7th to 14th April.

With visitors at home over Easter I didn't manage to get out much but seem to have made up for it over the following week. On the 7th it was bright and sunny and I stopped off at the Scrape on Sandwich Bay. Just by the gateway a Wren was singing lustily from a post and I was able to get a few shots. I'd not seen a Wren display before but a couple of times it raised its wings as if in flight, still singing, but going nowhere.

 

The Scrape held the usual suspects, a few Teal remained, Little grebes, Shoveler, Coots, Tufted duck etc. 7 or 8 Mute swan flew in but just like I'd witnessed a few days earlier, one of the males systematically chased off all the others bar one. Having cleared the Scrape of things to attack, the two remaining swans swam around happily for a while. A lapwing flew its amazing display flight and then landed right in front of the hide.

 A brief visit to the Elms produced a Firecrest and Chiffchaff, although I was very close to the Firecrest, the light was poor and the photos rather disappointing.

As it was such a bright day I returned in the late afternoon for one last attempt at the Short-eared owl in flight. I nearly missed it, it started flying around just after 5pm and didn't hang around very long. I did get a couple of usable photos.

Wednesday 8th. A trip to Rye with my wife and mother in law was a good excuse for me to visit Rye Harbour while they shopped and lunched. I'd have been better off joining them really. I saw only 1 Mediterranean gull, the Sandwich terns were there in reasonably numbers but either too fast or too distant for any decent shots with my little camera. I spent ages trying for a flight shot but all were failures and the photos of the colony on the beach were rendered pretty much unusable by a heat haze off the pebbles and the distance of the birds. I did see a Ruff and some Ringed plover but again they were a little too far away for good quality shots.

My best photos came from a pair of very confiding Linnet in the scrub to the north of the reserve. I did the usual trick of taking a few shots from the point they were first within range then taking a few steps towards them and firing off a few more shots, repeating this technique until they fly off or I can get the shot I'd ideally like. The camera is capable of great detail in the right conditions, see below. The birds remained, I took some like this and then backed away. 

Thursday 9th. Combining a visit to my mother and a birding trip isn't always easy but I'd heard reports of Grey wagtail along the Nailbourne at Littlebourne and I could stop off there on my way. I had seen a couple of pairs (or the same pair displaced by ~1Km) a few days earlier but the pair I was going after had been seen at a different location on several days. I couldn't have asked for much better, I found the spot, the two birds were there and posed nicely on various branches over or obstacle in the river. 

Friday 10th, - much like Wednesday, I offered to chauffeur, this time for a trip to see the delights of Broadstairs. I went on to Foreness Point which proved a bit of a disappointment. A few Linnet were on the grassed area but other than that very little. A pair of Fulmar were resting on a ledge on the cliff face but appear not to have moved since I last photographed them a couple of weeks ago. I did stand and watch a Dunnock singing away and House sparrows collect twigs off a shrub for nesting material presumably.

With it being so quiet on the cliff top I decided to visit Margate cemetery, possibly an unlikely spot for birding but these large town cemeteries can be quite rewarding, lots of established trees, relatively quiet areas in an otherwise busy built up area. Unfortunately that wasn't the case today - there was very little here either. A few Ring-necked parakeets destroying the flower buds and blossom of the trees, and a couple of wary Jays.

Click on images for larger view.

While I'd been on the cliff top I'd seen another photographer wandering around, our paths never crossed but it was fairly obvious he was after birds as well. At the cemetery an hour or so later I saw what appeared to be the same man with a camera. This time our paths did cross and I asked if he'd been at Foreness, he had, mystery solved - it turned out to be Tom Webzell, someone I'd been following on Flickr almost since I'd started bird photography, but up until this point had never met.

Sunday 12th 4 Shelduck were on the Scrape, a Chiffchaff in the Elms and Grey partridges in the fields between the Chequers pub and Cinque ports golf club.

 

Not exactly well camouflaged!

Monday 13th. As it was a bright afternoon I decided to have one more look for the Short-eared owls. While I was waiting to see if they appeared I noticed 3 Wheatear in the turf field near Dickson's Corner. I stood at the fence and took a few distant shots, there were 2 males and a female. There was no sign of the owls so I decided to sit down in the turf field to see if the Wheatear would get any nearer. Over a period of time they became quite inquisitive and first a male then the female started to gradually approach. I was taking shots with each meter they got nearer. At one point the female was within about 10 m, I'd taken a couple of shots and then some guys on motorbikes drove past, the bird didn't take much notice of the engine noise and I sat motionless hoping it would remain. Then one of the clowns on a motorbike blasted his horn - it was obvious it had been done to disturb whatever it was I was trying to photograph, unfortunately with great success, the bird flew off. Thanks!

I nearly quit at that point, I'd not taken a coat as I hadn't expected to be sat quietly in a field, I was pretty cold and my fingers were getting numb, but I sat a little longer and the birds began their slow progress towards me again. I was really pleased I stayed, some of the closest shots of a Wheatear I've managed.

A trip to the woods near Nonington on the Tuesday 14th to collect a few wild garlic leaves (Ransoms) which my wife was going to make into a version of pesto (we've not tried it yet but it came recommended), soon saw me distracted when a Goldcrest started flitting about just above my head. There are often excuses, and this time is no exception, the angle of the light was poor and the Goldcrest was - as anyone who has seen them will know - constantly on the move. Being such a small bird and flitting about so much, I was finding it nearly impossible to get the camera to focus on it. A couple of times it revealed just how bright it's crest is but I failed to get the shots. There were a couple of shots that showed how close it was but they aren't very good. 3 buzzards circled on the thermals, they were a bit far away but I couldn't help but have a go, again, not very good!

A slightly easier target was a Small tortoiseshell which was feeding on dandelion flowers, with the warm sun on my back it could have been summer.