Novsightings08

Congratulations to Norman McCanch and Linturn Hopkins, the only two people to noticed the apparent Green-winged Teal in the above photo. This off course is not a Green-wing but a normal Eurasian that I altered, note the head pattern, as a little teaser to see who would notice. Prizes are two signed, by the photograper, life-size photo's of Marc's Marsh Tit. Please contact him directly. Thank you

With only an hour or so at Grove Ferry this morning before returning for home for house duties I arrived just before 7am where Pete had just arrived. We had a very productive hour at the ramp noting the following: Fieldfare and Redwing were very numerous this morning with small groups of each species seen on the reserve, also 6 Corn Bunting left their roost and 3 Bewick's Swans, 2 adults and a juvenile could be seen from the right hand pool before departing towards Sarre at 7.38am. Other birds included 1 Water Rail, c30 Cormorant, 1 Grey Heron, 8 Marsh Harrier, 1 Kestrel, 9 Ruff, 6 Redshank, 4 Pied Wagtail, 1 ring tail Hen Harrier, c50 Golden Plover, 1 Tufted Duck and 1 Water Pipit. The surprise of the morning was a fem/1st winter Ring Ouzel that appeared from the trees by the Green hide and landed briefly on the brambles by the new picnic area. Pete saw what was probably the same bird flying back to its original area a few minutes later. Other bits included 1 Kingfisher, 2 Green Woodpecker, c500 Lapwing and c400 Teal.

Four of us turned out today, meeting in a grey drizzly Fordwich at 7.00am with a concerted attempt to find the elusive Marsh Tit first seen by Sue & Pauline on the 18th and again by Marc & Steve on the 25th. 7 till 11 and no sign but there were plenty of other Tits as well as us four. There were at least 3 patries of Long-tailed Tits with at least 40 birds seen, several Blue & Great Tits as well as many Finches. The highest being Chaffinches that seemed to be everywhere, 40+ Siskins a few Redpolls (lesser's being the only ones identified) & Goldfinch. We saw a couple of Redwings half a dozen Goldcrest and, a Little Egret that came from the Canterbury direction early AM. Highlight of the day, being a it was a valley tick for all of us was when Marc caught sight of a duck flying west at 7.50am that he got us onto that turned out to be a red head Red-breasted Merganser, probably more of a mega in the valley than the original quarry, Marsh Tit. Phil and I moved on to Stodmarsh to try for Firecrest while Marc headed home and Brendan twitched Great-northern Diver on his other patch, Bough Beach. At Stodmarsh we only had a quick look around the car-park and Alder Wood areas but, no sign of any Firecrests although there were several Chaffinch and Goldfinch feeding on the path behind the Alder Wood. Also a couple of Goldcrests were seen. On leaving we went via the top fields at Seaton but, there were no Geese to be seen just a few Golden Plovers and Lapwing, 2 Little Egrets plus severla Gulls, mostly Black-heads but 8 Great Black-backs, 2 Lesser Blacl-backs, 10 Common and 6 Herrings there also. Finally I went up to Collard's to try and locate the eastern Jackdaw I'd seen last week but sadly no joy although not that manny corvids were on show. The area at the top of Stodmarsh hill opposite the farm where the tyre pile is there were 100+ Chaffinces, 4 Little Egrets and a single male Sparrowhawk.

I made 2 visits into the valley today, one between 7.30 - 8.30am in the company of Steve Ashton and again between 3 - 4pm. I met Steve this morning at Fordwich where we decided to go and look for the elusive Marsh Tit. We spent some time looking in the area the bird had been seen but no luck to start with but plenty of other birds on offer, these included 3 Jay, 2 Grey Wagtail, 2 Song Thrush, 2 Great spotted Woodpecker, 3 Goldfinch, 4 Fieldfare, c10 Long tailed Tit, 1 Kestrel and 5 Stock Dove. After walking further down the river we returned to the 'hotspot' and after a few minutes I heard the call of a Marsh Tit. It flew from the southern side of the river and landed in the bushes not far from us. We had good views of the bird as it moved actively through the bushes constantly calling. I only managed a few 'record' shots but I think you can make out what it is! This was a new valley tick for me and a Kent and valley tick for Steve. Other birds seen before I left included c35 Lapwing, 1 Sparrowhawk, c15 Siskin, 2 Brambling over calling, 2 Redwing and 1 Kingfisher. Feeling very pleased I left Steve to continue. Steve later added 1 Sparrowhawk, 2 Mealy (Common) Redpoll and 8 Lesser Redpoll as well as a small flock of Siskin. Returning after work to the same area I noted 4 Goldcrest, 2 Treecreeper, 1 Redpoll, 4 Great crested Grebe, c50 Tufted Duck on the lake, c60 Coot, 2 Mute Swan, 2 Cetti's Warbler, 2 Pheasant, 1 great spotted Woodpecker, 3 Jay, 1 Bullfinch heard and 15 Fieldfare as well as good numbers of the common Species.

