Sergeant Wilson

This has been the week to be in either the Scilly Isles or the Shetlands - vireos, grosbeaks, Cedar waxwings, parrot crossbills and lots more. The rest of the country has been in relative famine. Norfolk has had nothing, Suffolk not much, even Portland has been struggling to get anything rarer than a little bunting. The only possible was the Scops owl in Northumberland, but that is one helluva drive and it is showing about every other day so that was discounted. With thin pickings around elsewhere the news of a Wilsons phalarope at Oare marshes in Kent was enough to get me out of the house early doors.

I had left early and it was a harvest moon night, and it was still showing well by the time I got to the car park. As I walked down to the viewing area, basically a lay-by on the road past the marsh, the sun was just starting to pull above the horizon. This made for  a gorgeous golden sunrise.

The light was clear and it was interesting to watch all the birds start to wake up and become active. The first was a small murmuration of starlings who suddenly came up out of the reeds and flew over our heads.

With the sun still coming up and the mist over the estuary giving a glow to everything even electricity pylons can look beautiful.

However, I wasn't there to just admire the scenery and one of the three other birders with me even at this early hour called out "phalarope has just flown in". There are 3 phalaropes we get in the country, all migrants, usually in the Spring: red-necked (which I saw here) and grey (which I saw at Staines) are the commoner ones. Wilson's is the least common, not rare or mega but worth a trip to see.

Even in this shot you should be able to make it out. Small to medium sized wader with a very thin dagger-like bill. The other phalaropes have much thicker, stronger bills. The main issue with Oare is that you are looking straight into the sun so photography is horrible but gradually it came closer and you could get half-decent (well quarter-decent perhaps) shots.

It was doing the classic phalarope behaviour of feeding in quite deep water, spinning around picking up insects off the surface. There were a few other waders around, the nicest of which were 3 or 4 little stints. You can see why "little" when compared to this ruff.

Other than that there were godwits, avocets, dunlin and a probable curlew sandpiper around.

I left just after 9 to go about 20 miles along the coast to try and find a Lapland bunting but it was a no-show, much to the dismay of the assembled birders. Still, a kestrel  did put on a display hanging in the wind nearby (the German name for them translates as "windhover"). 

Really nice day, very pleasant weather and a good bird, but it will be nice when the wind changes to get a bit more easterly in it and bring some sibes across to the East coast. Shouldn't complain though, year list now up to 261!