Gary Howard's birds and wildlife

I should have been packing for Morocco and looking forward to nearly 2 weeks of solid birding with Mike Buckland but with the Icelandic volcano still spewing ash and U.K. airspace closed for the 4th consecutive day our chances of getting away looked bleak.

Mike and I had discussed matters last night when a bunch of us had met for a meal. If all else failed we'd go to Scotland  for a few days!

Late afternoon Mike 'phoned to say that Easyjet had cancelled the flight so we re-booked for Wednesday morning. Fingers crossed!

Jenny and I took the boys to Elmley for the afternoon and stayed until late enjoying the sunshine and peace and quiet.

As we drove down the access track there were lots of Lapwing and Redshank displaying and birds now sitting on eggs. Yellow Wagtails were dotted around and quite a few Little Egrets. As we got close to Kingshill a quick scan looking west revealed the unusual sight of a lot of Mediterranean Gulls spread across the freshmarsh, some displaying. Getting out of the car you could easily hear their distinctive calls filling the air. I scoped the marsh and counted over 70 adult Med Gulls, speaking to the warden Gordon, later in the day, he'd counted close to 100 at one point., something he'd never encountered before at Elmley.

After showing the boys a Little Owl in one of it's usual perches in the oaks we set off for the hides. 

We had around 20 Whimbrel on the fresh marsh on our walk to the hides and several Sedge Warblers.

Once at the hides overlooking the scrape we found that Avocets were as usual staking out their territories and chasing most of the other waders. A few Black-tailed Godwits were present and as it was high tide a small number of Turnstones. Whilst duck numbers were heading towards their spring dip there were still several hundred Wigeon present and despite a good search I could not find any Garganey.

A slow stroll back saw us characteristically one of the last out of the car park and pausing to watch Hares alongside the access track saw us home far later than intended.

Pheasant

Black-tailed Godwit - it had an injured leg, is that why it remains in winter plumage?