With the desrtion of Alan and again no sign of heathy.com I thought it would be a lone vigil but, I was joined by Steve Ray soon after my arrival at 7.00am. We started at the ramp walked to Stodmarsh via the river and back through the reserve dodging almost "white-outs" with heavy snow showers, just missing down pours and seeing not a lot. Natural England have been busy dredging dykes and creating new scapes, at Marsh Hide, but for some reason have started removing all the hedge rows and scrub on the resrve. These are excellent stop over points for migrants and good nesting areas for summer visitors. Now we look across baron landscapes with virtually no birds. The two main pools had nothing save for 60 odd Lapwings first thing but they left, Marsh Hide had nothing, Harrison's Hide had nothing (no birds for the last 4 months) and Green hide had.... 34 Teal, 1 Tufted Duck and 11 Snipe. Other birds we did note today were, 9 Marsh Harriers, 1 female Hen Harrier, 1 Little Egret, 1 Ruff, 1 Shelduck, 120+ Redwing, 30 Long-tailed Tits, 14 Blue Tit, 8 Great Tits and 5 Goldcrests. Stodmarsh lake had 2 drake Pintail, 6 Graet-crested Grebes, 140 Shoveler 200 Teal, 1 Shelduck and 64 Gadwall. The Alder wood was dead and except for a lot of Blackbirds the odd Rewing and 100 Fieldfares not much more was seen before getting back to Green Hide. Steve left at 11.15 and I drove round to Collard's where I spent the next hour and half waiting for the torential rain to ease. I did see however, from the car, amongst the numerous Rooks and Jackdaws a very smart looking eastern race soemmerrengii Jackdaw that would be worth returning to in better conditions to try and capture on camera, it really is a cracker. I left there at 1.30pm to pick the wife up from work at 2.00 via the top fields north of Seaton. As I was about to come out of the Stodmarsh road at the 'triangle' that heads back to Whickambreaux, the Greylag flock was right at the top and from my possition in the car was able to locate the adult White-fronted Goose and add to my valley list for the year and, a little further down the road a juvenile White-fronted Goose was out on its own allowing a through the window photo. The photo I took of the adult was burnt out as my settings were all wrong, damn!

(Martyn Wilson & Steve Ray)

With Pete enjoying a Julbrew while watching Nile Crocodiles and Red-billed Hornbills in the Gambia, Steve working and Marc Heath switching allegiance to the more up market Reculver, it left just Alan and I to bird the valley today. The morning started well with 1 Merlin, 2 Hen Harriers (adult female & 1st/w Male), 11 Marsh Harriers, 2 Kestrels, 14 Redshank (the highest count in the last 6+ years), 8 Dunlin, 10 Ruff and a Bittern. There was a single Little Egret, 5 Snipe, 1 Black-tailed Godwit, 1 Tufted Duck, 1 Water Rail and 2 Water Pipits. With it going quiet we drove over to Fordwich at 9.30 and walked east along the river to Westbere as we did last week. At Fordwich there were at least 22 Siskins, 5 Lesser Redpolls, 28 Goldfinch and a Great-spotted Woodpecker. The Tit flock held 34 Long-tailed, 10 Blue and 12 Greats and a Little Egret flew from the Fordwich side of the river and over Westbere. Westbere lake had a huge number of Gulls with 1800 Herring, 12 Lesser Black-backed, 14 Great Black-backed, 24 Common and 2400 Black-headed. Also tday were 64 Tufted Ducks, 300+ Coots, 2 Sparrowhawks, a female Marsh Harrier and 2 Jays.

(Martyn Wilson & Alan Ashdown)

A brief visit at dusk produced 11 Marsh Harriers & 1 ringtail Hen Harrier in to roost. Counting was more difficult as some of the Marsh Harriers were roosting on the Grove side of the Lampen Wall.Also 1 Sparrowhawk & 247 Cormorants.

