Pied Wheatear - Mark Chidwick

Northerly and easterly winds early in the week with a turn to more rain from the southwest made for a very busy week in Kent birding! Bird of the week was a first winter Pied Wheatear at Seasalter on the 18th. Unfortunately it was only seen by the local finder as it was flushed by dog walkers after showing well around the seawall for 20 minutes. This is the fifth record for Kent, the previous being a one day bird at Reculver in 2021. A ring-tail Pallid Harrier was seen passing through at South Foreland on the 22nd. Only just over a dozen have been seen in the county, but we are certainly seeing a pick-up in records in recent years. A Hume's Warbler was also discovered at South Foreland on the 22nd, making for an excellent day there. This is approximately the 25th record in Kent, with this species also becoming more regular in recent years, typically showing up in late autumn or early winter. 

Sea-watching featured again prominently, with the north coast more involved this week. The highlight was a Cory's Shearwater on the 16th past Reculver, already the third for Kent this year. On the 18th, there where were 9 reports of Leach's Petrel and 4 of Sabine's Gull between Shellness and North Foreland, although several records will undoubtedly involve the same individual birds. Furthermore four Long-tailed Skuas, a Long-tailed Duck, a couple more Sabine's Gull, a few Pomarine Skuas, Black-throated Divers and a Sooty Shearwater were seen on other days along the north coast. There were good numbers of Little Gull on the move this week, with 304 past Dungeness in 1.5 hours on the 20th.

Pallid Harrier - Jamie Partridge

In addition to the Cory's, Reculver did very well this week. On the 19th a Great Grey Shrike spent a couple of hours there, on the 17th there was a Grey Phalarope offshore, while on the 20th a Dotterel flew over Wantsum outflow and on the 21st a Pallas's Warbler was discovered along the railway embankment. Another (or maybe the same) Great Grey Shrike was briefly at Hope Point, Bockhill on the 20th, while a third was briefly at Dungeness on the 22nd. Two Lapland Buntings showed well near the South Foreland lighthouse from the 19th, with others recorded as fly-overs at Foreness and Dungeness. A Snow Bunting was seen at Sandwich Bay on the 21st, while a Hoopoe was seen at Birchington on the afternoon of the 22nd.

Lapland Bunting - Russ Blackman

Large groups of 'winter geese' arrived (or passed through) the county. Most were White-fronted Geese, although small groups of Tundra Bean Geese were noted at Bockhill and Dungeness and 15 Pink-footed Geese flew past North Foreland. Several Short-eared Owls arrived, with for instance six past Tankerton on the 17th within 30mins. More unusual though was the sighting of four Long-eared Owls flying in off the sea at Reculver on the 20th. Significant numbers of thrushes arrived from the continent, mostly Redwing and Song Thrush with smaller numbers of Fieldfare, but there were also 10 Ring Ouzels at Dungeness on the 20th (and one on the 22nd), while Bockhill hosted three on the 19th. The first Goosander arrived back at Bough Beech on the 18th. A Black-necked Grebe was at Dungeness on the 21st.

Hume's Warbler - Jamie Partridge

A few Mealy Redpolls were seen (at Dungeness, Bockhill and Ramsgate), while there were also a few Hawfinches on the move (along with 1000s of Chaffinch and dozens of Brambling). Yellow-browed Warbler numbers reduced a bit, with singles at Dungeness, Deal, Bockhill and South Foreland this week. A few Woodlarks were again seen flying over, at Dungeness and North Foreland.

As two storms are heading for Kent, it might be a good week to try and connect with a petrel. Good luck!

Peter Eerdmans

Little Gull - Kenton Evans

(Thanks to all the observers who posted their records on the KOS Sightings website, BirdGuides, eBird and/or the main Kent Birding WhatsApp groups, Thursday-to-Thursday. Apologies for any omissions. If anyone has any photos they think may be useful for the weekly, please send to me by Wednesday. All records of rarities are still subject to official confirmation by the relevant rarities committees)