Hampton, Part 2

I didn't intend to publish the Hampton blog, it wasn't finished, I'd intended to save it as a draft and come back to it, now it will have to be 2 parts.

After leaving Reculver on a still rising tide, I headed straight to Hampton. There wasn't much beach remaining below the pile of boulders alongside Hampton Pier Road which was for me a good thing, it meant that the Purple sandpipers would probably be on the beach adjacent to the playing field. A lot of gulls mainly Black-headed and some Common were on the sea and several on still exposed rocks, I scoured them with my binoculars to try to spot the Mediterranean gull which has apparently been there since December. Fortunately it was sat one of the rocks quite close to the road. I took quite a few shots to make sure I got something, then approached a little nearer and adjusted the exposure, the sun on the birds chest was so bright most of the detail was burnt out, I never got it quite right but did manage a few reasonable shots.

Mediterranean gull.

I missed a trick here as the gull on the rock behind was a Black-headed gull and if I'd taken a shot to include both it would have served as a good comparison. 

Common gull - click photo to enlarge.

Having bagged both the Med and Common gulls I moved on to the beach. There were numerous Turnstone a Redshank and two Purple sandpipers. As the tide was still coming in (and in contrast with Friday it was quite a calm sea) I got myself on to a clean-ish bit of beach - there is a lot of debris on the shore and laid down with the camera set for the conditions. The Purps weren't long before they were toing and froing along the surf line picking up anything edible in the washed up weed. Nothing like as bad as Sanderling or Ringed plover they are still very mobile little birds and consequently they can be a little difficult to focus on but I was working on my usual principle of take lots, one may be OK.

One species I hadn't expected on the beach was a Stock dove. I'd managed a couple of quite distant shots along Golf Road at Sandwich Bay but the doves there seem very nervous and usually the wrong side of a barbed wire fence so it isn't easy to close the gap. There was one on the boulder breakwater which was quite confiding.

Stock dove

Redshank and Turnstone

 As I was leaving I saw the Med gull on the pub roof, it didn't make a good photo. I threw a bit of food out for the gulls and was quickly surrounded by them, the Med gull did fly around but I couldn't get a pic, I did get quite a nice one of a Black-headed gull with the remains of Herne Bay pier in the background. 

All together, a very good afternoon.