Sunday 11 September 2011

Crossing the Wantsum!

Today I found myself heading East, not to Asia or Oz but to cross the Want some (Wantsum) and into East Kent, home to many a good birding site and also the vebue for todays KOS meeting at SBBO. With a few hours to spare I ventured across to BOB, as Prof Hanby would see 'the back of beyond' or locally known as Backsand Scrape. This superb hidden corner of Kent is a great place to watch and hopefully photograph waders but locating it when you're an infrequent visitor like me isni' always straightforward. Is you was an escaped birder on the run you could hide out here for a while and not be seen, there's even three hides and some large blue plastic containers to hide in if the blog police are after you.
Looking through my photos on the PC, about 80000 digital images now I decided I needed a few good Greenshank shots and looking at other blogs eg Steve Ashton I also wanted a piece of the action knowing the Bittern land and the viewing hide would be open season on a Saturday at Grove.

I was not disapointed and there were ctaully birds present

A billy bonus came in the form of this cracking juv Temminck's Stint that fed sadly too far away for a decent shot but nonetheless a good bird to find and see. East Kent is full of surprises you just need to get out there and look, don't assume someone else will have checked a site, it's a migrantion hotspot and every day is different.



Greenshank at Backsand, crackers

Ruff at Restharrow scrape



These last images are Honey Buzzards plus atmospheric dust migrating through Kent in the last few weeks

3 comments:

Marc Heath said...

Nice shots Barry and well done with the Temminck's, not often you get to photograph these.

Alan Pavey said...

Good stuff Barry, I think I tried to find Backsand once and gave up!! Seeing yours and other recent photos, I must try harder next time

Ornitocampero.blogspot.com.es said...

Nice document of the honey buzard migration!
Saludos camperos.