Then I looked skyward and saw what I thought was a Buzzard, it had flown over me towards the church, I took a long range distance shot, but didnt think nothing more of it. I made my way to the corner of the old bridge and stopped to see if anything was about, at that point a black cat made a leap towards a small dark bird, the cat very nearly got it too, it was a Water Rail, which then flew under the bridge(No photos of that incident, but what a sight).
I then made my way across the old bridge and walked down the riverbank, took some long range shots of yet another Snipe, then my daughter phoned me, time to go...A good hour spent.
As I've said, I'm very much a novice at this "Birding lark", I've never seen a Red Kite before, so feel free to put me either right on wrong on this. Some photos then, cheers.
Ive finally got that close up shot of a snipe(shame about the reed position though!)
The possible Red Kite?
Across the river shot of another Snipe(with Moorhen)
Black headed Gull(with ring)
Close up cropped pic of ring.
Certainly is a Red Kite, Paul. Well done on that and the other shots.
ReplyDeleteNo doubt about it Paul, nice one, i've yet to see one in Kent! Nice photo's too.
ReplyDeleteEnvious on two counts there paul, the Red Kite, and a cracking Snipe photo. Well done :-)
ReplyDeleteHi Paul
ReplyDeleteWell done on the Red Kite - there's a gap for Red Kite on the BTO Atlas in Aylesford - you've filled it (do you submit records to the BTO?).
Adam
Hi Dean, thanks for that mate, looks like I was once again lucky then.
ReplyDeleteHi Phil, cheers about my photos too. Its the 1st Red Kite I have ever seen anywhere. I'm just lucky to be in the right place at the right time I guess? and to think that I wasn't even going to bother going to the river, I'm really glad I did now.
ReplyDeleteHi Warren, I had took a fair few shots of Snipe recently, but always in poor light and vast distances, so I was happy to get closer and better conditions for that photo. The Red Kite was a complete surprise, I didn't even know about it, until I looked at the photos later that day!
ReplyDeleteHi Adam, thanks for your comments mate, as you can guess, I had to google what BTO was!!! I did say I was a bit of a novice with this "birding"! I had noticed that everyone keeps numbers of sightings on all their blogs, its something that I should start doing myself then. Would I be right in thinking that Red Kite sightings in Kent are rare then?
ReplyDeleteNice one with the Kite - never had one anywhere near my patch.
ReplyDeleteYou get any other pics of the numbers on the ring on the gull - it's from the Dutch ringing scheme; Arnhem is readable on the ring.
Cheers
Davo
Hi Paul
ReplyDeleteRed Kite are being increasingly regular in Kent probably due to the success of the reintroduction scheme in The Chilterns. I think most of us patchwatchers in West Kent notch at least one up a year....if we're lucky! A good record though and maybe one of the birds that seems to be overwintering near Chartham, they seem to be following the M20/Downs on their sorties. The BTO are in the final year of compiling their Bird Atlas which will give a good idea of the State of the Nation with regard to birds. All records you submit help and these can be done quite easily on their 'BirdTrack' site (http://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/birdtrack). Also if you the visit the KOS website their is an excellent map showing the distribution of species in the county for both winter and summer but quite a few gaps need filling in. For example if you visit the following site: http://www.kentos.org.uk/atlas/2007/RichnessMap.shtml, you'll see how many species have been recorded in different 'squares' or 'tetrads' around the county. If you hover over the square for Clare Park, East Malling (TQ65Y West Malling & Mill Street) you'll see that only 39 species have been recorded in the last 4 winters - but there are no records for Pochard or Kingfisher which you reported last week! It's not that many of the species 'missing' aren't there, but not that they've been reported. Unfortunately if they don't get entered they'll be forever 'absent' from that square according to the official records. I've been trying to fill in some of these missing gaps on neighbouring patches but find I'm spreading myself too thinly! If you need any help with entering records then by al means drop me a line at: adam.whitehouse@emr.ac.uk. I can always enter the odd record for you if you let me have date and time.
Adam
Hi Davo, thanks about the Red Kite mate. Also, its very interesting to have heard your info about that ringed gull, cheers for that.
ReplyDeleteHi Adam, an extremely informative reply from you, thanks for going to the trouble of writing that for a novice like me. As I mentioned on your blog(and after looking on that list for TQ65Y) I do have 4 more birds to add, Ive just got to check my memory(and the photo info. on my PC) to gather all the relative details. Cheers once again for all your help.
ReplyDeleteNo probs Paul - drop me the details when you get time. Have a great Christmas!
ReplyDeleteAdam