Warm, dry and sunny, SW3 - Since my last post the car has been in dock resulting in many miles of Ted walks around New Romney farmland, plus two visits to St Mary`s Bay along the coast to Greatstone and back into town; no prizes for guessing which area was most profitable... With the harvest now almost complete many of the fields were being turned over and drilled for next year`s crop resulting in mobile flocks of gulls, Woodpigeons and corvids along with a few Skylarks, Meadow Pipits, Linnets, Yellowhammers and a pair of Red-legged Partridge. Now that the Reed Warblers have departed the reed-fringed sewer margins were largely devoid of activity, leaving just a few Reed Buntings and parties of House Sparrows to forage the drainage ditches along with the occasional Grey Heron and Little Egret. Buzzards (including a white individual along the New Cut) and Sparrowhawks were much in evidence, some of which were probably migrants, while both Green and Great Spotted Woodpeckers appear to have had a good breeding season judging from their presence. The only warblers noted were a few Chiffchaffs and Lesser Whitethroats along Hope Lane, plus House Martins still at two locations in town and several pulses of Swallows south over the weekend.
Last Friday, in a blasting westerly and a falling tide, ten species of waders were on show from Littlestone Green with Curlew, Oystercatcher, Dunlin and Ringed Plover in their hundreds, along with double figures of Bar-tailed Godwit, Turnstone, Knot, Redshank, Sanderling and Grey Plover, plus 100 roosting Sandwich and Common Terns, four Little Egrets and a Shelduck. This morning I walked the same route at high tide where hundreds of Sandwich Terns were fishing in the bay with at least three attendant Arctic Skuas. At Pirate Springs two Whinchats and four Wheatears were logged with a trickle of Meadow Pipits, Yellow Wagtails and Swallows overhead. Church Lane spinney held a few Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps. Along the way plenty of Migrant Hawkers and Painted Ladies have been noted plus a single Clouded Yellow on the sand dunes at Greatstone this morning. The garden moth trap has been busy over the weekend due to the mild nights.
Over the Bank Holiday weekend I spent a day at Pagham Harbour where Spotted Redshank and Curlew Sandpiper were the best waders on offer; unfortunately Ferry Pool was busy with machinery constructing a new anti-predator fence. At Church Norton a few passerines included Spotted Flycatcher and Lesser Whitethroat in the bushes and a roosting group of gulls, terns and Grey Plovers in the harbour mouth.
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