Oare Marshes on a sunny day

Posted on 18th November 2017 by Richard

It was a beautiful sunny day when I visited Oare Marshes last week and if you count the Starlings there must have been over 5,000 birds around and about, 2,000 of which were made up of Dunlin, Avocets, Golden Plover, Lapwings, Black Tailed Godwits, various Geese and on the not bird scene, beside a few Red Admirals, a Coloured Yellow Butterfly was skipping along the footpath on the sea front.

Smaller birds included Reed Buntings, Starlings and although I didn’t see them myself, a few Bearded Tits were seen in the Reedbeds alongside the estuary.

Fears for the Estuary future

Announced two weeks ago is a plan to develop the east side of the Estuary for an enormous Solar Panel Farm.
This would stretch from the Marshes right the way through to Seasalter thus stealing precious open land where many birds also reside and feed. Seals often rest on the sands along there as well, seems a great risk to our firendly, important and wonderful native creatures.

White = Oare Marshes Nature Reserve – Red = Proposed Solar Farm

Kentish people and beyond have a fine reputation of standing up to land being lost for housing or other developments including Boris’s great plan for an Airport and the destruction of Lodge Hill (see HERE) for housing which is the largest and most important summer residence of Nightingales.

Developers seem to be under the impression that if bird breeding land is taken away, the birds will simply find somewhere else to go, in most circumstances, this is not true. Maybe some of the Planners who often have their home and design studio in a nice Woodland setting should think a bit more about the importance of wildlife, no matter how big, small, feathered or 4 legged they be.

Irony is that the waters around this area have just been designated as ‘important’. Why aren’t they thinking the same about the land which borders them !
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Early December at Oare Marshes

Posted on 12th December 2016 by Richard

Oare Marshes on a bleak, slightly drizzly, dark, cold and overall dismal day makes for good birdwatching in my opinion, not good necessarily for good photos though.
It always reminds me of the opening scene in the original 1950’s production of Dicken’s ‘Great Expectations’ and wandering around you’re half expecting for the Convict to suddenly jump out at you.
After all, Oare is close to Dickens Rochester home !

It was one of those days when you don’t think much is going to happen, but within minutes of arriving there a Marsh Harrier was weaving and gliding toward me making a good low fly past for the camera.
I was surprised not to see it suddenly dive for prey, but just carried on toward Faversham.

Male Reed Bunting

By the time I’d walked the half circuit around to the beach the tide was getting just low enough to start bringing in the Waders.
First up were Turnstones, one of my favourites, they appear not too human and camera shy, just popping along the rocks looking and picking treats from the sea.

Left; Pintail – Right; Turnstone

Left; The Large Heron – Right; Redshank

Further along the Redshanks started to appear on one piece of island which broke through the water and a Curlew was patiently waiting for a bit more beach to appear before joining them.

On one of the inland pools I spotted one of the largest Heron’s I’ve seen to date. Many see them as ‘common as muck’ but to me, everyone has their own slight variations and there’s usually a pose with a decent background that’s better than than photos taken previously.

Beside that, the main pool consisted mainly of Teal, Pintails, Lapwings, Shovelers and Wigeon.

Oare is drive time wise the closest beach / marsh to home and it’s a very rare event you won’t see lot’s of something, the occasional rarity all made better by the occasional Boat sailing by.