Hen Harrier

Cold, dry and sunny, NE 3 - A check of the front fields at Scotney this morning revealed at least 13 Little Gulls feeding on the far side of the main lake at the Sussex end along with several Black-headed Gulls and hundreds of common dabbling and diving ducks, including 12 Shelducks, with more ducks and geese on the lesser waters. The sward was packed out with feral geese, Wigeons, Golden Plovers, Lapwings and Starlings with thousands more swirling over the farmland towards the wind farm, plus Redshank, Curlew and Green Sandpiper. A scan of the Army ranges delivered a ringtail Hen Harrier, presumably the bird that has been present across the peninsula for a week or more. Around the bird reserve the Green-winged Teal was still on Burrowes, while the usual assortment of egrets and Glossy Ibis could be seen in the paddocks and Boulderwall fields from the Lydd Road. There was a noticeable increase in Lapwing and Golden Plover numbers today, particularly around Dengemarsh and the islands on ARC, having probably moved here from the continent as colder weather is forecast next week. Everywhere I went today birds of prey were present; as a conservative estimate I must`ve seen 15 Buzzards, 10 Marsh Harriers, eight Kestrels, a Hen Harrier and a Peregrine. Buzzard numbers are now so high that they`ve moved onto the coastal wetlands where they compete with the harriers for food. It will be interesting to see how these two apex predators realign as I`ve seen many encounters between the two raptors recently, mostly with the stronger Buzzard coming out on top.