December

Not a lot going on for me this month but here are some of the 'highlights'.

2nd Dec.

A trip to Dungeness on a day when Cook's pool was frozen and the ring-necked duck was nowhere to be seen. However, at the RSPB, 3 female smew, a couple of goldeneye and all the usual duck then a drive over to see the long staying black-throated diver.

3rd
Hampton pier finding a rock pipit on the beach in front of the car park.

4th
Seasalter; Met Geoff and took a walk around the plots, pretty quiet, a green woodpecker, marsh harrier and on the mudflats a large flock of c.1000 knot.
Moved onto Hampton later meeting Flickr 'contact' Sandra Standbridge from Herts., Saw the 2 purple sandpipers plus a Med gull on the beach.

pm. I drove over to Oare for a quick look, nothing so came back to SS seeing 2 barn owls, 1 SEO and 3 marsh harriers.

6th
Just went out for a walk with my little camera and walked out onto the Whitstable 'Street' taking a few photos looking back.

10th
A walk at Seasalter produced very little except two bottles of  'Whitstable Bay' oddly left on the seawall by the YC. With the tide out and the Whitstable view before me, the two bottles made an ideal subject.

11th

A pm visit to the 'rise' seeing 4 SEOs in the air and earlier in the morning, 1 red admiral and c.2500 knot.

12th
Called in at Marshside to find the cattle egret right up on the hill so no chance of a photo then back to Hampton seeing the Med gull and one purple sandpiper.

13th
Another trip to Hampton (maybe the new SS) getting more photos, good to see a little egret quite close there.

14th
A very quiet visit to Stodmarsh, just a couple of marsh harriers, hardly any birds. Saw the cattle egret again on the way home, still out of range though.
pm. Saw the 4 SEOs again at Seasalter.

16th
A change of scenery, I went to Minnis Bay and walked back towards Reculver. I got close to c.60 sanderling on the beach, a couple of them having a fight!

On the way home I called into Hampton again getting another shot of the Med gull and saw the two purple sandpipers.

20th
A sunset picture towards Graveney, enhanced a bit!

22nd
A frosty morning and mist rising up from the marsh, looked good for some photos.

Later, I went to the Whitstable harbour for some reflection photos as it was a beautiful calm day.

23rd
I needed a walk as a few extra pounds have been noted on the scales lately and exercise has been my main goal when I go out recently!  I parked by the SS YC and walked to Castle Coote, about 3 1/2 miles according to my 'app'. The large flock of c.1000 brents was still present plus 2 pairs of stonechats and a group of 18 skylarks feeding on the beach taking flight ocassionally was good to see.

Black Brant to Tufted Duck

15th Nov.

Another visit to SS finding 9 egrets, c.1000 dunlin on the roost plus ringed plovers, several ringed plovers plus a handful of barwits and grey plovers. On the sea I counted 6 grebes and a dozen great black backed gulls. I moved onto the LNR finding 3 stonechats, a dozen reed buntings, 1 chaffinch and 1 linnet. On the back fields were c.500 golden plovers and c.500 brent which were back and forth onto the sea and at one point I had a close view of the black brant.

 The Black Brant

House Sparrow

16th 

A day out with the other half, I thought Hythe would be a nice place to go and look around the shops and of course I nearly forgot I could spend some time on the seafront, might be something to see. What a surprise, some purple sandpipers, spent a good hour with them waiting until they showed on the rocks.

  One of Three Purple Sandpipers at Hythe

17th

A short visit to SS finding a little grebe on the plots, 12 stock doves over flying, 1 stonechat, very quiet. On the sea shore, 7 egrets and I counted 83 bar-tailed godwits.

19th

Made a visit to Ramsgate harbour to see the shag reported the other day and on the way back I stopped at Hampton to see the purple sandpipers.

26th

Another short visit to SS seeing a few scoter flocks, 3 mergansers and a red-throated diver then mid-morning, no, not a trip to Folkestone to see the Forsters Tern but of home to get ready to attend a 50th wedding anniversary, which was very nice! The time I  heard about it I would have missed it anyway.

Sun. 27th

Back to SS seeing a black redstart in the chalet park, a little grebe in the 'set aside' dykes and back near the car 5 eiders inc. 2 nice adult males were on the sea, which later flew west after 20 minutes. Later a flock of c.60 greylags flew across towards Sheppey, the sea was quiet apart from a small raft of wigeon.  The plots were not very productive except for 2 marsh harriers, 6 fieldfares, 2 long-tailed tits etc..

 Some of the Five Eiders

28th

A nice sunny morning at SS and the incoming tide gave me time to  count 66 redshank in the tidal pools plus 7 grey plovers etc..  On the plots, quiet again but c.25 coots made quite a splash, plus a I saw a male sparrowhawk and lastly a water rail was squealing near the bridge. On the sea, 4 scoters flew west into the Swale and 2 RT divers flew east and just one gc grebe. It was also good to see the return of the lone rook on the sea wall by the toilet block, a regular visitor for a couple of years.   Then  return to Hampton seeing the two purple sandpipers, c.10 sanderling and a couple of redshanks.

29th Nov.

SS again finding the black redstart again but nothing new except for a tufted duck (new for the year)in with the wigeon raft, and a glimpse of the crane flying with a few swans on Sheppey.

New Addition To The Camera Bag

11th Nov.

