Birds of the Foreshore

My home location in France, is 3 hours from my nearest coast, so whenever I get back to my old UK home, the first 'port of call' is always my old local beach at 'Minnis Bay' in Kent. I used to spend many happy hours, walking the coast and photographing the seabirds there and my recent visit, once again, did not disappoint. Arriving in February, gave me the opportunity to see the wintering birds, before they all left to head back up to the arctic circle.

The weather was not great, but perseverence paid off and the following images are a nice record of my recent visit.

20 years ago, the Little Egret was considered an exotic bird and a very rare visitor to  the UK coastline, but nowadays, they are commonplace on the North Kent coast. Global warming has seen them venture further north in Europe and of course, across the channel.

Of course, the best known of our sea birds, are the Gulls and although they make a lot of noise and steal our chips, they are a beautiful bird and very photogenic. - Strange then, that I often ignore them with my photography, which I can only put down, to the fact that they were so commonplace during the first 50 years of my life and considerd by 'locals', as a pest!

In winter, Brent Geese arrive in their thousands from Siberia to find food on our shores, prior to returning to their breeding grounds in Springtime. It is estimated that up to 100,000 birds make this journey and the sight and noise of these huge flocks of birds is simply breathtaking. 

Redshanks are easily recognisable by their long red legs and long, red based bills. They feed on small crustaceans and can often be seen wading in the shallow water at the tide line. 

The Curlew is one of my favourite birds and and easily recognisable by it long downward curved beak. It's distinctive call, always announces its arrival, or departure, which also helps with giving away their location and thus makes it easier to find them to photograph! The Curlew, is also Europes largest wading bird.

The unmistakable Oystercatcher is common around the UK coastline and they are particularly striking when seen 'in-flight', when their broad white wing bars can be seen. Thier orange beak, eyes and pink legs, really stand out against the black & white body.

The Bar-tailed Godwit is a large shorebird that has long legs and a narrow upturned bill. During the breeding season, males have dark brown upperparts, chestnut lower parts and some white on the lower belly. Many of their feathers will have notches of brown and buff. The underwing is white and the rump a barred brown. Legs are a greenish-grey colour and the bill is dark at the tip, getting pinker towards the base. Females are usually larger than males and have both longer bills and duller plumage.

Herons are not normally asociated with the shoreline, but over recent years, they have been found more frequently searching the low water line for  food. Herons are scavengers and will eat almost anything, including other birds!

 If you enjoy my blogs, please share them on facebook etc.

Older blogs can be viewed by clicking on the ☰ symbol, at the top of the home page.