An Old friend returns to the Valley

Sept 6th, 'eons ago' was a day to remember for many reasons in a fun packed day in North and East Kent. On the evening of Sept 5th I received a phone call from a fisherman 'dangler' at Wagtail Farm, St Nicholas at Wade informing me that he seen, described and identified a bird he felt was a Glossy Ibis......... and yep , he was dead right. I phoned a few birders that evening to keep a look out for the Messy Ibis in case it reappeared in the Wantsum or Stour Valley and sure enough early on the morning of 6th Marc Heath phoned to say it was at Grove Ferry. Keen to see a 'new' Glossy Ibis in Kent and especially at the old haunt of the celebrated Stodmarsh birds of the 70's to 90's I headed East to the marsh hide at Stodmarsh and was soon watching this superb bird with a small group of birders.

We tend to forget that it's been a long time since there was a gettable GIB and I don't mean Gastro intestinal bleed in Kent, and by the modern powers of communication not seen when we were freezing to death in the evening years ago waiting for the Ibi to flew into roost at Stodmarsh, Josh was guided to the correct spot to savour this superb bird.............Little did we know there were more to come in the UK though!

Josh limbers up for a new bird

Meanwhile back at the hide, Martyn still struggles with his height in the hide whilst Alan realises his put the wrong lens on to photograph Brenda. The elbow on the RHS is from an unidentified left arm, answers on a postcard.
Happy with the Ibis I was on my way back to the car park to go home when news broke of a Zitting Cisticola at Pegwell, a bird I'd not seen in Kent and shortly after I joined the crowd to watch Spotted Flies, Blackcap, Chiffs, but sadly no Zit............ oh well It's probably gone anyway!
Later on I ended up at Cooling Castle checking out some weddingy stuff 'briefly' before enjoying the last 20 mins of the birdfair at Bromhey. A strange day, Glossy Ibis, empty Pegwell, lots of wedding bits on show and cracking views of Norman Mccanch at Bromhey, an excellent year tick.
Can autumn get any better!