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 .

Wednesday 14th. January 2015

A pictorial catch up on a few recent outings .
A windy Bough Beech , full to overflowing now , produced very little apart from one redhead Goosander , at distance on the main reservoir .

Moving on to the feeders in the woods , at last my first Siskin of the Winter , still no Redpoll or Brambling .

It wasn't long before the Bank Voles appeared , looking for spillage from the feeders . Their MO was

to fill their pouches with as many seeds as possible , before heading off to deposit them in their store .

Mind you , sometimes it was a case of first come , first served .

It took quite some time for the Nuthatch to work up the courage to come in , but he did .

No such problem for the Marsh Tits .
Since the last post , I have returned to Kelsey Park on two occasions to try for the Firecrest in better light conditions . Although sighted once since , no sign on my visits . Whilst waiting :

In The Beck , under the overhanging vegetation , a Little Grebe , already showing signs of breeding plumage , caught , and was fastidiously washing what looked like a 3 spined Stickleback , before swallowing . Highest Mandarin count now 21 .

Stock Doves like this one already thinking about breeding .

Two Grey Squirrel who seemed to be de-lousing each other .

A male , determined by size , Egyptian Goose , constantly 'cackling' , as he watched his partner

getting into a bit of a flap after a wash and brush-up .
A very cold bird survey at Down House , only produced 15 species , and not a single Winter visitor .
Today's sunny start encouraged a visit to Sevenoaks Reserve . No cars in the car park wasn't a good omen .

From Willow Hide , only interest , a few male Shoveler .

A walk down to the 5 bar gate found the juvenile American White Ibis still on site , and quite close .

The first island from Tyler Hide produced a count of 67 Common Snipe , 19 in this shot . No doubt there were many more both on this island and others .

From the view-point between Tyler and Sutton Hides , distant views of the Goosander pair on the East Lake that have been around for a few days now .

And finally , two Jays along the track on the way back to the car park .

Wednesday 7th. January 2015

Having dropped Carol off at a friend's and with the weather decidedly on the turn , I stopped off for a look around Kelsey Park in Beckenham , in the hope of finding the Firecrest that was seen there last Monday . Having driven through rain to get there , the wet stuff caught up with me just as I got out of the car . I could almost see the bridge where the bird was sighted , but when I got there , the only

sighting was a very brazen Brown Rat feeding on some crumbs on the bridge , which only moved on when I got within touching distance . On either side of the bridge , a minimum of 19 Mandarin Duck were counted on The Beck along with a similar number of Mallard types . After about 15 minutes in the area , a lady stopped and surprisingly asked if I was looking for the Firecrest , as she had spoken to a couple of birders yesterday that were looking for it . As we talked she asked ' Is that it there ? ' . Looking into the what light there was , all I could make out was a small bird 'ballet dancing' in a nearby tree . ' Could be I replied ' and with that it flew back towards the bridge . The lady continued on her walk , and I headed towards the bridge . After a few minutes , a movement in a shrub caught my attention , and in the mirk , I finally managed to get binoculars on the bird and saw the orange

crest and more importantly , the white eye stripes . As usual with ' Crests ' , it didn't stop moving and that with the poor light made capturing any sort of shot almost impossible . I just tried to follow it , firing off shots , in the vain hope that it would come to rest . Most were rubbish , and many never even had the bird in them when looking back , but just one caught the bird , just before it moved off

again . After a couple of minutes it disappeared and even though I returned several times to the area , I never caught sight if it again . A walk around the lake and The Beck where it leaves the lake , found just the expected waterbirds , until I crossed the last bridge but one , and found a black duck with a

bottle green head , having a wash and brush up in The Beck , something I wasn't expecting . Even

more unexpected was when it had a shake down , revealing green and blue colouration all over . A group of walkers stopped as I was photographing it and asked what species it was . ' I haven't got a clue ' was my reply ' but I hope Google will be able to tell me when I get home ' . The duck seemed to

be part of a double act with an American Peking Duck type , one following the other's every move . My last shot was looking down The Beck from that bridge , with over half of the Mandarin seen

earlier , interspersed with some of the Mallard types . Back home , ' iridescent green duck ' was entered into Google and up popped Cayuga Duck , a resident of North America  and first seen I here at the Great Exhibition of 1851 . Almost definitely both escapees , but , could they possibly have teamed up with the American White Ibis at Sevenoaks Reserve for the flight over ??

