NEW HYTHE IN THE DARK TUES 1ST MARCH 2011

At last! I finally got out again today, albeit only for an hour and a half. It's the first day of March so every bird is a new species for the month. I quite like it like that.

The Dunnock pictured above is one I took earlier in the winter. I didn't get any pics today because as usual, the lights were OFF. I chose a Dunnock to brighten the blog because they brightened my walk today with their welcome, but somewhat thin song. There's not a lot to tell about today's walk, I started off along the millstream path in the hope of picking up a Water Rail in the marshy ground between the path and the railway line. I didn't find one but i'm sure i'll catch up with one sooner or later. I always struggle with these at New Hythe, I hear them often enough but don't see them very much. Further along the stream a flock of about 15 Siskins in an Alder tree cheered me up and then came another good tick in the shape of a Grey Wagtail, not a bad start to the month list.

Streamside lake was quiet and Goosander and Smew were both noticeable by their absence, I couldn't find them anyway. The only notable find was a Chiffchaff who searched for food in it's typically restless style along the lake edge. The east scrub was home to a Green Woodpecker and a mixed flock of Fieldfares, Redwings, Goldfinches and Chaffinches who lifted from the tops of some Hawthorns and did a low level flypast before returning to the same trees along the western edge of the scrub.

I made my way to the riverside wood and was greeted by my old friend the black Pheasant, but not much else. The tide was very high and backing up into the sunken marsh and the sharp teeth of the northerly wind were biting my face, so I decided that I would give the bucket seat a miss and head back to the car park. I stopped just once to note a Common Gull on Brooklands lake, my 34th and last species of the day.

Finally, i'm off to Tobago on thursday for a couple of weeks, where hopefully the lights will be ON! So no posts for a while, unless I can manage a quick hour or two in the morning. Hopefully there will be some new feathers in town by the time I get back, but if not, they shouldn't be too far away.

Dungeness RSPB Wednesday 10th November

After a couple of days of horrendously wet weather even the bitingly cold wind at Dungeness made a welcome change today.

Nothing startling to report i'm afraid but here are some of the minor highlights.

Tree Sparrow, Reed Bunting and Moorhen on the feeders in the car park. Well actually the Moorhen was under the feeders but even that looked a bit bizarre.

Two Shelducks, Gadwall, Shoveler, Pochard, Lapwing, Little Egret, and Wigeon plus the usual crew on Burrows pit.

Kestrel, Marsh Harrier, Green Woodpecker, two Skylarks over, Goldfinch and two Goldcrests on the way to Christmas Dell hide. Also two Common Darters and a probable Migrant Hawker, amazingly on the wing in the icy wind! Peregrine Falcon seen from the Christmas hide flying along the far side of the lake alongside a Marsh Harrier.

Two Snipe over, Little Grebe and a couple more Marsh Harriers joined me for coffee from the Denge Marsh hide.

Female Goldeneye, Grey Heron, Teal, two more Little Egrets, at least three more Marsh Harriers and all the usual Gulls species on the ARC pit. That was about it really, 43 species seen in about four hours, by which time I was cold and the wind didn't seem quite such a welcome change!

Although the light was much better today I still struggled to find birds willing to stick their heads up over the parapet for a picture. Most, not surprisingly electing to stay buried in the undergrowth or hunkered down in the reeds for shelter. Only the Marsh Harriers appeared to relish the wind which seemed to help them fly even slower over the reedbeds in their attempt to surprise their lunch. It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good.

Anyway, the Robin, Goldfinch and Dunnock below were the best I could do to brighten up today's offering.

New Hythe 25th October

I spent 30 or 40 minutes on the southern edge of the sunken marsh talking to Jerry at about 10am this morning. During this time something like 550-600 winter thrushes, almost all Fieldfares I think, made their way along the North Downs and across the Medway valley. Some were in small tight flocks and others were in much bigger looser groups but they were all coming from and heading in much the same direction. Frequent flocks of Starlings were also noted, these were all travelling roughly east to west

Also seen from there were two groups of 5 and 3 Skylarks over and a Green and two Gt Spotted Woodpeckers, all three of which landed on the telegraph poles in the marsh. A single Bullfinch was spotted flying low over the scrub, a Kestrel was hunting close by, a GBB Gull was following the river upstream and a Buzzard, one of two seen today was also drifting along the Downs in the distance. Jerry also added some flyover Redpolls and Linnets before leaving to try and find one or both of the Redshanks which i'd seen earlier before I bumped into him.

Other highlights this morning included two Goldcrests in the bushes at the southern end of the river, which were also seen by Dennis and Doreen. Three more Skylarks flying over and calling at the same vicinity as the Goldcrests. No less than six Little Grebes in two groups of three, seen at the same time in virtually the same place on the river. A large flock of Redwings feeding in the corner of the marsh. A probable second Buzzard which drifted over high but seemed to have too long wings, five or six Lapwings and a Sparrowhawk, which pirouetted in the blue sky with a Carrion Crow, often seeming to be the mobber instead of the mobbed.

All in all a very pleasant morning with 44 species seen. The Bullfinch and the Great Black -Backed Gull being two more additions to the October total which now stands at a surprising 62!
No worthwhile pictures today unfortunately so here's a couple I took earlier in the garden through the window.

Dungeness 7th April

I got up at the crack of dawn today ( you may know it as 7 am) to get down to Dungeness for an appointment with some Penduline Tits. I parked in the ARC site car park and the first thing I heard as I got out of the car was a Sedge Warbler chattering away in the brambles, it's song a seemingly endless jumble of random phrases. I managed to see it quite well a couple of times but not well enough for a picture.

