TESTON BRIDGEI had a bit of time this morning before taking my parents to lunch to celebrate their 58th wedding anniversary, three cheers for them! So I thought i'd drive up to Teston Country Park and have a walk along the river to Wateringbury. The bridge by the way is Mediaeval, is made of Kentish Ragstone and dates from around the 12th or 13th century I believe.
Mud glorious mud! I presume the river burst it's banks fairly recently as there is a lot of standing water and mud adjacent to it. I met a fisherman further along who was fishing for pike, he told me that he caught a 28 pounder here at the back end of last year, that's some pike and some set of teeth, believe me (the pike's, not the fisherman's).
Anyway, birds, not many i'm afraid. I was hoping for some redpolls and expecting some bullfinches but unfortunately neither showed up. A flock of long tailed tits were moving through some alders early on and a tiny bird that was with them flew out across the river, I think it was a goldcrest. The usual winter thrushes were foraging in the grass and the bushes further upstream but not much else was here, probably due to the disturbance being caused by workmen building a raised wooden boardwalk over the worst of the muddy footpath , very nice it looked too. There were five canada geese feeding in the margins on the far bank , a kestrel hunted in the fields by the railway line and a great spotted woodpecker flew into a tree close by. I love the way that they land on the trunk in an upright position and stick to it solidly, makes me think they've got velcro on their feet. I was accompanied most of the way upstream and downstream by great tits "teachering" constantly. When they first started this I thought great, I really like to hear that but then it made me think of Joe Pasquale singing "I know a song that'll get on your nerves, get on your nerves, get on your nerves"..................etc. etc! I enjoyed it really and I enjoyed the walk even though I didn't see much. Next time i'll try Teston to Barming.
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CANADA GEESE ON THE MEDWAY
4 comments:
Hi Phil! Nice photos today. I'm all for medieval bridges :-) Mum likes the site; said she saw a flock of redwings in the garden last week. Hope things are good with you, Steph B x
Steph! What a lovely surprise, great to hear from you. Can't promise too much historical interest but, you never know. Tell your Mum i'm envious of the redwings. Good to see you recently and hope to see you soon (will have the JD ready). Take care.
Phil x
Thanks for following Weekly Tweet, Phil (sorry about the delayed response, I've only just got my followers list back!).
Your blog is very good and I love your photos although I'm very envious that your back garden appears to back onto a lake!
Much the same species on my walk today phil. Probably was a Goldcrest with those LTTs
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