BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES!

The picture above is of Ben More. It's the highest mountain on Mull and it's height of 3,169 feet, qualifies it as a munro. This is the only munro on a scottish island apart from on the Isle of Skye. Carol and I climbed Ben More a couple of years ago, it was a bit of a slog but the views were fantastic and thankfully there wasn't any snow then. There isn't usually any at this time of year and the snow this time has actually fallen since we've been here. Just another example of the extreme weather that has beset us since our arrival.
We've now been here for ten days and as yet, we haven't had a rain free one. Most of the time we've met the challenge of the elements head on, but saturday was absolutely horrendous and we decided that discretion was the better part of valour and hunkered down in the cottage and waited for it to pass. Except it didn't really and after a slightly better, but very windy day yesterday (sunday), We are again virtually housebound due to torrential rain and an absolute hoolie blowing. We did manage to get to Tobermory for some provisions, stopping on the way to watch the Fishnish Lochs (three freshwater lochs), which were whipped up to an absolute frenzy, with sea sized waves crashing to the shore and sheets of spray lifted from the surface and carried along on the gale force wind. Tobermory, although the capital of Mull, is only small, as is it's harbour, which is usually home to a mix of fishing boats and small private craft of various shapes and sizes. Today though, we were surprised to see two Hebridean cruise ships, one alongside the pier and the other anchored just inside the harbour. These two ships have come here seeking safe haven from the forecast 70 to 80 mph winds today. We returned from Tober via the small town of Salen and as we crossed over from there to Dervaig, we were stopped by a motorist who told us that the two roads south from Dervaig were both closed due to fallen trees. Luckily our route avoided these roads and we arrived home without incident. Exciting stuff!

On friday we paid a visit to the Island of Ulva. At approximately eight square miles and a population of around a dozen people, it hardly gets busy. The island is reached by a small, on demand passenger ferry, which takes just a few minutes to cross the narrow stretch of water that separates it from Mull. An island, off an island, off an island you might say. We managed to do a reasonable walk without too much weather interference, apart from a particularly vicious hailstorm just before we got back the the ferry.

As usual it was windy, but the birds didn't seem to mind it, they're probably used to it now. Even the Swallows seemed OK about it, although they did seem to spend more time than ususal perched on the rocks, as above. We also inadvertently disturbed three or four perched Buzzards on the way round, but they seemed to be less inclined to fly very far though, just taking off as they spotted us and flying low to the next suitably undisturbed spot.

As ever, the Willow Warblers were top singers, their song of descending notes has accompanied us constantly this week and here, some even chose to leave the privacy of their leafy refuge and give us more than the usual quick glimpse. This particular chap didn't even seem to mind being roughed up by the wind while he posed for me.

Treecreepers, Coal Tits, Lesser Redpoll, Mistle Thrush, House Martin, Sand Martin, Robins, Dunnocks and parachuting Meadow Pipits were just some of the many species seen on our walk. Back at the jetty, a pair of Black Guillemots dived and a small flock of Eider ducks (two pictured below) flew past, low over the water looking very smart in a brief moment of sunlight.

Our drive back to Drevaig took us through the tiny hamlet of Knock, where we were lucky enough to see some Fallow Deer. I say lucky because as far as I know there are only a couple of small herds of these on Mull, the Red Deer being much more common. On the way down to Ulva we stopped for a few minutes alongside a stream near Torloisk because I thought I'd caught a glimpse of a Dipper. We couldn't find it but on the way back Carol spotted a pair in the same place, we stopped again and I tried to get a picture but there was no way that they would let me get close enough. I did get a couple of shots but they don't do such a nice bird any justice so I won't publish them.

We're still constantly on the look out for a Golden Eagle, but to no avail so far. It's not usually this hard, time's running out! I was going to tell you about our day yesterday (sunday), but we just temporarily lost power in the cottage and it now sounds like the roof is about to fly off, so i'll catch up tomorrow hopefully!

LESSER SPOTTED WOODPECKER KNOLE PARK

I was invited by Eddie Denson to join him on an early morning trip to Knole Park to try and find some Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers today. How could I refuse, especially as i've never seen one. I should immediately confess that the Fallow Deer picture above was one that I took on a trip last October, but we saw plenty of these today, maybe even this one so I don't feel too guilty.

We parked at the quieter end of the park and began our search in a stand of mature trees, just a couple of hundred yards in from the road.

Green Woodpeckers yaffled loudly, their Spring plumage standing out nicely in the early morning light. One of two bright green noisy species of birds we encountered almost immediately, the other of course being the Ring-necked Parakeets that now live in the park in seemingly ever increasing numbers. A backdrop of of the Himalayas or Mt Kilimanjaro would seem more appropriate to accompany these birds.

