STEVE ASHTON'S WILDLIFE GALLERY

My Diary

Egrets, Bitterns and Herons.

Two Diary updates on consecutive days, it must be a record. A long overdue trip to Dungeness today, with a life tick, in the form of a Purple Heron the target. Mike drove down to Dungeness, with me a passenger, and we settled down on the bridge to the back of the RSPB reserve along the Denge Marsh road. There were a few people there, and we were told that there was a Great White Egret about, and several Bitterns had been seen flying over the reed beds. It was only a matter of minutes before we saw a Purple Heron, flying away from us, with Mike and myself clicking away at it, not knowing that an hour later we would have one flying around over our heads. It landed down towards the power station before returning 20 minutes later, giving us excellent views, as well as great photo opportunities. Both Birds continued to fly around throughout the morning, and at one stage, we saw a bird fly over our heads, landing just out of our site in the dyke that the bridge we were standing on crossed. We periodically saw its long thin head sticking up from the reeds, an excellent first time experience for me. We had 3 Bittern sightings, and could not say if it was the same bird each time, but I would say there were at least a pair of birds, before the the Great White Egret put in an appearance, flying over the pool behind us, landing along the far reed fringe, where it stayed for 30 minutes, working its way along the reed line, catching a few fish as we watched. A little too far for decent photos, but great to watch the bird in its everyday activities. There were 5 Hobbies up over the pool hawking insects, and it was a job knowing where to look, with the Heron behind us, the Egret in front of us, and the Hobbies above us. I chose to keep looking along the dyke towards the Heron, but it never showed very well in the dyke, at last getting fed up and taking off and flying down towards the power station again. A Sparrow-hawk glided low over the water, and on the water were Tufted Duck, Pochard, 1 Little Grebe and several Great Crested Grebes with stripy chicks in tow. 2 Marsh Harriers were noted throughout the morning and a few Lesser Black-backed Gulls were drifting over the body of water in front of us. There were 3 Little Egrets present, feeding around the edge of the reed bed. A Fox was in the field to our right when we arrived, and a Stoat gave us the run around, with Mike and me failing to get any photos of it. A great morning, a life tick and some close up photos, excellent. Mike had a phone call about a White tailed Plover at Rainham Marshes, but we both agreed that we could not be in two places at once, and also both agreed that there was a greater chance of a photo where we were, which I am sure will prove to be correct. A coffee in the RSPB visitors centre ended a good morning, back home to sort some photos before the World Cup semi tonight.