A Couple of Hours in the Draper Hide

1st August 2026

Another visit to Rye Meads today and I chose to spend the next couple of hours in The Draper Hide as it was a bit warm to walk round to the Kingfisher Hide, it was likely to be busy, and at the time the female was still on eggs so unlikely to be much acion. What a good decision that turned out to be!!

Unusually a Cormorant was posing right in front of the hide which got me off to a good start.

The other usual suspects were a Little Egret and a Little Grebe.

Green Sandpipers were well represented with six birds present.................

.....................and here are four in one shot with one hiding in the vegetation.

And when you have an itch there is only one thing for it.

The only other waders were a few distant Lapwing and two Snipe which had already arrived for the winter.

Only one Common Tern today which is presumably a result of all the tern rafts being commandeered by the army of Black-headed Gulls. However, it was fairly active allowing a number of shots to be taken.

But now for the real reason it was a good decision to stay in the Draper Hide. When the female is on eggs at the Kingfisher Hide, the male brings her a fish now and again but rarely fishes there. And luckily today he decided to do his fishing in front of the Draper Hide.

Here is a sequence of one of his successful fishing expeditions just below the perch.

And once back on your perch you subdue the fish by smashing it on the perch.......................

...................and then fly back to the nest to offer it to the female and perhaps have a change-over.

Well an action-packed couple of hours in the Draper Hide and nice to have a chat with Jason.