Red Kite passage

Lade - Lockdown Day 47 - warm, dry and sunny, ne 2 - A decent catch this morning with 33 macros of eight species in the garden trap, including Cinnabar and White Ermine new for the year.

                                White Ermine and Cinnabar

  Our early morning circuit of the local patch delivered an increase in Common Sandpipers to four around the margins of south lake where they struggled to find somewhere to land due to the high water levels. A check of the bay at high tide for seabirds drew a blank, but there was plenty of activity again by the emergency services dealing with incoming human migrants, including the Dover and Dungeness lifeboats.

                               Confiding Carrion Crow on the Desert

         

                                Dover and Dungeness lifeboats in the bay

  This morning there was a notable movement of Red Kites across the peninsula with upwards of 25 birds reported by midday from local birders, plus a Black Kite (MC et al). I saw four birds from the end of Hull Road soaring over the airport, while several more were reported from Greatstone and Romney Marsh, but always drifting inland; indeed, Chris P at hinterland St Mary-in-the-Marsh, during a 1045 -1145 sky-watch from his garden reported an astonishing, 18 Red Kites, 12 Common Buzzards, four Kestrels, two Sparrowhawks and a Black Kite! 
  The general consensus on the Red Kite movement is that they are probably migrants en-route to Scandinavian breeding grounds having drifted across the Channel. Some appear to be in wing-moult, so are probably non-breeding immatures.