Wednesday 5 January 2022

Winter wildfowl

Cold, dry and sunny, wnw 3 - In contrast to the warmth of NYD a northerly airflow moved in yesterday making it feel much more like winter with a frost last night and welcome sunshine today. This afternoon  a drive across Walland Marsh yielded few passerines but several large flocks of Common and Black-headed Gulls, corvids and Woodpigeons. Just as I was about to give up a herd of 21 Bewick`s and two Whooper Swans in a wet field at the junction of Dennes and Caldecote Lanes saved the day. The usual six Cattle Egrets were in the paddock along Lydd Road while one of the `resident` Glossy Ibises flew over Cook`s Pool. Burrowes was largely uninspiring until dusk when a large flock of grey geese noisily flew in from Dengemarsh containing at least 20 White-fronts amongst a multitude of Greylags, and quite the spectacle it was too in the dying embers of the day.

                                 Winter swans, Walland Marsh

                                 Grey geese over Burrowes

Otherwise this week I`ve been mostly trudging the farmland wastes around New Romney seeing not-very-much birdlife. Three Tree Sparrows, a few Skylarks and a Mediterranean Gull was the best I could muster around the Church Lane dung heap on Monday, plus Green Woodpecker, eight Moorhens and a Grey Wagtail by the surgery field and ditch. Long-tailed Tits on the garden feeders and a pair of Raven over `cronking` loudly were noteworthy this morning.

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