Friday 2nd January 2015

A catch up on a few recent outings .
A trip to Kelsey Park in Beckenham found a handful of Redwings feeding on Holly berries , but definitely not in the mood to be photographed . Most of the lake was frozen over , but The Beck ,

which flows into the lake remained free of ice and most species were concentrated there , including at

least 18 Mandarin . The females looking very smart in their new livery , but as usual , the more

numerous males were not to be outdone for colour . It wasn't even New Year but the Grey Heron

were already taking possession of several of the nests on the island heronry .
A very cold look around Hayes Farm found the Trout Fishery awash with waterfowl due to a JCB working on the far bank , but of the 100+ birds on the water , nothing better than a pair of Little Grebe . As I left the fishery , the Common Buzzard flew from the woods behind , chased by the local

Corvids , eventually landing in one of the large Oaks . The Corvids didn't give up though , taking it in

turn to buzz the Buzzard , until once again it took flight , and last seen disappearing over the athletics track in Norman Park .
Another cold visit was to Bough Beech Reservoir , which is already almost full , which means that the water is already into the surrounding woods , giving plenty of hiding places for birds . The notice board showed 34 Goosander seen at dusk a couple of days earlier , all I could manage was a single redhead , well out in the main reservoir . A look at the feeders in the orchard produced Nuthatch and GSWoodpecker , but once again no hoped for Brambling , or Fieldfare or Redwing either . On the way back home , a look around Keston Church car park produced it's usual early flowers , Winter

Heliotrope / Petasites fragrans , a member of the Daisy family , with 25+ flower spikes found . Another site , usually good for Winter visitors , also failed to produce .
Whilst watching 2 Fieldfare and 5/6 Redwing , feeding on next door's Cotoneaster berries , a flock of 10/12 , the most I have seen locally for some

time , RRParakeets descended on the bush , dispersing all other feeders .Four was the most I managed to get in any one shot , as when others arrived some got moved on , but some just sat

quietly gorging on the ripened berries .The shots were taken from the back bedroom window , too far off to get any decent shots of the Winter Thrushes .

This morning , I managed to secrete myself amongst the greenery in the garden , and finally managed a few .

Mind you , today was probably my last chance , as the berries are disappearing at a fantastic rate .

Thursday 25th. December 2014

When Carol told me yesterday morning that she didn't need any help with the final shopping for the festivities , I was gutted ! A look at the weather forecast said that a dull start would get better , and that was enough to head for Dungeness , on some unfinished business . The forecast was not wrong , as between Maidstone and Ashford it tipped down , and was drizzling on and off when I arrived at Lydd , where the two Cattle Egret that I only managed to photograph as a distant fly over on my last visit , had taken up residence with the cows in the field next to the football pitch on Dengemarsh

Road , and sure enough , in the mirk on arrival , found them sheltering around the bales of cattle feed . I took a couple of record shots , in the hope of better weather later on , then on to the ARC car park and a wet walk up to the screen , hoping for a Bittern , but it wasn't to be . Some compensation

was a Great White Egret that flew in from the other side of the pit , and it wasn't long before it struck

into it's breakfast . At almost the same moment , a female Marsh Harrier rose from it's roost in the

reedbed , and almost immediately dropped behind the reeds , and that was the last I saw of her . Before leaving the screen , I did see my hoped for Bittern , but it lifted from the reeds beyond the Hanson Hide and seemed to drop down on the other side of the road . A slow run up to the RSPB visitor Centre in heavier rain , failed to find anything of interest , but the feeders did produce a single Tree Sparrow , a few mixed Tits and a Moorhen cleaning up underneath . A quick dash to Dennis's Hide only produced Shoveler and Coot , both in good numbers , but no sighting of the Goosander that had been seen recently . On the way back down the track , a female Kestrel didn't bother to move as I

passed , the look on her face saying 'I'm wet' or maybe , 'What you doing birding in this?' A drive down to the lighthouse didn't set the pulse racing with little seen other than the gull roost that held

many Great Great Black-backed along with a multitude of Herring . Another look in at the Cattle Egrets in slightly better light , found one of them playing 'King of the Castle' , keeping the local

Jackdaws from taking it's throne . Scotney Pits were wild and windy and I quickly lost hope of finding the male Scaup that had been seen recently . The feral flock of Barnacle Goose , with a few

Emperor type amongst them , the first time I have seen the latter there . With some brightness appearing in the distance , I decided to make my final stop at Rye Harbour Reserve . That brightness had also brought families , dog walkers and cyclists out , so I wasn't expecting much . Hundreds of Golden Plover were swirling over the site , but apart from a small flock of Linnet and about 25 Reed Bunting that were disturbed from their feeding as I passed , that was about it .

And finally , I thought I was mad birding in the conditions , but that was nothing compared to how

some people spent their day !
Have a good one .

Tuesday 23rd. December 2014

MERRY CHRISTMAS
 

 

 

AND A HAPPY AND HEALTHY NEW

YEAR TO ONE AND ALL