A very breezy day in the south-east made birding quite tricky.
Immediately on arrival I went to the ARC pit and eventually had good views of the bird I came for, i.e. White-tailed Plover (139). A very pretty little bird with long yellow legs, typical plover type shape and a pale head and face. A noticeably short tail gave it a front heavy appearance. Basically buff above and pale below with a well demarked buff breast with black wing tips. Seen once in flight where the very distinctive wing pattern was seen - very much like Sociable Plover and also Sabine's Gull in appearance. At the same place were a couple of Green Sandpipers and two Little Egrets.
Next stop was the patch at the power station where I managed eventually to find a Yellow-legged Gull (140) and half a dozen Mediterranean Gulls. Couldn't find any Roseate Terns.
Now over to the RSPB reserve and had a look at their books. I then got directions to where the rare herons were showing. I then walked to Denge Marsh and waited with some other people to see the herons.
First up was a flying Bittern followed by one of the Purple Herons (141) which flew from right to left and disappeared into the reeds (possibly the male as it was quite well marked). A female type Marsh Harrier was seen quartering the reeds but it didn't put the Purple Heron up. Finally I had couple of reasonable flight views of the Great White Egret (142). This meant I had seen 5 different species of heron today!
I then caught a duck in flight which at first I thought was a Shoveler but in fact it was a Garganey!
I then returned back to the ARC pit to see if there were better views of the White-tailed Plover but there wasn't.
Odonata species recorded:
Azure Damselfly
Blue-tailed Damselfly
Ruddy Darter
Emperor Dragonfly
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