Monday 10/02/2020

First thing this morning I went to the beach to check on the sea watch hide and was relieved to see that it was still present and intact. Then it was back to the reserve for the WEBs count on Burrowes.

Drake Smew on Burrowes this morning

The wildfowl numbers were well down on last month no doubt due to the weather, highlights being the Smew, 3 Goldeneye, 12 Black-tailed Godwits, a Ringed Plover, 2 Dunlin and a Great White Egret.

 Female Curlew with a worm

Male Curlew with a female behind

At Boulderwall the Curlews were unusually showing very well from the track, normally as soon as you pull up they are off.

 Brown Hare at Kerton Road

 View from the sluice at Dengemarsh Gully looking to the sea

 Looking from the sea up to the sluice

Looking across the Gully towards the Open Pits

There is another big tide tonight which I imagine will flood much more of Dengemarsh and Galloways.

Kittiwake at the fishing boats this afternoon

This afternoon in the limited shelter of the fishing boats there was very little to see off shore, a few Guillemots and Kittiwakes was about it. DW joined me showing me an image of an odd Herring Gull type Gull, as we scanned looking for the Gull he said there is white winger in the lake.seconds later I could see a 2nd calendar year Iceland Gull, we called the locals who all managed to eventually see the bird. When it left the lake for the beach it was very difficult to see hidden among the throng of other Gulls, if you left the shelter of the fishing boats to try and see it you risked being knocked over by the wind and no chance of keeping a telescope, binoculars or camera steady. The bird was still present at dusk, so hopefully I may get better images tomorrow but the weather looks grim for tomorrow as well. 

 2nd calendar year Iceland Gull at the fishing boats this afternoon

 2nd calendar year Iceland Gull

 2nd calendar year Iceland Gull

 2nd calendar year Iceland Gull

Sunday 09/02/2020

We started the sea watch from the hide, but abandoned the hide and moved to the fishing boats after 20 minutes as we deemed the hide unsafe in the storm force winds:

Huge waves rolling in at Dungeness this morning

07.40-09.20 with AL
Brent Goose: 5E
Pochard: 1W drake
Goosander: 1E drake
Red-throated Diver: 5W
Fulmar: 3W       1E
Gannet:132W      9E
Cormorant: many present n/c
Great Skua: 1E
Kittiwake: 124W
Black-headed Gull: present n/c
Common Gull: present n/c
Herring Gull: present n/c
Great Black-backed Gull: present n/c
Guillemot: 2W
Razorbill: 1W
Auk sp: 5W

Tying the door open and leaving some shutters open to hopefully allow the wind to blow through

A short video showing the spume blowing.

The hide was still there at 16.30, hopefully it will be OK now as Chris Philpott has installed a couple of temporary Acro props.

Saturday 08/02/2020

A cold morning with a light SW wind and constant drizzle.
07.40-09.40 from the sea watch hide with RW& AJG who kindly collated the numbers:
Brent Goose: 32E
Teal: 4E
Scaup: 4W
Common Scoter: 1E
Red-throated Diver: 10W 16E
Great-crested Grebe: 3 o/s
Fulmar: 4W
Gannet: 231W
Cormorant: c1,000 moving between bays
Kittiwake: 170W
Black-headed Gull: 100s o/s
Common Gull: 100s o/s
Herring Gulls: present n/c
Great black-backed Gull: present n/c
Sandwich Tern: 1 o/s (first of the year)
Guillemot: 64W     3E
Razorbill: 317W
Auk sp: 310W 109E
Harbour porpoise: 1
On Walland the 41 Bewick Swans were still at Midley late morning, nearby at the model flying club c20 Yellowhammers and c40 Fieldfares. No sign of the 20 Tree Sparrows seen there earlier per L & PH.
A walk around Pigwell and Bretts produced a party of 82 Pied Wagtails by the sewage works, the usual Marsh Harrier, but little else of note.
A disappointing Egret roost count this evening when just 6 Great White Egrets and 11 Little Egrets came to roost.
There were still 4 Long-tailed Ducks on the western most back lake at Scotney per RW.

