Solar eclipse

Lade - cold, overcast, n 2 - Another grim wintry day with single figure temperatures throughout. After checking the lakes and foreshore, where there was no change from yesterday, we arrived home to witness the solar eclipse which turned out to be a bit of a damp squid. With heavy cloud cover there was no chance of seeing the moon partially blotting out the sun, but at around 0930hrs it did become slightly darker, which appeared to suppress the sparrow and Starling chatter for a while. Most noticeable of all though was a drop in temperature and increase in wind speed.
ARC - From the causeway road a Black-necked Grebe and three Goldeneyes were the pick of the bunch out on the lake, plus Teal, Gadwall, Shoveler and Little Egret in the shallows.

                               Shoveler and Goldeneyes, Burrowes

Burrowes - Staff and volunteers have made a grand job of repairing the access road up to the VC this week - congratulations to one and all on a marvellous effort.
An increase in Chaffinch numbers to around 50 in the car park area was probably as a result of the recent influx along the Kent coastline. Around Burrowes it was very much a wintry scene with Little and Great White Egrets, 15 Goldeneyes and hundreds of common wildfowl, including at least 620 Shovelers.

                               Lade desert

Desert/ARC - This afternoon we walked across the desert to Lydd to retrieve Mrs PT`s car from the garage. The desert was desolate apart from a couple of singing Skylarks and a brown hare. Along the railway line one or two Song Thrushes were outnumbered by Blackbirds, while two Marsh Harriers soared over Airport pits.
On the way home a stop off at Screen hide delivered all the usual wildfowl, plus good views of a Barn Owl at dusk.