Oare What? 1st August 2020

End of July: Racy Walter!

During the week we had an unusual visitor to the garden in the shape of a Racing Pigeon. We've had Feral Pigeons before but this is the first Racer. Seemingly very tame, Walter as we christened him  (of course Walter could have been a she), would allow close approach but wouldn't allow capture always flying up a few feet off the ground and landing a bit further away if you got too close. He spent four days from Tuesday helping to clear up the spilt seed from the bird feeders. In between feeding he'd sit on our roof gazing down at us if we were in the garden. He wore a ring which identified him as a young bird and research on the internet revealed that young Racing Pigeons are prone to making short stopovers before continuing on their way back to their home lofts. After he left we rather missed his amiable ways around the garden.

"Walter"

1st August: Bunch of Kents

We were in need of some different birding and some decent birds so I had studied what was available in the days leading up to the weekend. In truth there was little around either locally or nationally. After last years big effort on building a year list, this year we had decided that we wanted to add new birds to our life list and would only travel large distances for those rather than for birds we'd seen before. Obviously there are some birds that are desirable and are good to see whenever the opportunity arises but for most of this year, admittedly made easier by the Lockdown, we had so far managed to stick to our guns and had primarily only travelled out of our immediate area when twitching lifers. However, in the absence of anything new to twitch and with so little happening locally, on Saturday morning we decided on a whim to drive into Kent and to Oare Marshes, a place where we'd never been before, and where there were a couple of scarcer birds that we could add to this years list. Besides we always enjoy a trip out. 

I've never enjoyed travelling to Kent, or Essex or indeed any of the places lying to the east of London because getting to those counties normally requires driving along the M25 and having to take our chances with the zillions of other road users. Therefore we've always limited our trips into Kent despite the fact that whenever we've been there we've always seen some good birds because the county is very good for rare and scarce species. We saw our first ever Pied-billed Grebe, Long-billed Dowitcher and Blue-winged Teal on one of our first ever twitching days in Kent back in 1997 and a few years back while in Kent to attend a wedding, I self found a Black Stork. Last year we made a December journey to the county to add Shorelark and Tundra Bean Goose to the 2019 year list. Many folk had told me about Oare Marshes, and the fact that birds are usually close to the road sounded appealing enough. It is also the summer residence for a Bonaparte's Gull which would be a nice addition to our year list.

We left a bit late by our standards, again, and didn't arrive at Oare until just after ten o'clock. It was a warm and sunny morning as I pulled the car into the lay-by that overlooks the scrape. I had researched into the site and discovered that very helpfully you could watch from the lay-by. Little did I realise that you weren't actually supposed to park there, and might explain why I got so many sour looks from the regulars! What my research hadn't told me was that at ten in the morning you'd be looking directly into the sun which was strong in the clear air and created the dreaded heat shimmer. It was true that some birds were close to the road but most were further out on the shallow scrape and viewing was difficult owing to that heat haze.

I began by studying the birds closest to us which were stood or sat on a muddy bund about thirty metres away. Most of the birds there were Gulls and the majority of those were Black-headed Gulls but scanning revealed half a dozen Mediterranean Gulls, a year tick and our 200th species for the year. Considering how common they are in much of the south of England, Mediterranean Gulls are surprisingly hard to come by in Oxfordshire, the last ones I found were attempting breeding on Otmoor last April, so it was good to see so many here.

adult Mediterranean Gull (standing)

Beyond the Gull covered spit was an area of open water which was full of more Gulls, again mainly Black-headed Gull but also this time with some Common and Herring Gulls. Further out, using a muddy sand bar to rest on was a huge flock of Black-tailed Godwits and other wading birds, such as Redshank, Lapwing and Avocet. It was clear to see why Oare was so highly regarded as a birding site and, not for the first time in my life, I wondered why I bothered to remain living in Oxfordshire and flog relatively bird poor places such as Farmoor for my wading bird fix. The downside to birding at Oare though was the attitude of some of the local birders who appeared to be a quite unhelpful bunch and who fended off my questions, of what was about, with put-me-downs and disinterest. Maybe I had just chosen the wrong bunch to ask and I quickly realised that Mrs Caley and I were on our own, and that I'd have to find the two scarcer birds that I'd come to see by myself. Perhaps it was my ignorance of the parking situation that had worked against us.

