Thrushes & Short-eared Owl

Lade -0700hrs - Mild, overcast, thick fog, sunny later, e2 - Plenty of Redwings and Skylarks over in the gloom this morning as well as one or two Goldcrests in the garden.

                                         Green-brindled Crescent from 20th October

Lydd - 0900hrs - Had to drop the car in the garage in Lydd so decided to walk back home; a convoluted 3 mile route along Dengemarsh Road, across farmland to the bird reserve, past Boulderwall and ARC and out across the Desert to Lade, which took about 3 hours.
The fog was dense for much of the time, only starting to lift around midday. Robins and Blackbirds were numerous along the way with a steady overhead passage of Skylarks continuing for much of the morning.
First port of call was Lydd Wood where the highlights were 5 Jays, 4 Blackbirds, Chiffchaff and Goldcrest. Along Dengemarsh Road plenty more Blackbirds and a few Song Thrushes, plus 10 Pied Wagtails 5 Mipits and a Mistle Thrush on the football pitch. Across the farmland several Reed Buntings and Cetti`s Warblers in the ditches, Kestrel, 20 Common Gulls and 20 Linnets. At the Corral, Ring Ouzel, 4 Fieldfares, 2 Stonechats and 20 Tree Sparrows at Boulderwall. From Screen hide loads of Lapwings, Golden Plovers and dabbling ducks on the islands, plus Great White and 2 Little Egrets. The pines produced a small flock of Long-tailed Tits and crests, while a stunning Short-eared Owl was flushed as we walked across the shingle at the back of the water tower.
Dengemarsh Gully - 1500hrs - Spent a productive 90 minutes doing the gully with the Joker in warm sunshine, where we ended up with an impressive tally of migrants including 20 Blackbirds, 20 Robins, 15 Song Thrushes, 5 Skylarks, 3 Black Redstarts, 2 Stonechats, 2 Mipits and singles of Fieldfare, Redpoll, Common Redstart and Northern Wheatear.
A quick scan from Springfield Bridge was noteworthy for 8 Little Grebes.