NWKentOct07

If you live, or for that matter visit, any site in North or West Kent then I would be delighted to hear from you! Sightings would be appreciated from Sheppey in the North to Dartford & Tunbridge Wells to the West and then back to Maidstone in the East.

Sea-watching at Shellness was very slow once again. No Gannets, Kittiwakes, Scoter, etc. so it was quite a surprise when a Little Auk came in and flew along the edge of the mud. Also 3 Arctic Skuas, 22 Little Gulls and a Merlin in from the NE.
At Capel Fleet in the early morning there 2 R. L. Buzzards together. In the afternoon there was another different bird (ie. 3 Rough legs - AL); this was mobbed by no less than 15 Marsh Harriers. Also several Merlins, 3 C. Buzzards and a Snow Bunting but no Hen Harriers or S. E. Owls.

I checked out the Little Grebes and roosts at the Barton Point Coastal Park, this afternoon and counted 24 Little Grebes on the canal with a further 33 on the boating lake. A total of 57 which is slightly down on the 66 found on my last visit. Unfortunately, the boating lake wader roost had been disturbed by dog walkers, leaving a solitary Redshank, but the nearby shingle bank had a small roost of 32 Sanderling, 59 Ringed Plovers and 7 Turnstone.

It was a beautifully clear and bright morning after the overnight rain. Along the river there were 2 Little Grebe, 1 Little Egret, 46 Lapwing, 1 Curlew, 20+ Redshank. 2 Common Sandpiper and a Kingfisher. On the marshes north of the village there were 1-2 Water Rail squealing in the reedbeds, a pair of very 'chatty' Stonechat and 2 Cetti's Warbler, 1 of which, unusually, was seen but not heard, rather than the other way round which is normally the case! At the northern end of the patch I had stopped to admire the autumn colours of the trees on the other side of the river, which looked stunning in the bright sunshine, when suddenly there was a terrific commotion and I turned to see a Common Buzzard being relentlessly mobbed by 2 Peregrine. Shortly after this there were 2 Buzzard circling over the downs, whilst later in the afternoon I saw 3 Peregrine in the same area. The last couple of weeks or so has been an exceptional period for Buzzard sightings, with 1-2 birds on several occasions, and 4 together on two different dates. It seems that, given favourable conditions (eg clear and relatively calm weather, mid to late morning), this species can almost be guaranteed here at present.

49 Yellow Legged Gulls at least were counted in the Dartford area today. 34 were on the Thames and comprised 29 adults, 1 1st winter, 2 2nd winters and 2 3rd winters. Another 2nd winter was on the New Diggings, a 1st winter was on the (now working) Grosvenor recycling centre roof whilst 2 1st winters and a 2nd winter were on the 2nd (newly reflooded) flooded field. Littlebrook had the remaining 10: 6 adults, 2 1st winters and 2 2nd winters including the bird pictured below.

The adult Caspian Gull put in a brief performance on Littlebrook but was once again rather camera shy and left as Richard and myself reached for our cameras. A Redpoll flew over.

The Thames foreshore had 23 Golden Plover, 5 dunlin, 1 Ringed Plover amongst the gulls.

2nd winter Yellow Legged Gull © Andrew Lawson

Also: 1st winter Lesser Black Backed Gull (far left) and an adult Herring Gull flanked by adult Lesser Black Backeds

Domestic duties were scheduled later so Flossie and I took ourselves off for a short morning visit to the lakes at Snodland.

New Hythe has been quiet of late and today was no exception. From the mound overlooking Brooklands lake and the Sunken Marsh there was little visible migration so for further amusement we were reduced to counting duck. 59 Teal on the Medway, 115 Tufted on Abbeymead and 27 on Brooklands but only 5 Pochard. 1 Little Grebe there also and 1 female Wigeon flew over.

Over the years Rooks were extremely difficult to see but of late there have been more sightings. Even so 2 flying over were worthy of note.1 Redshank and 23 Lapwing were the only waders we saw. There was a final flourish to our morning; Sparrowhawk and then a Buzzard over the Sunken Marsh, 3 more Rook and 5 Redpoll.

Littlebrook is just about hanging on to its gull roost as the site is still being cleared for construction. An adult Caspian Gull was seen just before my arrival and 6 Yellow Legged Gulls were present; 4 adults, 1 2nd winter & 1 1st winter. A Little Egret was on the new diggings

Fieldfares were in evidence this morning with 30 on wires around the farm, also, 5 Redwing, 2 Chiffchaff, one female Marsh Harrier over the marsh, and several siskins were heard flying over - but not seen! Back home in Hartley, a female Brambling was on the sunflower seed feeder!

