in flower and White and Yellow Water Lilies were also seen. Migrant
Hawkers were up and down every path and circling any sunny corner. A big Creeping Thistle patch was heaving with
a substantial charm of largely buff headed juvenile Goldfinches but there were
also quite a few Linnets mixed in with them while Reed Buntings preened in to
top of the adjacent Hawthorns. There were
several more of both Whitethroats and Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs were calling in
all directions.
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| Frogbit - Hydrocharis morsus-ranae |
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| White Water Lily |
A scan around added three
Grey Herons in the top of a solitary bush and three Kestrels could be seen
hovering over the margins of the marsh with more Marsh Harrier action closer to
us. We scanned for Whinchats but could
not find any but a chance glance up added a juvenile Med Gull passing over.
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| Med Gull |
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| Marsh Harrier |
We bumped into Lesvos Peter who had just had point blank
Bittern views so decided to spend some time in the Marsh Hide to try our luck too
and fortunately on snuck over the hide and we saw it drop back down into the
reeds. An older juvenile Water Rail preened along the margin and caught the odd
passing Darter and a Green Sandpiper silently made ripples.
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| Water Rail |
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| Water Rail |
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| Water Rail |
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| Green Sandpiper |
Out on the parched meadow there was an ever increasing flock
of Greylags which, just like the birds at Rainham Marshes and Abberton reservoir
contains a high proportion of birds with vivid orange rather than bubble-gum
pink legs.
The pool behind the hide held several Moorhens and Grey
Herons and another Kingfisher along with a delightful spread of Greater Bladderwort
with its curious yellow flowers peering above the water surface like floral
periscopes. This curious plant is actually carnivorous utilise tiny bladders to
catch their prey. The traps work like a vacuum and when an aquatic invert
touches the bristles on the outside of the bladder, the trap door opens and it
sucked inside. Prey items may account for 50% of an individual plant’s biomass! The joy of Google once again there to
increase my knowledge.
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| Greater
Bladderwort - Utricularia vulgaris |
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| Greater Bladderwort - Utricularia vulgaris |
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| Greater Bladderwort - Utricularia vulgaris |
A juvenile Marsh Harrier came in over the top of the
delightful Belted Galloways but it was looking for smaller prey and a hurtling
adult Hobby careened back and forth plucking Migrant Hawkers from the sky with
precision. It was good to catch up with
John C in the hide and his Bittern timing was impeccable.
I chose to push on to the Stodmarsh end instead of retracing
our steps and we ambled through the calm and slightly cooler Alder Carr with
its myriad of channels and hidden pools.
It was just how I remembered it from my first visits forty years ago
with the YOC when Cetti’s Warblers were just establishing themselves before the
catastrophic crash in the following winters.
I recalled a huge Eel in a ditch and Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers and
Spotted Flycatchers nesting and huge views over the reedbeds and marsh where
mature Willows and other Alders now stand.
Thankfully the Cetti’s are back to stay and we could hear
several as we made our way through. We talked about the local Beavers and soon
found several spots with evidence of their work. A couple of Willow Emeralds and Speckled
Woods danced in the sunbeams filtering through the canopy.
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| Willow Emerald |
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| Beaver work |
The Reedbed Hide was our furthest point and afforded views
of a muddy bay on the main lake where there was a similar spread of species the
Grove Ferry Ramp but with the addition of Common Sandpiper and two immaculate
juvenile Greenshanks. A juvenile Common
Gull was a nice find but the Little Gull of yesterday had moved on. An adult Common Tern was still feeding a
dependent youngster and was attacking a Cormorant that happened to swim too
close.
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| Greenshank |
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| Two Green Sandpiper and a Teal |
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| juv Common Gull |
The lack of hirundines had been notable so it was pleasing
to find a small mixed group of all three species hawking around where the
woodland met the lake. It seems that gone
are the days of thousands lining the autumnal telegraph wires.
Retracing our steps we found another large Tit flock that held
quite a few Chiffchaffs, the odd Blackcap and Reed Warbler, our first
Chaffinches and a couple of Treecreepers that gave themselves up eventually. A
big bird or prey came out of the canopy and although we were looking through the
trees I could see the neat barring of underwing and underparts of a Honey
Buzzard. It was quickly lost to view and we could not get to anywhere open
enough to see the sky. It was so close!
