New Romney - warm, cloudy, WSW 5 - We met up with Chris P this morning for a wander around the farmland tracts, in an increasingly strong wind out of the west making for difficult birding in the open landscape. However, birds were on the move with a Willow Warbler calling from scrub by the old farm and a steady trickle of Sand Martins low over the corn fields, along with plenty of Swallows and a few House Martins. Yellow Wagtails were more evident than of late with at least ten birds, mostly around a pea field and flying over, while a female Wheatear feeding along a field margin was a real surprise and an obvious migrant. Also noted: three Buzzards, two Dabchicks and a few Skylarks, Linnets, Reed Warblers and Reed Buntings, and then from the New Cut we noticed a huge flock of white-winged gulls flying over a turf field along Hope Lane. As Chris had counted 80 Mediterranean Gulls overhead just before I met him we went to investigate the flock, and sure enough it comprised almost entirely of Med Gulls. We estimated about 1,100 birds, but I took a series of photographs, blew them up on the computer when I got home, counted through twice and arrived at a total of 1,050 - making us about 50 out! And certainly the largest flock I`ve seen on a field in this country.
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