** Garden Birds Update.**

I haven't done much in the way of garden birding for a while, so today I decided to see what was still about, and has it happens, not a lot, still we should always keep a check on our feathered friends that live with us, to see how they are managing.
The birds that I saw feeding in the garden today was: Great Spotted Woodpecker; Blue Tit(7), Great Tit; House Sparrow, Greenfinch; Goldfinch, Robin; Dunnock; Starling; Blackbird; W/Pigeon; C/Dove.
Species seen flying over: C/Crow; Magpie; Herring Gull; B/H/Gull; House Martin(about 1 dozen high over my home, but many more could be seen looking in the direction of the By-Pass.
No Chaffinch seen today. It doesn't bear thinking about, but it won't be long before the winter Thrushes start arriving.
Well that's about it for this blog, short but sweet.

** Wednesday 22nd September. Dungeness.**

I paid a visit to Dungeness today. It turned out to be a glorious day, no need for jacket or a sweater, just a gillet, and the first place we went to was the trapping area. We parked just off the road on the concrete on the right. It was a good decision because within minutes a Stonechat made a appearance, shortly followed by a Whinchat.then as the minutes ticked by more and more birds showed themselves, I saw another 3 Stonechats, and 5 more Whinchats, along with 2 Chiffchaffs, 11 Pied Wagtails, and a Wheatear, all seen without moving away from the car, but none close enough for a decent photo, then on our leaving 2 Black Redstarts was seen in the usual place, where I often see them, around the house on the left.
There was also many Swallows gathering on the overhead wires preparing for the long flight ahead of them, Africa here they come, and good luck to them!
As we entered the RSPB Reserve we stopped by the pool on the right, to admire all the Mute Swans that was there, I counted 51, although there had to be more that wasn't visible.
From here went to the Denge Marsh Hide, but before I went in I walked up to the end of the path to see if the Great White Egret could be seen, alas no, but I am glad I went there because over the back near the reeds was a Red Crested Pochard. It was distant, but I know it wasn't a male, it was either a female, or a juvenile. I then went into the hide to see what was about. The Red Crested Pochard wasn't visible from here. Out in front was mostly the usual birds that are seen: G/C/Grebe; Dabchick; W/Pigeon; C/Dove; Greylag Geese; Cormorant; Coot; Moorhen; Tufted Duck; Kestrel; Marsh Harrier(1m,1f); Mute Swan; Shoveler; Mallard; Swallow; C/Crow; Grey Heron; Gadwall; Little Egret; Teal; Pochard, B/H/Gull; Herring Gull; L/B/B/Gull; Magpie; Lapwing.. As left the hide a Reed Bunting was in one of the bushes to the left, as was a Cetti's Warbler. then before I got into the car a saw a small colourful Butterfly just inside the gate that leads to Christmas Dell Hide so I checked it out, and it turned out to be a Small Copper. The last time I saw a Small Copper was June 2009. when I got arrested.........Just kidding!
I did see a good number of Dragonflies today, but they just don't want to settle when I am around. I was hoping for a Migrant Hawker to photograph but no such luck. How do my fellow Bloggers entice then down to pose for them?
When we left this area, the bird species seen from here as we made our way back, and across to the ARC Pit was: G/B/B/Gull; L/B/B/Gull; Common Gull; B/H/Gull; Herring Gull; Jackdaw; Rook; C/Crow; Magpie; W/Pigeon; C/Dove; Kestrel; H/Sparrow; Blue Tit; Starling.
As we parked up we had 2 Green Woodpeckers fly across in front of us, then one I had set up my scope in the hide I was informed that there was 2 Little Gulls out on the water feeding, so I scanned around and there they was. They are not a difficult gull to find, as they behave, and feed off the water like a tern . They was both juvenile birds, they have a very distinctive with a very dark, almost black W across there back, and wings. They are about the size of a Blackbird, perhaps a bit smaller. They did eventually settle on one of the islands, and then one could see just how small they are, when next to a B/H/Gull.
There was a good variety of birds there, wildfowl, and waders.Among the ducks was a female Tufted Duck with a pale blue nasal saddle I.D. tag with the letters JA on it. Some years ago I saw a similar one on a Teal, and I found out that they do this abroad, The Teal which I photographed at Elmley was done in Portugal.

The tufty on the ARC Pit was too far away to photograph.The other Species seen was: Mallard; Pochard; Gadwall; Shoveler; Wigeon; Pintail(4); Teal; Greylag Geese; Canada Geese; Cormorant; Grey Heron; Little Egret; Marsh Harrier; Kestrel, Sparrowhawk( a male flew low across the water putting nearly all the birds up); Lapwing; Golden Plover(5); Avocet(9); Spotted Redshank(2), Turnstone(1); Ruff(1); Common Sandpiper(1); C/Crow; Magpie; W/Pigeon; Starling, Swallows and Sand Martins in good numbers high up;
Herring Gull; Common Gull; B/H/Gull; L/B/B/Gull; G/B/B/Gull; Coot; Moorhen; G/C/Grebe; Dabchick; Sedge Warbler( outside of the hide windows).

Total number of species seen was 54.

