A photograph of a Hobby over Restharrow scrape at Sandwich Bay in Kent was re-identified as an Eleonora's falcon! It was seen around midday and soon moved twenty miles inland to Stodmarsh where it was only seen for a further hour before disappearing and not seen again. A few lucky locals managed to see it, but for the majority who made the trip, it ended in disappointment.
These birds if seen do not normally hang about, and you normally have to be there on-site to have any chance of connecting. So imagine our surprise when the bird was reported this morning at 9.57 at Worth Marsh.!
The reports continued throughout the morning of its presence at Worth Marsh, leading to even more frustration as dad had a prior commitment. Eventually, we met up and set off on the ninety-mile trip. We left at around 2.30pm, definitely not the ideal time on a Friday and it being school half-term. After encountering heaving traffic at several points along the route we arrived around 5pm. Volunteers were waiting to direct birders along a rough track to a field being used as a temporary car park. We passed several birders who were returning, all giving us positive news. We reached the line of birders and within seconds we had the scope trained on the bird. Plenty of birders arrived throughout the early evening and several were pleased to grab a view through my scope.
We watched it for over an hour where it remained perched in the tree, eventually, it made several short flights, catching dragonflies and returning to the same tree each time.
A Red-footed Falcon had also been reported close by, so we headed off to Worth and quickly found the bird perched on nearby telegraph wires along Goretop lane. As we were watching the Red-footed Falcon, we heard that Eleonora's Falcon was showing well sat on a post in the middle of a field. We found a spot to park the car and enjoyed superb scope views of the bird along with two Hobby.
Thanks to all the volunteers and staff who gave up their time to give directions and parking instructions it was greatly appreciated.
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