The Lampen Wall has matured somewhat and is now largely
lined with tall dense trees with occasional view points (not saying that is a
bad thing!) Many a cold winter’s evening was spent in good company waiting on
the exposed bank for the Glossy Ibis to come in to roost on the lake behind us
while Hen Harriers (not Marsh) quartered the fields.
A Bittern was seen on one scan round along with a fine male
Marsh Harrier and the back of the main lake was dotted with the white splodges
of Little Egrets and solitary grumpy looking Great White (I recall twitching
one here with my Dad one September…). A
second Great White obliging flew almost over us and a raft of eclipse Tufted Ducks
and Pochard joined Great Crested Grebe on the growing list.
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| Great White Egret |
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| Great White Egret |
The Stour was followed back towards Grove with another
Warbler flock that added Willow to the tally and a couple of invisibly calling
Bullfinches. Holly Blue, Red Admiral and
Comma joined the Butterflies and a Brown Hawker cruised in squircles around a
small reedy pool.
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| Red admiral |
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| Wiggle mines on Wild Hop |
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| Wild Hop |
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| A slightly odd looking large female Helophilus sp |
We looped back down
towards Harrison’s Drove so that we would be in the open for the last stretch
and found a female Sparrowhawk being mobbed by a flock of Starlings and some
Yellow Wagtails while a Hobby dashed low after a Hawker only it could see. Two Ravens
drew attention to themselves as they kronked over the ridge before circling
over us. A young lad a his Dad were particularly
pleased to see them.
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| Ravens |
A last look from the Ramp produced another Great White Egret
sitting on its ankles amongst the gulls before a very well earned lunch back at
the car after a six and a bit mile circuit.
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| A deceased Mole |
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| Great White Egret |
Invigorated by coffee and seven billion calorie Gazillionaire
Shortcake we made our way to Oare Marshes for the remainder of the day with a
five minute diversion to look at the Ospringe Wall Lizards.
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| Wall Lizard - three small young like this and two skittish adults were seen |
Although high tide was over two hours off when we arrived,
the foreshore was already under and the East Flood was already packed with a patchwork
of bronze, chestnut, white, grey and orange Black-tailed Godwits and a similar number
of Redshanks. Quite a few of the Godwits
were coloured ringed and two Redshanks had blue flags but I was struggling with
a looming headache and scoping was not helping so I let them go this time.
There were 13 Dunlin, eight very noisy Greenshank, a juvenile
Ringed Plover and two gleaming Golden Plover in summer garb while an even
more dapper Grey Plover circled overhead but, like two Whimbrel, did not come
in. There were a couple of Snipe and
Green Sandpipers and a few Avocet and Lapwing but not a single Ruff which was
odd. Great swirls of mismatched half and half Starlings descended for sudden mass probing sessions before once again taking to the air.
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| Starlings |
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| Whimbrel |
I scanned methodically (if painfully) through the small gulls,
most of which were sleeping finding adult Common and Meds and eventually one
that I thought may well have been the Bonaparte’s but like all the Black-heads
it had its head firmly tucked away.
Thankfully after about 20 minutes a Heron spooked them and they got up
for a little fly round. I had found the
right bird and we all got great views of this little black-billed gull back for
its tenth summer before it once again nodded off.
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| You can find the Bonaparte’s Gull |
Yellow and Pied Wagtails bounded around and ran on clockwork
double-time legs across the hard baked mud and three Kestrels hovered around
the periphery. It did not feel like much more was going to come in and with a
the easterly wind strengthening and incoming rain I opted for a last look at the
Swale. We got in about ten minutes
before the light cooling drizzle became a steady inconvenience and added
Sandwich Tern, Oystercatcher and some boat roosting Turnstones to the day tally
which was just shy of a hundred species.
A van was parked peculiarly on the slipway with no one in
sight. The back wheels were already in
the encroaching water and his drivers wheel was precariously close to the edges
and great big hole. Apparently the owner
was a chap we could see miles away on the other side zipping around in a small rib. With an hour still to go till high tide It
was almost tempting to stay and see what happened but the rain forced a retreat
and we headed back west with the rain catching us up from time to time.
Once home my damp garden was alive with molluscs that have somehow survived the drought and the fallen Crab Apples were getting a good munching while a couple of large and healthy looking Common Frogs were out patrolling.
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| Common Frog |
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| 'All mine!!!' |
