An American Golden Plover at Oare Marshes

24th September 2019

An American Golden Plover was first reported at Oare Marshes on the 22nd September and has been present since, so time for a visit. With some help the bird was found almost immediately on the East Flood, at the back of a flock of around 100 Golden Plover some 70 yards away. The problem with viewing East Flood from the road is that the sun is in your eyes until 1.30pm when it crosses the road and "is behind you". Therefore prior to 1.30pm most photographs are only record shots of which I took a hundred or so. Then the whole flock was spooked and flew out into the Swale and did not return immediately

Therefore while we were waiting for the bird to return and the sun to move round, time for a visit to the jetty to see what was around. Just the usual suspects like this rather stunning Black-headed Gull enhanced by a back-cloth of seaweed and a juvenile Herring Gull.

And who can resist a rather tame juvenile Lapwing with its emerging crest and orange-fringed wing coverts. It too posed with an algae-covered rock and some seaweed.

However, the best subjects were the dozen or so Turnstones that had congregated at the water's edge at the end of the jetty. Why can't all birds be as obliging as this?

So, the sun has now crossed the yard-arm so back to the road viewpoint to see if the American had re-appeared. No such luck, so time to divert out attentions to a colour-ringed Avocet and a solitary Snipe standing right out in the open on dry land. Obviously very confused.

At that point the Golden Plovers started to return and after a few minutes a hundred or so had flown in so now to try and track down the American.

It was eventually found and this time it was nearer the front of the flock, but was often obscured as the Golden Plovers kept on running around. In all the photos the American is near the centre and can be identified by the slightly smaller size, darker cap and conspicuous supercilium or eye-stripe.

Don't you just love it when a plan comes together?