Sometimes following your instincts pays off, you get a feeling that there going to be a good bird at such and such, so you go there and low and behold something unexpected.
More often though, you get there and it is exactly what you knew would be there. So it was tonight at the Restharrow Scrape. The only difference was that one of the birds that had flashed across my wish list had indeed appeared in Kent this very evening and a text message on my phone let me know I was in the wrong place, "Marsh Sand at Bough Beech" it read. Here the Sandpiper was quite definitely a Green Sandpiper.
It wasn't calling while it did this, so I assume it was bringing up some sort of pellet. I've always liked pictures with reflections in the water, whether they're birds, buildings or people, it seems to give depth to a two dimensional screen.
There were at least five Little Ringed Plovers around and these were joined by two Dunlins, one still with the black belly of its summer plumage.
There were very few ducks around, so when I got desperate enough I took a look at this one feeding just up the pool from us. Once it got its head out of the water I was good to see it was a Garganey. I'm not great on aging these but I think it is a young male, but I suppose it could be a juvenile of either sex. In fact my lone companion in the hide told me that the birds had stretched its wings earlier to reveal a large grey patch on each wing. I think that an adult or juvenile female would have a more brownish speculum.
No comments:
Post a Comment