Alexjh1
Well-known member
If you've read the "Help Completing UK List" thread in the Information wanted forum, this is basically an extension for that so you can skip the next paragraph. If you haven't, then I'll quickly run over it.
Basically I've set myself a project to try and photograph every bird species in the UK, mainly extending to residents, migrants and passage migrants, rather than vagrants. I'm doing this using a superzoom point and click rather than an SLR for financial reasons. As of this post my total stands at 155 which can be seen at my blog in the signiture of this post.
Anyway, I had a trip to Elmley Marshes the other week and I was very impressed and I'd certainly like to return. I only however ended up getting three of my target species for the day which was a few less than I'd hoped for.
Basically it boils down to, I want to try and do another trip to Kent as a lot of stuff I need lives there in the Winter, and I was hoping for advice on a good site to choose to maximise the number of new species.
The target species fall into 3 main groups - waders, geese and birds of prey.
The waders which seen to be present in the county as far as I can work out are:
Bar-tailed Godwit, Sanderling, Spotted Redshank, Purple Sandpiper, (Little Stint?)
Geese:
Brent, White-fronted, Pink-footed, Bean Goose
Birds of Prey:
Hen Harrier, Merlin, Short Earred Owl, Rough Legged Buzzard
Also good would be any of - snow bunting, velvet scoters, any skuas or divers, red-necked or slavonian grebes or either of the yellow beaked swans, but I suspect most of those would be incidental.
The tricky part now is that I can't drive, have a limited budget and can only really do this as a daytrip from London by train. So basically, I'd like to choose one spot which has the best chance of getting a good number of these (for preference, somewhere that I could basically guarantee 4 or 5 of them would be great) and preferably somewhere I could get to easily from a station along the London-Faversham line which calls at Sittingbourne, Rainham, Gillingham, Chatham, Rochester, Strood and Gravesend, either by a walk of up to a couple of miles, or like in the Elmlet case, some other train (or possibly bus, but I'm always slightly wary of busses I'm not familiar as I wouldn't know where to get off)
I thought the best bet was to ask people familiar with the area
Any suggestions would be really appreciated! Sorry for rambling.
Thank
Basically I've set myself a project to try and photograph every bird species in the UK, mainly extending to residents, migrants and passage migrants, rather than vagrants. I'm doing this using a superzoom point and click rather than an SLR for financial reasons. As of this post my total stands at 155 which can be seen at my blog in the signiture of this post.
Anyway, I had a trip to Elmley Marshes the other week and I was very impressed and I'd certainly like to return. I only however ended up getting three of my target species for the day which was a few less than I'd hoped for.
Basically it boils down to, I want to try and do another trip to Kent as a lot of stuff I need lives there in the Winter, and I was hoping for advice on a good site to choose to maximise the number of new species.
The target species fall into 3 main groups - waders, geese and birds of prey.
The waders which seen to be present in the county as far as I can work out are:
Bar-tailed Godwit, Sanderling, Spotted Redshank, Purple Sandpiper, (Little Stint?)
Geese:
Brent, White-fronted, Pink-footed, Bean Goose
Birds of Prey:
Hen Harrier, Merlin, Short Earred Owl, Rough Legged Buzzard
Also good would be any of - snow bunting, velvet scoters, any skuas or divers, red-necked or slavonian grebes or either of the yellow beaked swans, but I suspect most of those would be incidental.
The tricky part now is that I can't drive, have a limited budget and can only really do this as a daytrip from London by train. So basically, I'd like to choose one spot which has the best chance of getting a good number of these (for preference, somewhere that I could basically guarantee 4 or 5 of them would be great) and preferably somewhere I could get to easily from a station along the London-Faversham line which calls at Sittingbourne, Rainham, Gillingham, Chatham, Rochester, Strood and Gravesend, either by a walk of up to a couple of miles, or like in the Elmlet case, some other train (or possibly bus, but I'm always slightly wary of busses I'm not familiar as I wouldn't know where to get off)
I thought the best bet was to ask people familiar with the area
Any suggestions would be really appreciated! Sorry for rambling.
Thank
Seriously, should be doable, but you'll want to make sure you suss tides- to be able to spend most of your time along the shore within 3/4 hours of the high tide would probably give you the best shot- wish you good luck with it!
