With a Desert Wheatear reported on Friday and a sunny, windless weather forecast it was a no-brainer to head down to Rye Harbour on Saturday, Sadly the Wheatear didn't put in an appearance, still I've seen several before and the nature reserve didn't disappoint with some fabulous birds on show! The highlight was hundreds, possibly thousands of Golden Plover that periodically took to the skies in huge murmurations. A bit of quality in the form of a Dartford Warbler that lead me a merry dance, loads of Skylarks, Meadow Pipits, Goldfinch and the inevitable Stonechats entertained. I missed the reported Merlin, though did see two Sparrowhawk which I think along with a plonker in a microlight were the main reason for Waders taking to the skies! A Kingfisher, three Great Egrets and some very cooperative Turnstones were also of note! So even though the Wheatear had deserted (see what I did there?) I still had a bird filled morning!! Nice to see some other birders, though was quite surprised how few were there looking first thing, only about 3 of us to start with! Some pictures below.
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| Early morning at Rye Harbour |
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| First big movement! obviously the big lens means it's difficult to get everything in! |
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| Dunnock, lots of them about |
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| A few Wigeon feeding by the path |
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| Nicely lit Redshank |
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| Stonechat enjoying the early morning Sun |
Having searched the area, where the Wheatear had been the day before, I headed down to the beach where I found some Turnstones!
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| Turnstone looking for a stone to turn |
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| Golden Plover and a Lapwing |
Amazing to watch the swarms of birds spooked by who knows what zooming about the sky!
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| Kingfisher, flew about all over, but always landed where I wasn't |
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| Some of the Plovers came a bit closer |
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| A couple of other birders had seen a Merlin, but I only got a Sprawk! No doubt responsible for some of panic! |
I gave up looking for the Wheatear and did a loop around the reserve, lots of Skylarks including some singing! Though one posed nicely on a wire!
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| Skylark |
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| Starling in front of the hide, not much else here, though lots of Little Grebes further out on the water |
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| More Goldfinches, I can't resist em! |
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| Skylark having a dust bath! |
Halfway around, movement in a bramble path caught my eye, a Dartford Warbler, started off quite elusive, but as I followed it along the fence line it became more showy, before finishing off posing nicely!
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| Typical Dartford Warbler behaviour |
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| Getting better, think the brown tones suggest it's a first winter |
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| The final pose! |
A cracking little poser!
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| Impressive Pheasant |
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| Dunnock |
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| Another Sparrowhawk zipping by! |
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| Mute Swan |
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| Lapwing |
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| Lapwing |
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| Flyover Wigeon |
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| Stonechat |
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| Redshank, lots dotted around the reserve |
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| Great Egret |
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| Little Egret |
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| Great Egret |
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| Grey Heron |
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| Little Egret |
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| Only saw one Curlew! That was miles away and hiding in a ditch |
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| Another Redshank |
Arriving back at the lack of Wheatear area I gave it another search but the hordes and their dogs had arrived, so little about. Even the Turnstones had sensibly relocated to the river bank!
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| Turnstone |
I had heroically walked the whole reserve with my scope and tripod slung on my back, so decided to set up and scan the flat beach and islands beyond in the hope of finding something rare in with the multitudes of Waders! couldn't really pick anything out. Loads of Oystercatchers, thousands of Golden Plovers, plenty of Lapwing, some Dunlin and Redshanks dotted about. A local birder said that an American Golden Plover had been photographed the day before, but we couldn't find it. Got a bit excited when we spotted a pale Plover, but worked out in the end that it was a Grey Plover. Periodically the birds all went up in panic, but no real sign of what had set them off!
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| Quite a few Waders!!! |
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| Incoming Oystercatchers |
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| More incoming Oystercatchers, numbers of all the Waders were building as the Tide came in |
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| Golden Plovers a bit closer |
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| Mallards |
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| There off again! |
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| Grey Plover, with the black "pits" below the Goldies! |
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| Two Grey Plovers! |
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| Goldies |
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| Another Kingfisher again distant! |
By now I was pretty knackered, I've learnt that the days of carrying my scope, tripod, bins and camera are coming to an end, if not my back will probably take matters into it's own hands and kill me!!
A real quality birding session, I hadn't been to Rye Harbour for a while and had forgotten what a great place it is!!
