Lade - warm, dry and sunny, SW 2 - A thorough search around the willow swamp first thing delivered a juvenile Cuckoo on the edge of the main reed bed (hopefully one that was reared here) where plenty of Reed and Sedge Warblers were also chattering away. Juvenile Green and Great Spotted Woodpeckers were noted along with a trickle of Sand Martins and two Swifts south. Both Little and Great Crested Grebes have had a good breeding season locally with youngsters in tow across both waters. Ten Mediterranean Gulls landed on north lake with many more heading inland having been forced off the bay on the flood tide, probably to feed on ploughing operations. A check of the bay around noon on the ebb tide revealed the Little Stint still present, plus three Blackwits and the usual Dunlins, Oystercatchers and Curlews.
A mid-morning tour of the bird reserve produced the usual egrets, harriers, wildfowl and grebes, plus a Glossy Ibis and two Black-necked Grebes on ARC; five Wigeon on Tower Pits and a Golden Plover with 100 Lapwings on Burrowes, from where an Osprey was reported earlier; and ten Yellow Wagtails by Springfield Bridge and a Raven over.
This afternoon on the way home from Bethesden we crossed the Marsh farmland and I was staggered at the amount of land that not only had been harvested but already tilled and drilled for next years crop; little wonder then that the countryside is so devoid of wildlife. Worst of all are the heavily treated turf fields which seemed to have proliferated between Ivychurch and new Romney.
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