As I was able to finish work at 2.00pm today, I made my way over to Fordwich after Marc's tip-off about a Marsh Tit being seen. I spent an hour an half around the kissing gate area 300yards from the main road, wandering as far up as the bench overlooking the river Stour. No sign today of the Marsh Tit but plenty of Blue, Great & Long-tailed's were seen, possibly the same mobile flock we saw on Sunday. Several Gulls were seen, mainly Black-heads and a few Herrings, flying over and many Chaffinches about a small party of 4 Siskins moved through the tree tops and a single female was located in the Tit flock. As I was heading back to the kissing gate to call it a day a Little Egret flew up from Fordwich lakes and of out towards Canterbury and as I reached the Gate two Common (Mealy) Redpolls landed in a beech tree and fed up for 3-4 minutes beffore flying of south west over towadrs Fordwich.

We carried out the WeBs count for the Westbere/Fordwich Lakes area to-day and in the process, had a good day’s birding. At Westbere Lake the totals were over 1,500 Black-headed Gulls, 318 Herring Gulls, 3 Common Gulls and a couple of Great Black-backed Gulls. There were 25 Mallard, 19 Gadwall, 75 Tufted Duck, 3 Pochard, 4 Shoveler and 6 Teal, 41 Mute Swans, 670 Coot and 21 Great Crested Grebes. On the walk through to Fordwich we recorded, amongst others, Cetti’s Warbler, Bullfinch, Stonechat, Corn Bunting, Goldcrest, Wren, Blue, Great and Long-tailed Tits and we could hear, but did not see Bearded Tits. Best of all was a sighting of a Marsh Tit at the end of the path near Fordwich, a first in the Valley for both of us. In the same area was a small mixed flock of Goldfinches, Lesser Redpolls and Siskins. The Fordwich Lakes were much quieter, the best sightings being a Kingfisher, Little Grebe, a Treecreeper and a female Goldeneye. There were small counts of Gadwall, Shoveler, Teal etc. We did not see or hear a single Fieldfare or Redwing, but there were a couple of Mistle Thrushes in Fordwich.

This is a very interesting record. I made a comment on the 28th November 2006 to a call which sounded quite good for Marsh Tit at Fordwich. Speaking to Sue tonight and finding out exactly where she saw the bird, believe it or not but it is exactly the same location, well about 20 metres apart. Just maybe I did hear one and they are around somewhere!!

Very very quiet at Grove this morning with only a few bits making the note book. These were, 1 Tawny Owl, 3 Marsh Harriers, 6 Ruff, 100ish Golden Plovers, 6 Snipe, 3 Cetti's Warblers, 1 Kingfisher, 1 Tufted Duck, 2 Redshanks, 1 Water Pipit and 2 Little Egrets. Alan and I decided we would give Westbere a bash so we left Pete at Harrison's and left Grove meeting Steve at the entrance where we all drove to Fordwich to park up, and walked the river to Westbere. Immediatly, the first birds encountered were, 3 Grey Wagtails and a Sparrowhawk. The Gull numbers seem to be building up nicely here now so we hope for something special over the next six or seven weeks. There were 3500+ Black-headed Gulls, 1 adult winter Mediterranean Gull (always nice to see), 300+ Herring gulls from juvenile to adult of at least two races, 5 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 3 Great Black-backed Gulls and 16 Common Gulls. There were 68 Tufted Ducks, 3 Pochards, 14 Great-crested Grebes, 8 Siskins, and a mobile Tit flock holding 28 Long-tailed, 15 Blue and 9 Greats as well as a single Goldcrest. Chaffinch and Robin were also quite numerous.

Marc started early in the valley recording 5 Tawny Owls and 2 Little Owls from 5.00am onwards, 1 Tawny was calling regularly at Grove until 6.30am. At Grove Ferry today were good numbers of Fieldfare and Redwing plus 2 Grey Herons, 3 Sparrowhawks, 7 Marsh Harriers, 1 Corn Bunting, 1 Grey Wagtail, 145 Golden Plovers and 1 Shelduck. There were, 8 Ruff, 3 Redshank, 1 Kestrel, 3 Water Pipits, 6 Common Snipe, 1 Tufted Duck, 1 Kingfisher, 1 Little Egret, 1 Stonechat and 1 Cetti's Warbler. Up to Collard's were the 3 duck Goldeneye were still present with, 39 Tufted Ducks, 243 Wigeon, 2 Canada Geese, 1 Great-spotted and 1 Green Woodpecker. A Brambling was also heard but not seen. From Grove road overlooking Seaton the Greylg flock still had the White-fronted Goose with them while at Stodmarsh were, 26 Tufted Ducks numerous Teal, Gadwall & Shoveller, 1 Woodcock, 1 albino Squirrel, 1 Marsh Harrier, 1 Shelduck and 15+ Chaffinches. Bored with the lack of activity in the valley Steve, Steve, Alan and I made our way over to Reculver to try and capture the Snow Buntings on film. I make no appologies for adding Reculver pictures here as nothing of note was filmed at Grove. We saw at least 4 Stonechats, 280+ Brent Geese and 19 Snow Buntings as well as 1 Rock Pipit, 30 Linnets and 18 Goldfinches.

