Brent Geese

Lade - mild, overcast, showery - The weekend weather saw fast moving Atlantic fronts sweeping up-Channel delivering strong to gale force winds and a low scudding cloud base loaded with rain. A circuit of the local patch on Saturday morning was not a pleasant experience, despite a brief spell of sunshine, due to the buffeting wind but it did cause four Brent Geese to pause awhile on north lake, a rare sight here considering how many pass by out on the bay.

                                Brent Geese, Lade north

  Today it was less windy and largely dry. We did a sweep around the peninsula in preparation for a Birdwatching Break next week, commencing at Dungeness where the annual Dab fishing competition was just about to get underway. From the seawatch and Patch hides all the usual gulls in their hundreds, including plenty of Kittiwakes, plus Guillemots, Razorbills, Cormorants, Gannets and Red-throated Divers on the sea.

                                Ready, steady - fish!


  On the bird reserve the drake Smew was on Burrowes viewable from Makepeace hide along with four Goldeneyes and hundreds of Lapwings, Cormorants and gulls on the islands. Elsewhere: 10 Ruff, 30 Curlew and a Great White Egret at Boulderwall; a Tree Sparrow on the feeders and four Cattle Egrets from the Lydd Road opposite the stables. From Cockles Bridge, two Whooper Swans, plus a pair of Goosanders on Bretts pit from the range road and 34 Bewick`s Swans still in the distant field at Horses Bones Farm, Lydd.

                                Goosanders and Bewick`s Swans, Lydd