My Bird of the Day is to be the ** Little Gull.**

** Thursday 16th September. Oare Marsh, KWT Reserve.**

I thought it was time I paid a visit to Oare Marsh Reserve. I use to go there regularly, but I haven't been for ages. When I arrive, I usually make the East Scrape Hide my first stop off point, but today I didn't, I went a short distance past the hide, along as far as the bench. The reason being I wanted to see the White Rumped Sandpiper. This is a small wading bird that breeds in North America, it is a little bit smaller than a Dunlin.It was quite easy to find, the main thing that gave it away was it's white supercilium, although it did flash it's white rump fom time to time. These birds occasionally turn up in Britain, the last one I saw was again here at Oare Marsh in August 1998. This was the only area from which the bird was visible from. Then just as I was packing up to move on 5 of the 8 Spoonbills that are frequenting Oare at the moment flew high over the east Scrape from the Swale area heading inland, that was the last I saw of them, where the other 3 was I didn't know at this time. Mind you it was great to see 5 flying over in formation.
There was also 7 juvenile Yellow Wagtails in the field behind the hide.
From here I went back to the car, giving the hide a miss, and parking up in the disabled bay, in the lay by half way down the road. There was a great deal of waders on the scrape, mainly Black Tailed Godwits, there had to be 100's, with many Redshanks mixed in with them, there was also good numbers of Golden Plover, and Starling. While watching the birds on the scrape, too far away for any decent photo's, 4 Little Grebes kept coming in close,sometimes even sitting on the mud mounds. In all I counted 18 Dabchicks spread about.
Also on the scrape was the following species,
Curlew Sandpiper(1)
Ruff(many adults, and juveniles)
Bar Tailed Godwits,
Little Egret(2)
Grey Heron(1)
Mute Swan(2)
Dunlin,
Lapwing,
Avocet,
Green Sandpiper,
Teal,
Mallard,
Shoveler,
Shelduck
Coot,
Moorhen,
Cormorant,
B/H/Gull,
Herring Gull,
L/B/B/Gull.

** Saturday 11th September. Isle Of Sheppey.**

On Saturday 11th September, I spent a few hours on the Isle Of Sheppey with Ian. We went to the Harty Ferry Inn car park first.The first birds we noticed was Little Egrets, they was all over the place, We did a count, and a conservative total seen was 64, there was probably more that we couldn't see. The other species of birds around was:
Curlew(7),
Herring Gull,
B/H/Gull,
G/B/B/Gull,
Swallow(11),
Large flocks of Grey Plover(many still in breeding breeding plumage), Golden Plover, Dunlin, and Knot, Lapwing,
Oystercatcher(5),
Starling,
Cormorant(4),
Shelduck(9),
G/C/Grebe(1),
Great Spotted Woodpecker(1),
Marsh Harrier(female),
C/Crow(4),
There ws also 18 Common Seal on Horse Sands.
From here to to the main road the other bird species seen was:
Marsh Harrier(4, 2juv, 1m,1f),
Linnet,
Mute Swan,
Starling,
Kestrel(2m),
C/Crow,
Magpie,
Corn Bunting(2),
Coot,
Wood Pigeon,
Pheasant, Lapwing,
Red Legged Partridge,
Oystercatcher,
Our next stop off was Elmley RSPB Reserve. There was a few more birds than last time on the way to the car park, the best sighting was 13 Grey Partridge, they was all young birds, apart from 1 adult. A normal sighting of these birds is about 3 or 4, I have never seen a covey of that many before, they must have had a good breeding year.Other species seen:
C/Crow,
Starling,
Little Egret,
Swallow,
Mute Swan,
Grey Heron,
Herring Gull,
B/H/Gull,
L/B/B/Gull,
Lapwing,
Curlew,
Moorhen,
Curlew,
Stock Dove,
Dabchick.
Once at the car park the next place I looked for birds was behind the  toilet block, and as usual I looked for the Little Owls first, and I wasn't disappointed, There was one sitting in virtually the same place as it was the last time I was here. The other birds down by, and around the scrape area was:
Dabchick,
Stock Dove,
Willow Warbler,
Wood Pigeon,
Green Sandpiper(2),
Moorhen, Coot,
Wigeon,
Teal,
Pheasant,
Pied Wagtail,
Yellow Wagtail,
Curlew.
From here we intended to go to just one hide, so we went to the South Fleet Hide. Many of the usual species was seen, I will list them at the bottom, but the best birds seen was a juvenile Merlin, It did exactly what you would expect one to do, sitting on mud mounds, flying low and fast hunting for food, they are a great little Falcon.Then there was a Whinchat sitting on a fence post.
The other species seen was:
Curlew,
Avocet,
Lapwing,
Greenshank(2)
Green Sandpiper(2)
Common Sandpiper(1),
Bar Tailed Godwit(4),
Black Tailed Godwit,
Dunlin,
Oystercatcher,
Starling,
Sand Martin,
Swallow,
Meadow Pipit,
Blackbird,
H/Sparrow,
Shelduck,
Shoveler,
Teal,
Mallard,
Dabchick,
Coot,
Moorhen,
B/H/Gull,
G/B/B/Gull,
Herring Gull,
Common Gull,
Marsh Harrier,
Kestrel,
Greylag Geese,
Canada Geese,
Common Tern,
Then there was one final bird that was seen, and that was a Wheatear that kept flying up the track in front of the car, it didn't seen to have the sense to fly off to the side.

My 'Bird Of The Day is ** juvenile Merlin.**