Oare Marshes & the Black-tailed Godwit flock

We were looking for the Bonaparte's Gull of course and also a Lesser Yellowlegs. I had never seen a Bonaparte's Gull outside of Oxfordshire before, there are not many birds that I can say that of, and thanks to sustained views of a brilliant adult bird at Blenheim last year, I knew exactly what to look for. Except that the Blenheim bird was largely flying around and we were looking at hundreds upon hundreds of stationary birds of which most were asleep with their heads tucked away. The two easiest identification marks that I knew of the Bonaparte's Gull was its smaller black bill and shorter bubblegum-pink coloured legs, neither of which would be visible if the bird was lying prone on the ground with its bill hidden in its back feathers! I spent a good fifteen minutes searching through all of the Black-headed Gulls that I could see and couldn't find the Boney's. Frustration was beginning to mount.

Luckily my search for the Gull had at least revealed the Lesser Yellowlegs which was actively feeding on a muddy strip in front of a reedbed beyond a large group of resting Gulls. Because of the heat shimmer the elegant wading bird wasn't easy to observe or photograph but I've seen a few now so knew that I had the right bird. Lesser Yellowlegs are superficially similar to the ubiquitous Redshanks that were here in numbers, but are more rakish with a longer neck, finer bill and, of course, yellow rather than red legs. I think they more resemble Greenshanks, of which there were a few here, but Greenshanks are more bulky with a stouter slightly upturned bill. I had seen some excellent photos of this Lesser Yellowlegs online but I was going to have to make do with record shots.

Lesser Yellowlegs

Record shots would prove to be the order of the day, the radiant sunshine aiming directly into our faces and the attendant heat shimmer destroying all of my efforts at gaining any decent photos. My good friend, Mark aka The Early Birder, told me once that you just can't expect good photos on very hot days unless you are close to your subject because if your own vision is affected by heat haze then by extension a camera will be too. I will remember, if I choose to visit Oare again in the future, to make it on an afternoon or on a dull overcast day. At least I don't subscribe to the true Togger spirit of complaining about the "lack of light" and if I ever do then please give me a slap.

Back to this story, a very helpful Marsh Harrier flew closely past, not close enough to get a photo of course, it was a Marsh Harrier after all and they just don't pose for Old Caley, and all the birds forgot their slumbers for a while and shuffled their positions a bit. In front of the Lesser yellowlegs was around a hundred or so Black-headed Gulls and when they were all stood nervously eyeing up the potential threat of the Harrier, at the right hand side and almost obscured by a clump of reeds was the Bonaparte's Gull! It had just materialised in front of us and must have been there all the time. I checked the Gulls credentials through my scope a few times and satisfied myself that it was the target bird. The thin black bill and pink legs obvious now it was stood up and awake.

Bonaparte's Gull (& Dunlin)

We watched the Bonaparte's Gull for a while, sharing it with some other, more friendly, birders that arrived. To be fair it didn't move far, maybe a few feet further away from the reeds and into open water where it spent time preening. Another threat, unseen by us, startled the Gulls again and a new order to the flock ensued, but now my eye was in, it was easy to remain fixed on the Bonaparte's Gull. The last view we had, was of it attending to its feathers while all other Gulls in its vicinity went back to their collective repose. Now we could see it well, it was obvious that it had a darker blackish head, which it had only just started to moult, than the Black-headed Gulls, which of course have brownish head feathers, something that I should have remembered to use as an identification aid earlier when searching through the sleeping birds. Another important thing to remember for future.

We had found other birds during our stay, our first Spotted Redshank for the year was seen way out beyond the Godwit flock, just about discernible through the scope as it fed in the deeper water. Half a dozen Golden Plovers were gathered on another sandy spit way out on the marsh along with more Dunlin and Avocets. We also found a few Ruff and Ringed Plovers as well as a Water Rail and Little Egrets. Oare Marshes appears to be an excellent site and if we had the inclination we would have stayed longer and looked for Bearded Tits and the like in the reedbeds but it was far too hot for us and the breeze had picked up considerably, determining that seeing anything in the swaying reeds would be very tricky. 

The almost three hour drive home reminded me why I don't bother with the M25 unless I really have to!