We spent some considerable time scanning the outer branches and the tops of the trees, thankfully they seemed to be slightly behind with leaf formation here. Another couple of weeks and locating the LSW's would be even harder than it is now and that's saying something.

I don't think i've ever seen so many Nuthatches as we saw this morning, they seemed to be everywhere and of course each one was a potential woodpecker and had to be checked out. As did the Chaffinches, Blue Tits, and Great Tits, in fact everything that moved in the higher branches caught our attention. As well as a pair of fine Yellowhammers that flew from the lower branches of a tree and into a golf bunker, don't know what the attraction was there.

The easiest way to locate the Lesser Peckers is to hear them drumming, like the Gt Spotted Woodpeckers that we could hear and see regularly as we searched. But they didn't seem to be in the mood this morning, or maybe they just weren't there. Then in the distance we heard it, a longer, slightly softer and more even drum roll that didn't tail off at the end, this was definitely our quarry, but could we find it! We walked back in the general direction of the sound but it's a big park and the bird wasn't exactly helping by staying quiet for a while. But then we heard the drumming again and we stood watching the now closer area trying to pinpoint the sound. All of a sudden it was there, flying from one tree to a dead branch on another. Disappearing behind the branch, it continued drumming, sounding incredibly loud, almost mechanical but staying mostly out of sight until it once more took off and flew strongly into the distance.

This was my first and only Lesser Spotted Woodpecker as we failed to find any more, but that was OK. There's always next time.

We still had a bit of time so we went to Holborough marshes near Snodland. This was a trip down memory lane for me, the last time I was there I was thirteen I think. I used to visit it to fish for Eels in the two dykes there on the site of the long abandoned cement factory, at least I think that's what it was. Anyway I was pleased to see they were still there, much as I remembered them from nearly 45 years ago.

The site is now owned and maintained by the Kent Wildlife Trust and looks really great. We were able to see Common Snipe, Grey Heron, Lapwings, Mistle Thrush and a Common Tern among other species as we made our way back along the river path. Unfortunately the tide was right in, otherwise i'm sure we would have seen a lot more. I also saw my first damselfly of the year but it was too high for me to ID it. This reserve is literally half a mile downstream from Brooklands Lake and the Sunken marsh and the only thing stopping it being joined up to make a superb riverside walk from Halling in the north to New Hythe in the south is that blot on the landscape, the paper mill, whose ugly dominance reaches to the very edge of the river, effectively blocking the access.

Thanks for a great morning Eddie.

KNOLE HOUSE, SEVENOAKS

Knole Park 19th October

Having seen Greenie's excellent post from Knole Park last week Carol decided that as we hadn't been for ages she would like to go there on her birthday, which was yesterday. We usually use the main entrance and park in the car park near the house but for some reason the entrance was closed so we spent ages trying to find another way in. Finally ending up at Godden Green where we parked on the side of the road and walked in to the quieter end of the park.
We found some deer quite quickly but before that we found a flock of Ring necked Parakeets making a right old racket in a couple of tall trees by the entrance. We don't see them in our neck of the woods so it was nice to see these bright green birds flying around. With the sun out it reminded me instantly of Stewart Island off the Southern tip of New Zealand which is where we last saw Parakeets flying in the wild. Just a shame I couldn't get a picture of one but I will go back soon with that in mind.

So back to the Fallow Deer. They seemed quite nervous at this end of the park for some reason, presumably because there are less people, but we managed to get close enough for a couple of pictures.

We started making our way towards Knole house on the other side of the park when I saw a small butterfly flutter by. I followed it and was quite amazed to see that it was a Small Copper. In good condition too, must be a late brood. How's that for a final burst of Summer.

On the way over we came to a small row of trees which run adjacent to the walled gardens of the house and this stag was sitting comfortably in a shallow scrape all by himself. Maybe he'd had an unsuccessful rutting season but he didn't look too bothered.

There were several small groups of does in the area near the house, some with attendant stag and some without like the one below.

Under some trees past the car park was a large gathering of deer with about five or six stags. Some of the stags were lying in their scrapes but two in particular were strutting their stuff to their harems and were bellowing loudly to reinforce their right to pass on their genes to the next generation. They will appear next May or June when the bracken is high and offers cover for the young fawns.

The dark stag below was one of the individuals who were actively seeking the attention of the young ladies. And although there was none of the excitement of locked antlers that Greenie captured last week he did have a couple of bellowing run ins with the stag above when their boundaries were transgressed by each other.

Crossing back over the golf course we came across quite a few Green Woodpeckers. This is a great habitat for them and judging by their numbers they appear to be doing very well here. As ever a close approach is out of the question so I had to settle for the longer distance shot below.

The only other notable birds seen were a pair of Stonechats, but to be honest the deer took most of our interest. Next time i'll have my birding head on.