A brief look after work at Grove Ferry until dusk produced the following in dull conditions: 1 Ring necked Parakeet, 7 Ruff, 2 Redshank, 126 Golden Plover, 13 Mute Swan, 1 Black Swan, 1 Sparrowhawk, 6 Corn Bunting, 4 Snipe, 2 Cetti's Warbler, 2 Little Egret, 2 Bearded Tit, c50 Redwing over the paddock, 1 ring tail Hen Harrier towards Stodmarsh at 3.54pm, 1 Great spotted Woodpecker, 1 Water Pipit, 3 Marsh Harrier, 2 males, 1 Grey Heron, c500 Lapwing and c250 Teal.

We visited the Stodmarsh area this morning, hoping to locate the Bean Geese. We had no success with this but were pleased to find 4 Bewick’s Swans on Stodmarsh Lake. We also recorded a Treecreeper, several Goldcrests, a Marsh Harrier, Great Spotted and Green Woodpeckers and large numbers of Fieldfares and Redwings and many of the usual water and woodland species. We had very good views of a white squirrel in the alder wood. As a matter of interest, a Coal Tit has been visiting my garden bird feeder for the past couple of days – quite an unusual visitor to this part of Westbere.

An hour at lnchtime became two as I drove past the Geese at Wickambreaux at midday where there wer 200 Greylag Geese but no sign of any Bean Geese but the White-fronted Goose was in attendance. At 12.30 most of the Geese had moved onto one of the lakes at Seaton so I went to Collard's to look for Gulls and Duck, not much here but the first 3 Goldeneye of the winter were seen (all ducks), 27 Tufted Ducks and 200+ Wigeon. Still a very high number of Coots and a lot of Gulls were on the lake. The biggest surprise came in the shape of the biggest finch, at 1.20pm I caught site of a Hawfinch passing to the west with it's pale creamy brown plumage, dark underwing and broad wing bar showing off well in the afternoon sun, the distinctive call could also be heard as it undulated it's way towards Cow Corner. This is what lunchtime birding should be about, lovely weather and great birds.

A visit before work to Stodmarsh to see if the Bean Geese were present proved negative. I spent some time at the triangle only noting c200 Greylag Geese and no sign of the Eurasion White fronted Goose either but they may still be in the area somewhere. I did however, get a new species for my year list as a Brambling was heard twice calling from the sunken garden house near the triangle. This now pushes my year list to 165, my best ever year. Other birds noted included 3 Goldcrest, 4 Great spotted Woodpecker, 2 Green Woodpecker, 2 Sparrowhawk, 5+ Meadow Pipit and small groups of Fieldfare were in the orchards. A quick look at Collards produced 3 Goldeneye, 1 Sparrowhawk, c200 Wigeon, c400 Coot, c20 Tufted Duck, c200 Black headed Gull, c60 Great black backed Gull, 1 Lesser black backed Gull, 1 Redpoll over calling and a few Great crested Grebe.

I paid a couple of visits into the valley today when time allowed. My target birds were the Bean Geese so I drove over lunchtime to see if they were around. I soon located a large flock of Geese just West of the valley boundary. Scanning through them revealed the 10 Tundra Bean Geese, 1 Eurasion White fronted Goose and c200 Greylag Geese. Try as I did, I could not find a point within the valley boundary to view these birds as there was a slope in the way with the Geese at the bottom of this. I even considered climbing a tree at one point to get some height, desperation or what! I returned later in the afternoon and met Martyn Wilson so we both drove over to the triangle to observe the Geese. Non were present at first so crossing the road ( a mistake to make ) we walked a little down a farm track and after a while we picked out the Bean Geese flying in. Martyn reminded me that we were not in the valley so running back like Linford Christie and Carl Lewis, we finally got to the boundary and looked, they were gone again. We hoped that they might make another appearance but they didn't, so close but so far. I only need one species to better my best ever year of recording since I started 10 years ago so these Geese are important. Other birds noted from here and a brief look at Grove were 5 Ruff, 2 Marsh Harrier, 5 Little Egret, 6 Black headed Gull, 1 Kestrel, c700 Lapwing at Grove, c300 Teal at Grove, 1 Swallow West at Stodmarsh, 1 Snipe, c150 Fieldfare, c15 Golden Plover and a male Merlin chasing Redwings.

