Saturday 7th. February 2015

Just two cold outings to catch up on . The first was the bird survey at Down House , which produced 17 species , strangely the same number as on the garden count last weekend , but not a single Winter visitor to be seen . With sheep grazing two of the three paddocks , there was no sign of deer , but when I approached the formal gardens on my way back to the car , a distant lump in the corner of the

fungi lawn turned out to be a female Roe Deer . She had most probably spotted me well before I

spotted her , but she stayed put till I got to within 50 metres of her , before getting up , clearing the

stock fencing and hot-footing it across the meadow , heading for the cricket field and beyond . No sign of the buck , but he would have no interest anyway if she was pregnant . Interestingly , if mated after the rut last late July / August , any embryo would only just have started to grow , having been held in diapause since then . Birth would take place late May / June , ready for the cycle to be repeated again . On the way back home , the usual stop at Keston Ponds found all three ponds 75% +

frozen , with most waterfowl concentrated in the open water of the middle pond . From the road I could see several Mandarin congregated under overhanging vegetation , and there they stayed until I

threw in a couple of handfuls of grain , which enticed them out . I counted 19 , 15 in this shot , 10

drakes and 9 ducks , strangely the same number counted at Kelsey Park in Beckenham during a recent visit . I thought about going there and seeing whether they were the same birds , but getting home and a hot drink won the day . Whilst having that hot drink at home and in a temperature of

about 5C , this Buff-tailed Bumblebee , with well filled pollen sacks , was spotted visiting the Winter Honeysuckle in the front garden .
Yesterday I decided to get out early and hopefully see and photograph the drake Smew which has been favouring the area outside Scott Hide at RSPB Dungeness . Finding the gates still locked on arrival , I must admit that I questioned my decision when I stepped out of the car in the ARC car park , being hit by a bitter NE wind . Another birder arrived with similar hopes and soon after and we managed to have the gate opened . On the way down the track I stopped briefly to see about 20

Curlew feeding over to the right . If opening the car door at ARC was bad , it had nothing compared to opening it at the main car park . The wind blew me along to Scott Hide , where I found the other birder already settled in , watching hundreds of  'white horses' charging down the length of Burrowes Pit . Plenty of wildfowl , mostly Wigeon , Shoveler , Tufted and Teal , getting what shelter they could , tucked under Makepiece Hide , appearing and disappearing into and from the troughs of the waves and the Willow stands were jam-packed with Cormorants . We mutually decided only to open the windows if any photo opportunities arose . Well , over the next four hours , a few such opportunities did arise , but not for the hoped for drake Smew . We did see him a few times , but he stayed well out in the middle , sometimes with a couple of redheads and sometimes with a small group of Pintail . Possibly 8/10 redhead Smew were seen , impossible to get a true number , and a

couple of them did come towards the hide , they stay around for long , probably as they didn't seem to

be very successful finding fish , just one was seen making a catch . A bonus sighting was a Kingfisher , which fly by into the wind and finding it very difficult . Only other interest found was a

Chiffchaff found feeding on the way back to the Visitor Centre , which couldn't come quick enough . After thawing out and having to be back home by 4pm , I had just enough time to look in further along the coast at Hythe , in the hope of finding Purple Sandpiper . On arrival at one stone groyne , a bulldozer and lorry were working on the beach between it and the other one further along the beach ,

relocating the shingle . Not expecting to be successful , I searched the leeward side of the first groyne

and eventually found just two of these delightful little birds . I left them to carry on with their nap , and was glad again to get back into the car and get the heater on .