EAST MALLING AND SEVENOAKS WED 5TH JAN

Left click to enlarge

I had a very pleasant hour or so at the East Malling Research Station this morning. It's part of Adam Whitehouse's patch (thanks for the text mate) and temporarily home to dozens of Waxwings who are currently munching their way through all the leftover apples in the orchards there. I'd hoped that they would be in the area just at the back of East Malling church where the research station starts because that would put them closer to the public footpath, but they weren't. I continued walking through the station and lo and behold Eddie Denson appeared, he soon pointed me in the general direction of a flock of about 40 Waxwings in a tree at the back of the orchard. They were some distance away so no decent pictures i'm afraid, (you'll find some much better ones on Adam's blog) just the long distance effort above. Still, they were nice to see and I could at least make out their trilling calls before they all departed in a northerly direction.

There were plenty of other birds to see of course, including plenty of Redwings. The one pictured above stayed still long enough for a quick pic before flying off (below) with a flash of red underwing.
Lots of Chaffinches were also feasting on the apples, I couldn't find any Bramblings among them
but I bet there are one or two in the area somewhere.







Fieldfares too are attracted to the free fruit and their chack chacking call can be heard all the time as they work their way through the apple trees and constantly pass overhead in small flocks. Although the one pictured below looks a healthy enough specimen from a distance, it needs to get that cyst on it's bum removed sometime soon! I'm not surprised it's standing a bit funny.





I stopped in the churchyard on the way back, usually a good place for some birds and this one was no exception. There was a noisy flock of Long-tailed Tits passing through with various other birds mixed in including a couple of very vocal Goldcrests.

Other birds seen included Jays, Song Thrush, Dunnock, Robin, Collared Dove, Mistle Thrush and Blackbirds.

From East Malling I went straight to Sevenoaks wildlife reserve. I didn't have long but I wanted to see the Goosanders of which there were four today, possibly even five, although I might have counted one twice. I searched for ages trying to find the Black-necked Grebe among the multitude of birds crammed into the relatively small ice free part of the lake. Teal, Wigeon, Coot, Gt Crested Grebe, Little Grebe, Mallard, Moorhen, Gadwall, Shoveler, Pochard, Greylags and Gulls all sharing this area made it difficult to locate, but I got it in the end, diving between a couple of the Snipe inhabited islands which are dotted around in the shallow water. Another small diving duck seen looked like a female Ruddy Duck but I wasn't completely sure.

I don't think i've ever seen so many Siskins as there seems to be here, there were lots of small flocks feeding in the many Alder trees around the lakes and several larger flocks flying over at different times in the short but enjoyable time I was there. I'll get back soon for a longer visit hopefully.

New Hythe Lakes Friday 26th November

I was talking to a chap at Brooklands car park this morning as I put my boots and coat on. He turned out to be Greenie of Greenie in the Wild fame. Serendipity is the word that springs to mind; the making of fortunate discoveries.


We were both keen to see the Slavonian Grebe so we set off together to Brooklands lake to see if it was in a photogenic mood. Before we'd gone a couple of 100 yards we bumped inte Alan Woodcock who had already located it along the northern edge of the lake. The low morning sun would make photo's difficult here but as it happened the Grebe paddled back, at an astonishing speed, to it's preferred end of the lake and after watching it catch and eat a couple of good size fish Greenie managed to get a couple of decent shots which i've no doubt will be on display on his blog.


I knew that the tide would be low on the river and was keen to have a look for some waders, so our next stop was the small wood which is probably the best spot to find some when the tide is out and was only a short distance from the lake.

On the exposed island in the river we soon spotted some Lapwings, lately i've only seen the odd singleton here but today there were about thirteen in all as well as at least nine Little Grebes mostly in the lagoon of slacker water in the lee of the island. These little birds seem to be doing very well here with good numbers along the river and also quite a few more on the lakes.

On the opposite bank we spotted a couple of Common Snipe on the mud near the water's edge and a little later a third was also found there. These three subsequently flew into the reedbed and were joined by two more flying in soon after. Five Common Snipe in a short time, that's a good number in my book.

A Redshank was poking around in the mud further down river and two more flew in from upstream to join it and a Kingfisher flew across and along the adjacent creek, the second one of the morning so far, the first one being heard and briefly seen in the corner of Brooklands. Other species to mention were Cormorants, Teal, a couple of Grey Herons, some Black Headed Gulls and a couple of Gt BlackBacked Gull.

From here Greenie and I went our separate ways, he to relocate the Salvonian Grebe and then round to Alders lake to see if the female Goldeneye was still around, while I made my way along the river and Abbey Mead lake. I didn't see a great deal more apart from some more Little Grebes on the lake as well as at least 16 Gt Crested Grebes. A single Goldcrest was calling from the lake side and from seemingly everywhere came the pleasing calls of Long tailed Tits as pictured below.
It was good to meet you Greenie and I look forward to the next occasion.

NEW HYTHE 5th March

The sun was shining, the air was (nearly) warm, a light breeze brushed the surface of the water which sparkled deep blue in the reflection of a cloudless sky. Caribbean? Maldives? No, Brooklands Lake, but if you closed your eyes and didn't think of England............................!



This Robin and it's mate were at the entrance to the lake when I arrived, they were the first and last birds I saw today, I think their official role was 'meet & greet' which they did very nicely with a pose and a song. A small charm of about 10 Goldfinches which seem much scarcer on site now, were also here. Again no sign of the Water Rail in the NE corner, I wonder if the considerably higher water level has something to do with this. The tide was about two thirds out which meant a few birds were about on the mudbanks and exposed islands, these included 3 Redshank, a Shelduck and a Gt Black Backed Gull which was on the exposed island trying its best to swallow what was either a flounder or the head of a larger fish. I do struggle to separate these from Lessers when they are by themselves with nothing to compare them with but there was a Herring Gull alongside this one which looked noticeably smaller so i'm fairly confident the ID is good.

Several Cetti's Warblers were singing from within the Sunken Marsh as were the resident Dunnocks, a female Pheasant exploded from the undergrowth and whirred away and two Kestrels made a brief appearance overhead before disappearing as suddenly as they had arrived. The Long Tailed Tit and the Chiffchaff below were both seen in the SW corner of the marsh below the mound.

Over the railway line and the East Scrub produced a flock of about 20-25 Fieldfare with a few Redwing mixed in and a smart Green Woodpecker which clearly wanted it's photo taken, but not with the two Greyhounds that decided to try and get in on the picture, I don't blame it really. I went down to the Bittern watching area where I spotted this Treecreeper (below) just as Den & Doreen Capeling came down the path from the opposite direction, this was quite fortuitous in a way because the bird then moved into a better position for me to get my first ever picture of a Treecreeper. Not the best one i've seen recently but it does show off the long rear claw quite nicely.

TREECREEPER

The return journey down the river didn't produce too much apart from another couple of Shelduck, a noisy Redshank, further views of one of the Kestrels, the one and only Jay of the morning and a possible Snipe which took off out of the reeds but came back down and disappeared before it could be identified.

The handsome chap pictured below was on the far side of the river and has probably the best Brush i've seen on a Fox in a long time.

According to my Reporter's Notebook (Greenie!) I saw 42 species in all today, one of which i.e. the GBB Gull was my first of the year at New Hythe so i'm pleased with that. Hopefully in the not too distant future i'll be telling you about my first Sand Martin of the year, watch this space!