...having looked at endless photos of Short-eared Owls in flight, my 90% certain has increased to 100%....and having spoken to a couple of other people it is backed up....
From what I saw of it, a yellow hand with black wing tip, a glimpse of the underside of a wing which didn't show the Buzzard wing pattern but was much cleaner...best view I had was flying away for a couple of seconds....it was quite 'speckly' brown on the back, not like a Buzzard at all which appear as plain brown. Also, its flight wasn't Buzzard like, when ive come across Buzzards previously they have taken off and gained height immediately, this bird was more about 3m off the ground and maintained that....
...so it can be added to the list of birds on site which is a fantastic record....I have also been told there is some history of three being on site some years ago...
In the meantime....since I spotted the Smew pair...several others have visited over the past couple of days and indeed seen them.....
A pair of Pintail Ducks....I was expecting these more than the Smew really as they had been reported on inland water in Tonbridge. So no surprise they turned up....
A Jack Snipe was flushed....I've seen these at Whetsted before so again no surprise though it would be good to work on an area to open up where Snipe species can be observed rather than flushed, which is the usual option at Whetsted.
And...a real surprise....a Dunlin was reported on West Pit on the ice...
A great couple of days for the site.....sure....most of the year it does what it does....but now and then the place can Rock...!
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