I went out this morning to test my new 1.4 extender Mk3 at Seasalter. Along the wall, by the breakwaters there is normally a few waders resting on the posts at high tide which make ideal subjects.  On my way by the huts a short-eared got up from the grass, looking tired as if it had just arrived.

Later I moved onto Hampton finding some oystercatchers and sanderling plus a kingfisher flew out from the brook and landed on the 'large breakwater'. It was some distance but I thought I would give it a go and try for a photo. Only getting a 1/100 sec shutter speed I was amazed that I got a fair image, not wobbly at all and a large crop.

Later a little egret flew in and landed on the rocks giving more opportunities, the sanderling further back along the beach didn't play ball so I didn't bother any more with them. I met another photographer, Dan Moon who was trying his luck for the purple sandpipers which I have not seen yet this autumn.

Sat 12th Nov.

A miserable looking start to the day with rain in the air so I was going to give it a miss today but a call from Steve Ashton moved me to join him at Seasalter where he wanted to do some kit testing. Fortunately, the rain had just about stopped enabling us to walk up to the wall and have a try at the grey plovers and redshank etc.. As we were about to finish a flock of 8 small birds landed very close to us on the wall apron, snow buntings. We got a few shots but as usual along came man and his dog and they flew westwards but landed. We went back up on the wall and within a minute the snow buntings were running back towards us on the apron.  A few more close shots but at very high ISOs, then off they went again, back over to Sheppey I think.

The Last Three Weeks

21st Oct

I took a walk along the seawall at Reculver hoping to see the shorelarks again but no luck. However, I did bump into a snow bunting which was in the deep shade of the wall and managed to get a couple of shots before it wandered a bit further along the beach and then lost. Also I met Gary Faulkner, a Flickr contact. 

25th Oct

CANON vs NIKON

I have been researching photographic equipment that would give me a better and lighter kit for some time now. I had always admired results from the new Nikon 300mm F4, small and half the weight of my lens and then the Nikon D500 which was the new all singing and dancing camera from the Nikon stable. With trembling nerves I bagged up all my Canon kit and traded it all in for the above kit plus a 1.4 extender. The first day out it was great, smaller, lighter and seemed to respond in every way as it was the following day.  However, as we all know, its what looks good on the PC and not the back of the camera. Reviewing the shots I got that horrible feeling, 'what have I done', oh know.  

The results were not terrible but clearly not as good as my Canon, rather soft and no real 'bite' in the detail. It was not a focus issue as front and back of the focus point were just the same. I was convinced there was a problem with either the body or lens as this combination should have produced equal or better results than my Canon kit.  Fortunately, I was able to go back to the shop where they took it all back and returned my Canon kit, thanks to them!   

Fingers slightly burned with that experience I was not going to try another kit from elsewhere but it shows that when you buy new, be careful because even paying out a lot of money does not guarantee you will get first class results.  I have known several cases where this has happened so always buy 'on approval', you shell out a fist full of money and you are given a box with gear that's untested and could easily have faults.

28th Oct

A fine day so I went to Stodmarsh meeting up with Steve and Tim. Walking to the Marsh hide we had good views of a heron with an enormous eel which it swallowed without too much trouble.  A couple of beardies showed briefly but otherwise it was fairly quiet.

29th Oct

A visit to SS plots proved rather unexciting, the only thing of note being 14 fieldfares in one of the trees otherwise it was goldfinches, song thrushes, chaffinch, wren, cetti's but it was good to see 2 greenfinches here. On the LNR I took photos of this grey plover resting on the breakwaters.

30th Oct

A rather damp quiet morning.

2nd Oct.

A day out with the other half to Sheffield Park gardens, managed to get in this week, last week we had to abort, crowded, no room in car park.

3rd Nov.

A short pm visit to SS seeing 8 snipe flying over plus a distant barn owl, no shorties today though.

5th Nov.

The weather was doubtful but I went to SBBOT, the hide was unexciting with mainly teal on show so I went along the toll road and found the greys.  I parked up and just waited until they came close (6 off) mizzly rain started but I managed a few shots as they gradually came towards me.

Shorelarks

13th Oct.

After hearing about the two shorelarks at Reculver from Mark Chidwick I paid a visit on Friday morning bunping into Mike Roser who was just leaving after seeing them.  There were no other birders about so it was a bit of  a search and after a while I started to go back as there seemed no sign then thought 'no don't give up'. I then retraced my steps and went on further east and finally found them but they were very skittish in the strong east wind.  I got several pictures and then put Melvyn and Janice Fagg onto their position as they were also eager to see them.

Other birds included a short-eared owl over the fields behind, a wheatear along the beach and far out to sea a bonxie, several gannets and a peregrine.

14th Oct.

Returning to Seasalter this morning finding, c.200 turnstones, 160 ringed plover, 30 dunlin on the island and a wheatear in the beach gardens.

Along the South  Swale LNR I saw; c.600 golden plovers, 1 peregrine, 1 wheatear and on the sea 2K brents (quite a few juveniles) with 225 wigeon plus a handful of teal amongst them and at least 4 pintail. 

16th Oct

2 shorelark were reported yesterday at Seasalter somewhere so I took the long walk up nearly to C.Coote. No sign unfortunately but there were 2 wheatears, the brent and wigeon flock. I also made a point of counting the little egrets coming into roost on the Coote amounting to 94 birds not including those that may have already been at the roost. Plenty of mipits, a few reed buntings on the beach and a flock of c.30 linnets.