Hooded Crow

Sunny, cool, NE 4 - After a hectic weekend of family stuff (including a circuit of the M25 yesterday) I felt I really needed a good walk out this morning to clear the cobwebs, so decided that Dengemarsh Gully would be perfect for both myself and Ted, our seven month old rescue dog. I admit to having something of a love/hate relationship with this site as it always `feels` as though a decent bird is just around the next bush; but most of the time just flatters to deceive, delivering next to nothing, and today was no different. However, we got off to a cracking start at the top end when a Hooded Crow (yesterdays bird?) flew down the gully before disappearing over towards Pen Bars. A couple of Sedge Warblers and a Common Whitethroat burst into song, up popped a Stonechat, along with a twitter of Linnets in the gorse scrub and that was about it; as usual the majority of the gully was a bird-free zone, until we got to the seaward end where a pair of Wheatears and Pied Wagtails performed close by. On the return walk a Raven flew over heading for the switch station where it was presumably nesting.

                                    Wheatear, Dengemarsh Gully

Moving onto the bird reserve (with Ted on a short leash) and the birds began to flow. From Springfield Bridge a stunning male Marsh Harrier dropped a dainty morsel to its mate high over the reedbed, from where a Bittern `boomed`. Two Great White Egrets were noted and a Swallow hurried inland. Around the hayfields a few more Linnets, Sedge Warblers, Reed Buntings and Cetti`s Warblers were in song, while a party of nine Bar-tailed Godwits (including two stunning brick-red adult males) and two Whimbrels had just dropped onto Hayfield 2, where there was also plenty of Shelduck, Lapwing and Redshank breeding activity underway. We finished off in the visitors centre for a spot of socialising, where Ted lapped up all the fuss and attention from the staff and visiting birders.