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With Reculver extremely quiet this week Marc and myself decided on a jaunt down to Dungeness in the hope of seeing the Squacco Heron. We arrived in the area during a particularly heavy shower and these continued on and off during the next four hours. Fortunately, we soon located the 3 RAVENS and a few distant images were obtained. We failed to see the Heron or the GREAT WHITE EGRET from Springfield Bridge so we drove round to the RSPB entrance. Unfortunately, the gates were locked (perhaps they didin't realise they had a rare bird on site). Half an hour later we arrived at Hooker's Pits where a smattering of birders were assembled. It had shown briefly at 4.00 a.m., but not surprisingly we had missed it. We strolled to the Dengemarsh in the hope of connecting with the Egret but a call to Geoff Burton had us all scurrying back to the Pits where the bird was showing well. We had about 20 minutes with the SQUACCO HERON balanced on a branch happily feeding with us 30 metres away. It soon retreated and we had another brief view about an hour later. We strolled back to see the GREAT WHITE BLOB in the distance and then departed to a mystery location in East Kent to photograph the Spotted Flycatcher which we managed successfully. It was nice to see Mark Chidwick and Martyn Wilson and catch up with what was happening at Grove and a massive thanks to Marc for driving to Dungeness.
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With Reculver extremely quiet this week Marc and myself decided on a jaunt down to Dungeness in the hope of seeing the Squacco Heron. We arrived in the area during a particularly heavy shower and these continued on and off during the next four hours. Fortunately, we soon located the 3 RAVENS and a few distant images were obtained. We failed to see the Heron or the GREAT WHITE EGRET from Springfield Bridge so we drove round to the RSPB entrance. Unfortunately, the gates were locked (perhaps they didin't realise they had a rare bird on site). Half an hour later we arrived at Hooker's Pits where a smattering of birders were assembled. It had shown briefly at 4.00 a.m., but not surprisingly we had missed it. We strolled to the Dengemarsh in the hope of connecting with the Egret but a call to Geoff Burton had us all scurrying back to the Pits where the bird was showing well. We had about 20 minutes with the SQUACCO HERON balanced on a branch happily feeding with us 30 metres away. It soon retreated and we had another brief view about an hour later. We strolled back to see the GREAT WHITE BLOB in the distance and then departed to a mystery location in East Kent to photograph the Spotted Flycatcher which we managed successfully. It was nice to see Mark Chidwick and Martyn Wilson and catch up with what was happening at Grove and a massive thanks to Marc for driving to Dungeness.
sounds like a successful trip !
ReplyDeleteThat Spot Fly has come out well Phil. Keep practising, you are getting there. See you next week.
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