DUNNOCK

I went straight to the reed bed at the end of the Willow Trail for my meeting with said Pendulines and yes, you guessed it,they didn't turn up. That's about half a dozen times this has happened. I can feel a complex coming on.

So over to the main site and an immediate Black Redstart was compensation for my earlier failure. This was soon followed by one of seven sightings of Cetti's Warblers and many more heard, not sure if some of these would be birds returning from the continent, I think it's quite likely judging by the quantity on the reserve.

RED LEGGED PARTRIDGE

I bumped into the chap above and his partner running around among the gorse, they were very wary of me but really couldn't be bothered to fly, preferring to run a few paces and check if i'd disappeared. Quite handsome though and tasty too I believe.

There were two Wheatears close to Christmas Dell hide they didn't stay long and were gone with a flash of their rumps.

LINNET

There were a lot of Linnet on the reserve today, more than i've seen before and some of the males had very bright crimson patches on the breast and forehead. I saw one of only two Marsh Harriers seen all day here. There were no other raptor sightings either, very disappointing.

WREN

Plenty of Wren activity, there seemed to be one singing around every corner. If you wonder how they manage to sing so loud, take a look at the one singing below, talk about giving it everything, it's tail's going to be on it's forehead in a minute.

WREN

The bees were also in abundance today, as the temperature steadily rose they became more active and one particular tree, I think it's a Willow, was full of them feeding on the catkins.

BUMBLEBEE SPECIES

SHELDUCK

There were two Shelduck on the flooded meadow on the left of the footpath past Christmas Dell, they have occupied the same spot now for quite a few weeks. There was also a Little Egret there but no sign of the Great White today. I think the water table must be up across the reserve because the footpath is flooded again and the surplus water doesn't seem to be going away. A bit like my back garden, except it hasn't got any Shelducks unfortunately.

BEARDED TIT

Always pleased to see the Bearded Tits, although this one was a bit of a loner, flying up and down the same piece of reedbed and pinging loudly. Luckily he decided to land on the top of the reeds on this occasion and I was able to get a half decent shot for a change.

MALLARDS

These two were definitely a pair, she followed him around like they were joined at the hip and who can blame her, he's even got a hairy chest by the looks of it.

GRASS SNAKE

I nearly stepped on this grass snake while taking the Mallard picture, he was right on the lake edge and didn't hesitate to get in and swim completely submerged into some weeds before resurfacing and swimming to safety further along. If you look closely at the top picture you can just make out his tongue flicking out.

GRASS SNAKE

PEACOCK BUTTERFLY

I spotted my first Peacock butterfly of the year along the Willow walk back over on the ARC site.

There wasn't much sun but it was sheltered here and the temperature was quite warm. In fact it was warm enough to tempt the Common Lizard pictured below, to sunbathe on the side of the boardwalk in the mostly flooded woods here. He looks flattened Greenie, is this the same behaviour as you described for the Adders, exposing more of their bodies to the heat?

COMMON LIZARD

A last look from the Hanson hide produced three female Goldeneye but not much else, so I settled for 48 species for the day and amused myself watching the bunnies for a while.

Weekend News

I had about an hour to spare Saturday morning so I parked at the water works entrance to the Country Park and made my way towards the Divers' footbridge. I wanted to check out the adjacent small wood for Treecreepers but there was a fisherman in situ for the next couple of weeks judging by the amount of gear/camping equipment in evidence. Instead I walked up the path through the West scrub where I heard my first Willow Warbler of the year singing away in the direction of one of the Willows nearby. I don't tick 'em until I see 'em as a rule so I started to walk towards the trees when the alarm calls rang out and a feathered missile in the shape of a Sparrowhawk flashed through at treetop height. Of course everything disappeared and stopped singing, and who can blame them, especially the Willow Warbler, all the way from West Africa not even over the jet lag and ending up as a Sprawk snack doesn't seem at all fair to me.



As I emerged from the West Scrub I noticed a tent had sprung up in the bushes to my left, closer observation revealed a scattering of empty beer cans already adorning the area around it, how nice is that! Muttering under my breath I decided to walk around the edge of the West Scrub and back up the same path and have another go at seeing the Willow Warbler, which is where I saw Terry Laws who was also trying to locate his first of the year. Together we managed to hear one and then locate it close by. In 2008 my first sighting was 7th April and in 2009 it was 6th April, so either i'm getting better at finding them or this one arrived earlier..........the latter methinks!



After getting back home I went out to re-charge the feeders and while doing so my attention was drawn to a noisy fracas taking place overhead. I looked up to see a Buzzard being told by two Herring Gulls in no uncertain terms, that it wasn't wanted in the neighbourhood. Below are a few other visitors to the garden this weekend.

STARLING

GOLDFINCH

BLACKCAP

BLUE TIT

COLLARED DOVE

DUNNOCK

GREAT TIT

I got a call late saturday afternoon to say an Alpine Swift had been seen in the area of Castle Lake and Motorway lake. This area is viewable from my garden so as soon as I could I got out in the hope of a really special garden tick. Then the heavens opened spectacularly, I sheltered in the bottom garden shed after braving it for a while and getting soaked in the process but the view was restricted from in there but anyway the bird seemed to have moved on and my hoped for tick turned into a cross. I checked again first thing Sunday to see if it had returned but to no avail unfortunately, although I did see my first two Sand Martins over the garden, small compensation but never mind, there's always tomorrow.

Camera Practise

I didn't have much chance to get out over the weekend, plus it was ffffreezing in that horrible Easterly wind so I had a little bit of camera practise from the comfort of the dining room. Yes, I know i'm a wimp but my boots did need to dry out!

DUNNOCK
DUNNOCK

COLLARED DOVE

HOUSE SPARROW

STARLING

STARLING