The Autumn birding period is really getting going. After the excitement of the booby there aren't any real mega's to compete but a scattering of good birds are around. Wrynecks, red-backed shrikes, barred warblers and ring ouzels are starting to appear. What caught my attention though was a lifer. It is also one which has been a bogey bird for me, having dipped on it three or four times. It is the American golden plover (AGP), a cousin to one of our commoner wading birds. A few come over here every year so not in the mega category but lifers are lifers and ones not requiring a drive to Cornwall need going for. This one was in residence on the Swale estuary in Kent, either at Shellness or Oare marshes. With Judith as my co-pilot we set out reasonably early to head round the M25.
As we got close to the reserve the phone alert told us the AGP had been seen and was showing well. The last part of the journey is off-road down a very bumpy track so I tried to be as careful as I could but we did pitch into a few potholes. About half way down the track we met two birders. Window down, "any sign?'. "Yes, but it flew off about 5 minutes ago, heading toward Oare". Now that was both good and bad news. Good that it was definitely still there but bad because Oare, although only 5 minutes flight time for a bird, is 40 minutes drive. Not really an option to chase the bird! Despite a bit of sulking and bad language on my part we made the best out of a bad job and made for the end of the track for coffee.
The main issue we had was how easy it could be to look for the bird if it came back. The beach is one of the top naturist spots in the UK and you have to be very careful which direction you point your camera!!! A refreshing cup of coffee and a bun later we had a quick walk down the beach but only some oystercatchers and a few late Sandwich terns were around. As we headed back to the car I spotted a dark shape in the sky - a flock of birds! It was the plover flock returning from across the estuary. We carefully followed them down to one of the stubble fields opposite the beach. A quick trot to the car, gathering up of the optical gear and we were off back down the track. Two birders were on a high point overlooking the field already so we headed for them. A quick conversation and they were on the bird. low down in the stubble, but now to find it amongst about 300 of its brethren!
Fortunately the others had a good idea of where in the flock it was so I homed in on the area, to the left of the flock by some mooching gulls.
It actually stood out quite well when you got onto it, as in the photo above. It is a bit smaller (hard to tell), longer-legged (impossible to tell) but has a very pronounced eye-stripe and a darker back - tick! The whole flock was a bit twitchy and would take off and fly around but always came back to the same field. Only once did it come close though, allowing me to get a bit better view of it in comparison to the commoner golden plovers.
Still not brilliant views but you can see it is a very different bird! Certainly good enough views to be sure of a life tick.
After this we went over to Oare marshes, proving the 40 minutes drive time and making us very happy we didn't have to chase the bird back and forth over the Swale estuary.... It was pretty busy as it was high tide, with lots of godwits, redshanks and curlew sandpipers on the main lagoon.
The stars though were a large flock of starlings feeding in the bushes near the cottages.
It's such a shame that what was once a common garden bird is now becoming a nice-to-see uncommon one. They make a lovely noise when in a flock and we spent some time watching them happily feeding up.
A very pleasant day. One lifer in a superb part of the country, can't complain about that. Now let's see what else Autumn might bring.
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