A day at Cliffe Pools

It was Wednesday - so it must be a birdwatching day!

Redshank

This week we decided to try Cliffe Pools, my local RSPB Reserve.   There had recently been reports of large variety of waders so we wanted to test our skills.

Kestrel



 From the car park we saw wood pigeon, magpie, tufted duck, coot (at least 130), black-tailed godwit, redshank, little egret, little grebe and cormorant.   As we scanned through the redshank, Malcolm noticed a spotted redshank amongst them.   A kestrel hovered overhead for a while before moving off to perch in a tree in the distance.   We moved towards the Saxon Shore Way where chaffinch, robin, great tit and blue tit flew across the track ahead of us.   A hobby came towards us and disappeared over towards the village.

Greenshank

Huge numbers of starling were flying around over the fields making their beautiful patterns in the sky.   Pied wagtail were feeding at the waters edge, and a grey heron took to the air.   Along the sheltered track of the footpath peacock, comma, painted lady, small heath, meadow brown and red admiral were seen.   At one stage there appeared to be a new emergence of red admiral feeding around ivy and hawthorn, and a great quote from Sally - "three red admiral in one binocular"!

Back to the birds and our next few birds were more waders, avocet, oystercatcher, ringed plover, little stint, dunlin and a really good view of a greenshank at the base of the bank.

Avocet

We took lunch by the sea wall and then walked back towards the car park along the edge of the river.   At the end of Flamingo pool there were more of the above waders, but added in were several bar-tailed godwit, and behind them some grey plover - two in almost summer plumage, and the rest in the more usual winter colure.   We watched more small birds arrive - a couple of curlew sandpipers, in with some ringed plover.   As we scanned the short grass at the end of the pool we realised there were high numbers of ringed plover sheltering in with equally numerous lapwing.  

On the way back we added more coot, redshank, little grebe, tufted duck and little egret.