Evan Atkinson
Always finding a way to go off topic...
Last weekend I had an incredible day of birding on Sunday at Elmley, which eventually turned into one of the best days birding I have ever had in the UK. I arrived much earlier than I needed to, but I was in the Wellmarsh hide by 10:30 for high tide. It was really quite quiet with about 20 snipe and a nic juv greenshank being the highlight. Just as some ringed plover arrived in, I noticed a falcon at some distance hawking towards the windmills. I quickly got onto it and to my shock it was the juv female red footed falcon that I had on Friday! It was the same bird, blonde head and that same apricot underwing with the black trailing edge along the wing. The head warden commented that they behave like kestrels with the hovering, and as it became a silhouette there was no doubt about it being the RFF as it did begin to behave like a kestrel. It disappeared towards spitend and it was not seen again. I phoned one of the wardens and we went to investigate, but as I was leaving the hide, I noticed a large bird over the hide, and after some faffing around I was able to confirm it as an adult white stork! A UK lifer and pleasant surprise, but it made sense with the strong easterlies that were occurring. As we were looking for the RFF, I did miss a honey buzzard that flew over the spitend hide which would have been a lifer, but you can't have them all. With that over, I headed to the car park to join the head warden on a tour, which we tailored to trying to find the red footed falcon again as it was a really stunning bird. We had some stunning views of 4 whinchat in one binocular view by the Counterwall hide, including a pristine male. We didn't see much else apart from some lovely female and juv marsh harriers and 8 green sandpiper. As we were heading back we stopped to have one last scan and I was able to pick out a stunning male merlin on a gatepost that showed really well with the metallic blue colouring and dirty blonde face, though the views were very hazy. As we got back on to the public part of the reserve I noticed a large raptor heading over, but I was in conversation with the head warden and did not want to be rude and cut him off, but from what I got from the brief views was that it had a long tail and was heading purposefully inland. I lost it as it drifted into the sun and it was certainly the one that got away. I went back in to the hides and it was rather quiet with a few dunlin doing their best to look like something rare the best to be honest. I had one more tour that I was assisting with and as I got to the truck I saw that there was a wryneck at gate 4. I have a really bad reputation with wrynecks and waited 4 and a half hours for one to show at Rainham Marshes, which was given a tiny amount of space with people either side of where the bird could go. Anyway, as we made our way down the track, I spotted the wryneck as it hopped in to a bush! Finally! It was fully aware of our presence, despite it being in the middle of the bush. It then flew over the track in to some teasel, and then landed in the road! Everyone on the tour got amazing views, and to top it off, it flew over our heads and landed on the road right behind us. Mental! We continued on with 7 cattle egret and a smart whinchat on a post. We then had some amazing views of a female peregrine on a gate post that was really quite content with our presence. We went up on to the mound and my main target was to find a merlin on one of the posts. I had just finished looking at one of the posts and to my absolute shock, an enormous juv white tailed eagle appeared in the scope being mobbed by about 50 corvids! We suspected there was one in the area but we finally were able to confirm it. It eventually sat down but it was just a blob covered in heat haze. And that wrapped up the rest of the day, but not before we had an unusually late swift over the hall. All in all a mental day and one to certainly remember.
Thanks for reading
Evan
Thanks for reading
Evan