A beautiful autumn day, with a light frost first thing and patchy mist over the river and marshes, but blue skies and bright sunshine after about 10 o'clock. Early on there was quite a lot of activity along the field edges north of the church, with numerous Fieldfare and a variety of finches and buntings which included 3 Lesser Redpoll, the first I have seen here this year. Another surprise here was a female/1st-winter Wheatear, only the second ever October record for the patch, and the latest so far (by 3 days).

Farther north along the marshes there was a Cetti's Warbler singing at its usual spot, whilst at Starkey Castle the local Greylag Goose flock now numbers 217 birds, with a few Canada Geese and 1 or 2 weird-looking hybrids amongst them. Meanwhile, on the river or along the banks there were 6 Little Grebe, 3 Common Sandpiper, 1-2 Kingfisher and a pair of Stonechat.

29 Yellow Legged Gulls were scattered along the Thames foreshore amongst the 500+ Lesser Black Backed Gulls. Also a handful of GBBs and Herring Gulls present. Waders were represented by 300+ Lapwing, 9 Ringed Plover, 5 Dunlin and 150+ Redshank. What was noticeable was that the vast majority of the gulls were adults with 25 of the YLG being that age.

The gull below was one of the few present on Littlebrook. This bird is probably a 4th winter Herring Gull of the form Argentatus. It was a beast! It has the rather fierce look of a Herring Gull and the size and dark grey upperparts suggest Argentatus as does the pale iris.

However, should a 4th winter bird have whiter primary tips? Why hasn't it got any streaking on the head? It also has 'supermodel' legs, ie, long tibia and slim. Can't help but think that one of its parents might have been fooling around with a Caspian type bird at some point.....

It was an exceptional dawn on the reserve this morning. There was the first really hard frost of the autumn, turning everywhere white and also a thick mist which only rose to the height of the seawall, walking along the seawall was like walking above the clouds. A huge orange sun came up at 7.30 into clear blue skies and gradually the mist began to burn away. Unfortunately there were few decent birds moving about at the time and along the seawall I had only a:-
Ringtail Hen Harrier
Short-eared Owl
3 Stonechat
2 Bearded Tit
My morning was enlivened however by a wildfowler, who was sitting in the saltings, only 150 yds away from me by the seawall hide. He blew on one of these imitation duck quacker things non-stop for over an hour, despite the fact that I was obviously highly amused. The poor, sad person was still merrily quacking away when I left and I almost wished a Mallard would fly over him to put him out of his misery but it wasn't to be.
(Derek Faulkner)

Saw far more RN Parakeets at Knole yesterday than I have seen before. There was a minimum of 43 (30 in the air together) and probably far more, mostly in the north and east of the park, feeding on beech mast. Does this mean this west Kent population has bred well in the last couple of years, or are they roving birds?
(Nigel Matthews)

There was no sign of the Brent Goose early this morning but a pair of Gadwall, two Pochard and 24 Tufted Duck were present. Three Little Egret flew east over Haysden at 7.40am where there was also Grey Wagtail, two Yellowhammer, eight Skylark, Meadow Pipit, at least 20 Linnet, a few Bullfinches and a couple of hundred Woodpigeon over.

A few Linnet, Skylark and Meadow Pipits, one Yellowhammer, a male Reed Bunting and a Little Grebe were at Haysden this afternoon.

A bit of a surprise at Barden Lake was a first winter Dark-bellied Brent Goose - this is my first record for the Haysden area and number 102 for the year. Also at Barden were two Pochard, 18 Tufted Duck and a Kingfisher.

A late morning walk in my local patch, Mote Park, produced a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, 37+ Redwing, 2 Meadow Pipits, a Kingfisher, 1 calling Water Rail, and a flock of 17 Goldfinch, 4 Siskin and 1 Lesser Redpoll feeding in some Alders.

The Stonechat was still present and there were 76 Linnet on wires, courtesy of a male Sparrowhawk, a few Skylarks and 20 Goldfinches. At Hawden there was a Green Sandpiper and three Tufted Duck.

On the marshes north of the village this morning there was 1 Water Rail, 3 Fieldfare (the first of the season), 4 Stonechat, 2 singing Cetti's Warbler and, keeping an eye on things from the top of its favourite pylon, an adult Peregrine.

A careful search along the river shore north of the village failed to locate the Pectoral Sandpiper, which was last seen on Wednesday morning (10th) and which presumably decided that the time had come to move on after 16 days here. However there are still 4 Common Sandpiper along the river, as well as a Little Grebe, 1-2 Kingfisher and an adult Yellow-legged Gull which posed for the camera on the mud directly opposite my house. About an hour later, also from the house, I counted no fewer than 4 Common Buzzard circling over the downs to the west, the most I have seen here at any one time.

