Oare Marshes, Kent, Friday 30th July (1 Viewer)

Dear all,
The water level on the East lagoon has fallen exposing muddy edges so there were masses of waders to see this afternoon.

Black-Tailed Godwits made up the lion's share of the birds on display - about a thousand in total spread across most of the lagoon. Dunlin came second in terms of numbers with three hundred busily feeding and flying around from time to time before settling on the mud once again.

These are this afternoon's sightings:

Black-Tailed Godwit - c1,000
Dunlin - c300
Curlew Sandpiper - 9 eventually counted reliably. Some were feeding close to the road (see photos).
Wood Sandpiper - 1, but elusive.
Greenshank - 6
Common Sandpiper - 4
Green Sandpiper - 2
Whimbrel - 8 settled briefly before flying south calling
Ruff - 20+
Knot - 2 amongst the legs of the godwits (summer plumage)
Turnstone - 1
Snipe - 3
Garganey - 1
Little Egret - 3
Marsh Harrier - 3
Yellow Wagtail - 1 juvenile
Common Tern - a flock of 31 flew around the lagoon before flying in the direction of the river.

I only hope the East Lagoon doesn't dry out too much while the hot weather is with us!

Lancey

Hi there, one of your posts last week caught my eye with some good stuff down there ....... is this an inland or coastal site ?

The site is on the south bank of the Swale near Faversham. It is immediately opposite the Isle of Sheppey. There are 2 large lagoons lying either side of the road just inland from the sea wall.

Ruby and I were there yesterday and had a similar count of waders plus 2 Little Stints. It is an excellent site all year round but at this time of year and through the autumn it is a superb site for waders.

Ok thanks, i can see it on the map now.