Thursday 06/02/2020

 Great White and Little Egrets at Tanners this morning

At a frosty Boulderwall Fields this morning much smaller numbers of Wigeon, Curlew, Lapwing and Golden Plover than of late, 3 each of Great White Egret(at least 6 around the reserve this morning) and little Egret, 2 Stonechat and a Marsh Harrier over.

At Hookers probably 2 Kingfishers, a sunbathing Common Buzzard, 30+ Reed Buntings along with the usual squealing Water Rails, Marsh Harriers, various wildfowl and Tits. The drake Smew was still present but had moved to Burrowes where it kept to the far side of the lake with a couple of Goldeneye.

 Kingfisher at Hookers

 Common Buzzard at Hookers

 Reed Bunting at Hookers

 Long-tailed Tit at Hookers

 Marsh Harrier at Hookers

This afternoon at the screen hide a distant Bearded Tit and a Firecrest by the track were the highlights.

Distant Barn Owl with the Bewick Swan flock behind this afternoon

Late afternoon Barn Owl at Midley with the 41 Bewick Swans and definitely only 2 juveniles. At 1 of the Harrier roosts at least 14 Marsh Harriers came into the roost, to the accompaniment of several squealing Water Rails, a few Fieldfares were noted as were a small party of Linnets.

Wednesday 05/02/2020

A brilliant day out on Sheppey with Owen and Richard

 Purple Sandpiper at Shellness

Our first stop was Shellness, it's many years since I was last there and good to see that the access track is much improved. On the walk down to the Pillbox Little Egrets were popping up out of the salt marsh and Marsh Harriers were everywhere we looked. From the Pill Box we scanned the Swale enjoying the many Oystercatchers, Brent Geese, Shelduck, Ringed Plovers and distant swirling wader and Wigeon flocks, a drake Eider was spotted on the distant spit and lone Purple Sandpiper was on the foreshore.

A distant drake Eider

Owen & Richard looking at the distant Eider

When you go to Shellness you have to photograph this wonderful artwork

After walking back to the car and cup of coffee we made our wall along the sea wall to the hides on the Swale Nature Reserve, on the way seeing more Marsh Harriers, a Ring-tail Hen Harrier, and lots of Skylark, Reed and Corn Buntings, Meadow Pipits, a couple of Rock Pipits, many more Brent Geese and Curlews.

 Hide at the Nature Reserve

 Greater White-fronted Geese

 Greater White-fronted Geese

From the hide excellent views of the Greater White-fronted Geese were had, as well as many Curlews, Brent and Greylag Geese and of course more Marsh Harriers as well as Common Buzzards. 

 Curlews

We made a brief visit to Harty and Capel where we saw many more of the same species adding Merlin and Red-legged Partridge to the day list.

 Long-eared Owl Elmley

  Our next stop was at Elmley, where on arrival a Long-eared Owl was showing very nicely in the sunshine at the car park, a couple of Short-eared Owls were also fitting out in the open viewed from the car park. We walked down the track to scrapes seeing 1,000s more Wigeon and Lapwings, smaller numbers of Curlew, some Pintail a Cetti's Warbler and of course more Marsh Harriers. The water level at the scrapes was unsurprisingly for this winter very high so few waders seen. By the time we got back to the car park we had seen at least 6 Short-eared Owls, the Long-eared Owl was still showing nicely and we saw 2 Barn Owls from the car park. 

 Short-eared Owls at Elmley

Kestrel at Elmley

 Little Grebe, Elmley

 1 of 2 Barn Owls seen at Elmley

Rough-legged Buzzard coming to roost at Funton Creek. Honestly it is!

Our last stop of the day was at Funton Creek to hopefully see the Rough-legged Buzzard come into its favoured roost, it did not disappoint us when it flew in just after a sunset against a pink dusk sky. While we were waiting for its arrival, we saw more Marsh Harriers, 1-2 Short-eared Owls, 2 more Barn Owls, many more Brent Geese, Shelduck and Curlews, as well as Avocets and Godwits. Many thanks to Owen for organising, driving and making it a superb day out birding.

