Mild, showery, SW 3 - This past week out and about around the local patch hasn`t produced much out of the ordinary, considering the time of year. Having said that circuits of the bird reserve have yielded all the usual suspects such as Cattle and Great White Egrets, two Glossy Ibis (ARC and Boulderwall), a Long-tailed Duck on ARC, though elusive at times, Kingfishers, Merlin, Great Spotted Woodpeckers, up to five Little Stints from Hanson hide along with Ruff, Snipe, Golden Plover and Dunlin. Chiffchaffs continue to be numerous at Lade ponds, while plenty of Stonechats, Kestrels and Swallows are still trickling through. Gulls are plentiful on the lakes and if ring numbers and the Caspo/Yellow/Herring tribe are your bag then you`ll be in heaven! A Dartford Warbler was in the triangle on Friday with others noted at Lade and by the train station at Dungeness. Visits to Scotney front fields and pits yielded small numbers of Ruff, Green Sandpiper and Redshank amongst the hoards of Goldies and Lapwings, Wigeons and feral geese. Closer to home the only noteworthy from my farmland walks has been a single Snipe flushed from the Hope Lane loop and a meagre overhead passage of Skylarks and Meadow Pipits. On Saturday morning a large skein of high-flying geese `yapping` away over the town, that I only saw for an instant, and heading south were probably Pink-feet. The garden bird bath has been popular with Chiffchaffs, while the best of the autumn moths from the trap has been a Vestal.
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This morning a circular walk around Lade pits delivered eight Great White and 11 Little Egrets, ten Swallows and four Sand Martins. Today was the first of the winter season harrier roost counts where I joined Chris P at our usual site on Walland Marsh in a fine drizzle. Twelve Marsh Harriers eventually came to roost and we had good views of a Barn Owl, but little else.
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