NEW HYTHE FRIDAY 28TH JANUARY 2011

In a few days time January 2011 will be history. I'll remember it as a cold and sometimes very wet month, but most of all i'll remember it as a dark month. I know it does get dark early in the afternoon in January and I know it does stay dark later in the morning, but this time the bit in the middle seemed to stay dark as well. I didn't like that. Hopefully February will be brighter and lighter.

It was certainly cold today, just ask the Goldfinch pictured above, which was one of a flock that was feeding along the edge of Brooklands lake with a party of about twenty Siskins.

Other highlights included a couple of Mistle Thrushes in exactly the same spot where I saw them last week, on the bank to the east of Brooklands lake. About thirty or more Gadwall were on the river from the wood, along with two Redshanks, two Lapwings and two Gt Black-backed Gulls. A Chiffchaff was seen feeding along the southern edge of Brooklands which was species number 66 for the New Hythe Jan/year list. On Abbey Mead, apart from the usual characters, I found a single female Goldeneye and just one Little Grebe. Numbers of all species seemed quite low on this lake today.

No sign of Bittern again, that's two visits on the trot without seeing one, I must be losing my touch. The Goosander was still on Streamside lake but I couldn't see the Red-head Smew, I wouldn't be surprised if it is still there though, it can be quite hard to spot sometimes.

There were quite a few Fieldfares on the East Scrub where there are still quite a lot of berries, I wish somebody would tell the wandering Waxwings. Apart from a Green Woodpecker, the other interest in the scrub area were Goldfinches, lots of them. For once, a brief but very welcome break in the clouds allowed the sun to break through, what a treat! The Goldfinch pitured below looks a lot warmer and more relaxed than the fluffed up chilly specimen in the top picture, what a difference a ray makes.

The tide was out on the river as I made my way back, this gave the local Herons the opportunity to hang out together on the mud and discuss the finer points of fishing and nest building. I reckon there's fifteen or sixteen altogether, I tried to get a closer picture but it's difficult to creep past two Heron eyes, let alone thirty two. Left click for a better count!

Late news is a Coal Tit in the garden so now the list has reached 67. It won't get any higher during January as we're off to a warm cosy cottage in the Lake District tomorrow.

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.

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.