Thursday 20 November 2014

A influx of Wrens?

Lade - 1000hrs - mild, cloudy, e 2 - Birding on the local patch this morning resembled the weather - benign. Nothing much of note apart from a Raven tussling with a Marsh Harrier being watched by two Green Woodpeckers on the wall `mirror`. The usual Coots, grebes and ducks on the two lakes, while there seemed to be a few more Wrens about than usual in the shingle scrub.
ARC - Six Goldeneyes and a Slavonian Grebe was the best of few wildfowl on the water, plus a Great White Egret, two Marsh Harriers and a Kingfisher. Around the willow trail more Wrens and a tit flock that contained two Chiffchaffs and a Firecrest. Bumped into SM who reported a Little Stint on the grass at the Kent end of Scotney.


                                Wren, Dungeness

Dungeness - A seawatch from the fishing boats this afternoon lasted all of 20 minutes as it was obvious nothing much was on the move; the sum total being single figures of Kittiwake and Red-throated Diver. We wandered amongst the sea containers for a bit, where Barney chased a couple of brown rats, noting several Wrens, two Pied Wagtails and a Black Redstart and checking the few roosting gulls out on the shingle ridges.
I then caught sight of a Wren slumped amongst the stones, which upon closer inspection was found to be quite dead, but only recently so as it was still limp. Northern Wrens are known to migrate considerable distances and I guess this may have been one such bird, as there did seem to be more Wrens about today than usual. The fact that these tiny passerines can traverse the North Sea, and most likely during the night, still fills me full of wonder. Perhaps the journey was just too much for this little fella. Anyhow, I got all soppy looking at it and with much reverence dug a hole and buried it in the shingle out of sight of any roving gulls and crows.

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