I received an Email from Richard Collins today at work alerting me that he had just found 4 Tundra Bean Geese along Grove Road. Richard got a few brief shots before they then flew off. Chris Hindle then paid a visit a little later and more had obviously arrived as 10 Tundra Bean Geese were now visible in the field near the triangle junction that leads to Stodmarsh reserve. Again as Chris left, they flew off in the direction of Stodmarsh. I then paid a brief visit after school in the pouring rain, unfortunately no Bean Geese but c60 Greylag Geese were still feeding in the cropped fields. Its been a fantastic year in the valley this year and this new addition takes us to 182 species, the best total I believe we have had in our recording time.

A much better start today with a predominately raptor orientated list, much less wind, more west south west and fairly bright. It all started with a Barn Owl hunting by Felderland Farm shop on my way over at 5.30 then, an hour later a Tawny Owl calling at Grove, a Merlin shot over the ramp and out across the back pools at 6.40 and a total of 7 Marsh Harriers were seen. Othere birds of prey included, 3 Sparrowhawks, 2 Peregrines and 2 Kestrels. There were, 3 Little Egrets, 16 Ruff, 1 Redshank, 70 Golden Plovers, 1 Skylark south, 300 Redwings and 700+ Fieldfares. We only stayed at the Grove end today so no big duck numbers except a passage of 500 or so Wigeon to the west. There were 3 Cetti's Warblers, 2 Common Snipe, 1 Kingfisher, 2 Water Rails, 2 Bearded Tits, 1 Tufted Duck, 2 Water Pipits, 2 Stonechats and 24 Black-headed Gulls on the main pool although, several hundred Gulls were on a westward move as always. Three Grey Herons were also seen plus a single Dunlin several continental Blackbirds as well as common residents like Chaffinch, Reed Bunting, Blue Tit etc all being seen.

Not very much to report despite a complete circuit of the valley, Grove/Stodmarsh, counter clockwise with a strong south south westerly with showers later on. It must be bad as the Heathster, otherwise known as whatastunner.com, can't be arsed to vist these last couple of weeks. In the valley today were, 1 Tawny Owl at Grove along the river 6.20am, 6 Marsh harriers, 16 Ruff, 1 Little Egret, 7 Water Rails around the circuit, 700+ Fieldfare all over, a couple hundred Redwings and 8 Cetti's Warblers along the route. There were, 29 Tufted Duck and 18 Pochards on Stodmarsh lake with 1 duck Pintail, 387, Teal 226, Shoveler and 16 Great-crested Grebes also, 124 Black-headed Gulls and 1 Common Gull. There were, 2 Sparrowhawks, 1 Redshank, 1 Great-spotted & 3 Green Woodpeckers, 4 Water Pipits, 1 Kestrel and 2 Stonechats with a further 754 Teal at Grove, 889 Lapwings and just 3 Golden Plovers. On the path by Baillon's pool were the remains of a Grey Heron that had been Foxed, just the wings and the torso remained plus, a multitude of feathers.

Spent a little time at Grove Ferry today seeing at least 12 Marsh Harriers with five together hovering low over the reeds in front of the ramp harrasing Starlings with several attempts to catch them, all unsucsessful. An estimate of 4500 Feildfares and 2800 Redwings at the reserve, many in the fields within the reserve plus also a Merlin, an adult female Hen Harrier, Sparrowhawk and Kestrel. I counted 4 Ruff, 1 Dunlin, a Black-tailed Godwit, a Spotted Redshank, 5 Redshank, 1 Little Egret, 2 Kingfishers, 5 Water Pipits and several Golden Plover. Two Stonechats were seen at the Harrison's Drove hide.

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Peregrine & ringtail Hen Harrier at Grove Ferry on morning of 30th. Hundreds of Redwings in Hawthorns along Little Stour that morning.

(Cliff Dean Pett E Sussex)