Monday 03/02/2020

With a stiff WSW wind blowing I joined AJG who kindly collated the numbers in the sea watch hide, I was pleasantly surprised by the numbers of birds moving West, all too soon the passage dropped away.
07:35-09:15 from the sea watch hide:
Common Scoter: 17W
Red-throated Diver: 104W      2E
Fulmar: 16W
Gannet: 149W
Cormorant: c500 o/s
Knot: 40W
Kittiwake: 348W
Black-headed Gull: many present n/c
Common Gull: c400W
Herring Gull: many present n/c
Great Black-backed Gull: small numbers present n/c
Guillemot: 11W
Razorbill: 43W
Auk sp: 991W    37E

 1 of 2 Firecrests seen by the track to the pines

Mid morning along the track to the pines at the ARC produced 2 Firecrests, a Chiffchaff, a small Tit flock, several calling Cetti's Warblers, 3 Marsh Harriers over. On the lake the usual wildfowl and 2 Goldeneye of note.

Late morning at Boulderwall Fields and Tanners Pool produced the drake Smew and the now usual large numbers of Golden Plover, Lapwing and Wigeon, just a handful of Curlew and a single Great White Egret.

I had a look at Lade, Greatstone and Littlestone hoping to find some for Waders and Gulls but didn't linger due to the overwhelming numbers of dog walkers, probably if I had persevered I would have seen a few, but seeing the dogs running around the the sands flushing the birds, their owners bellowing at them to come here was too much for me put up with.

Golden Plover coming in to Scotney

Another walk at Scotney this afternoon where huge numbers of Golden Plovers, with only slightly fewer Lapwings and Wigeon in the 100s put on some superb aerial displays.

This image does not convey the huge numbers of birds that were present this afternoon

 Some of the Golden Plover flushed by a tractor

 I managed to find a single Ruff on the Sward

Barnacle Geese at Scotney

There seems to be 2 distinct flocks of Barnacle Geese at Scotney. The largest flock c180 contains the 4 Emperor  hybrids and are fairly skittish, where as the smaller flock c40 birds are quite tame. By the time I got back to the car the rain had set in.

Sunday 02/02/2020

At 06.30 this morning the rain and wind was battering my bedroom window so I  went back to sleep. AJG & RW are made of sterner stuff and made it to the sea watch hide and kindly sent me there records, I'm glad I stayed in bed.
07.45-09.15 from the sea watch hide:
Red-throated Diver: 57W
Fulmar:4W
Gannet: 218W
Cormorant: 2,000+ o/s
Kittiwake: 56W
Guillemot: 52W
Razorbill: 123W
Auk sp: 324W
Despite the gloomy weather and strong wind I took a long walk out to the back of Scotney, there are still 1,000s of Golden Plover and Lapwing there, as well as100s of Wigeon and Shoveler, but just a few Skylark, Linnets and Reed Buntings and no Tree Sparrows. Eventually I located 2 Long-tailed Duck on the most western back lake. The walk back produced a single Green Sandpiper, 2 Stonechats, 2 Common Buzzards and a Marsh Harrier of note.

1of 3 Great White Egrets at Tanners Pool this afternoon

This afternoon on the reserve most of the interest was in the Boulderwall fields and Pools, the drake Smew was hauled out at the top end of Tanners, joined by 3 Great White Egrets and a Little Egret. A very mobile Water Pipit was moving between Cooks pool, Tanners Pool then lost over Hookers.

At the back of Hookers a party of 20 Reed Buntings were the highlight.

 Some of the 1,000s of Golden Plovers flushed from the Boulderwall fields

 A Peregrine flushed the 1,000s of Golden Plovers and Lapwing, as well as 100s of Wigeon and 50+ Curlew from Boulderwall Fields. 

Curlew at Cooks Pool