Hobby seen at Leybourne Lakes, Sat 13th, near railway crossing by Abbeymeads (Dr David Payne)

A group of 9 Lesser Redpoll were seen feeding in the Alders along the River Len in Mote Park this morning, and 30 Redwing were seen and heard.

An otherwise quiet walk round the Swale NNR, on Friday the 5th of October, was considerably improved by a Common Crane which I unwittingly flushed from one of the wide shallow ditches. It headed towards Capel Fleet, and must have passed over the RSPB viewing mound, but appeared to keep on going. It was also good to record my first ever sighting of an October Hobby.

A WEBS count at Harty produced good numbers of ducks, no doubt due to the large amounts of grain that have been distributed and that no duck shooting has yet taken place. Lapwing and Plover numbers were very low as the fields are dry.
The Crane was about in fields near Capel Fleet all day. Other birds seen were 6 Buzzards [including the pale one with a lot of white on its tail], a Peregrine, a Merlin and a lot of Marsh Harriers but no Hen Harriers. 12 Stonechats seems a good number for Harty and there was a Wheatear and a Chiffchaff.
The only other birdwatchers I saw were I think Polish [and had seen a Hen Harrier]
(Dick Elvy)

We arrived at 9.15am. Birds of note in the Farm area included 1 Barn Owl, 1 Little owl, 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker, 1 Green Woodpecker and a Chiffchaff was heard calling. 9 Little Grebe were counted between the Farm and The Flood and a further 2 were seen on a ditch near the Swale Hide. There were good numbers of Golden Plover and Lapwing seen on the grazing marsh. I counted 380+ Teal on Elmley Fleet.
4 Marsh Harrier and 3 Kestrel were the only raptors we spotted all day. Once we reached the flood I was amazed by the lack of birds present. The only birds to be seen from the 3 Hides totaled 6 Lapwing, 5 Shelduck and 1 Long-billed Dowitcher. The Dowitcher was seen from the Wellmarsh Hide around noon, the bird had departed when I visited the hide again at around 4pm.
We decided to make our way to the Swale Hide to catch the falling tide and hopefully some birds as well. We soon discovered that this is where all the birds had got to. There were 3 Great-crested Grebe, 480+ Wigeon, 150+ Shelduck, 30+ Teal, Ringed Plover, 3 Grey Plover, 2 Turnstone, 3 Black-tailed Godwit, Redshank and 1 Greenshank.

On the return walk to the Farm we spotted a group of 3 Stonechats behind the Wellmarsh Hide, a flock of 9 Snipe were seen flying east near Wellmarsh Creek and 2 Ruddy Duck were on one of the ditches.

The drive across the NNR and walk down to and through the RSPB reserve produced Lapwing, several Marsh Harrier (all female), Kestrel, Curlew, Stonechat, Skylark, Grey Heron, Little Owl, Green Sandpiper, Pheasant, Little Grebe, golden plover, Mipit and a late swallow. This was infiintely more productive than the pools which produced nowt other than the odd Lapwing even though it was high tide.
The falling tide on the Swale proved to be better and I managed the long trek to get to both swale and spitend hides. There was good numbers of ringed plover (30+), grey plover, canada goose, dunlin (c30), very large numbers of widgeon, redshank, teal, great crested grebe, shelduck (c50), common sandpiper, avocet (c40), dunlin (c30), oystercatcher, turnstone, bar-tailed godwit and curlew (c50).
(P Grin)

Lunchtime sortie to Lower Higham, walked from Church past what I understand is called Timber Lake to the near end of Alpha Lake. A single Chiffchaff was the highlight, singing a muted version of the normal song.

The Pectoral Sandpiper was on the west bank of the Medway from 0730 today, despite the presence of the regular Wednesday morning shooters on Halling Marsh (fortunately there was nothing they could shoot today!), and it spent most of the morning feeding along the river shore. Other waders present included 1 Grey Plover, 1 Dunlin and 2 Common Sandpiper.

An excellent morning's birding on the patch today, which started well and just got better! A rather damp and gloomy tramp around the marshes north of the village after breakfast was brightened up by sightings of Little Egret, Kingfisher and Stonechat, as well as a singing Cetti's Warbler and good numbers of Swallows on the move after yesterday's rain.

Later in the morning, back home, I noted a 1st-winter Mediterranean Gull along the river shore, followed by 2 Grey Plover and almost immediately afterwards 2 adult Spotted Redshank, all of which must have arrived whilst I was completing my walk. The Spotted Redshank were the second occurrence of this species here this year, but only the third ever for the parish! However they didn't stay around for long, but soon flew off to the south, calling their distinctive "ch-wit" call. Then finally, and much to my surprise after failing to see it at all yesterday, I relocated the juvenile Pectoral Sandpiper again, this time feeding along the eastern shore of the river for a change. I wonder what tomorrow will bring?