Lade - cold, wintery showers, NE 4 - Over the weekend there was a perceptible change in the weather as the wind swung away from the mild south-west, through north, to a cold, easterly airflow delivering flurries of hail and snow throughout the day as the temperature hovered just above freezing. This morning a raw-bone easterly wind had forced the wildfowl to forsake their usual loafing area over by the far mirror reedbed and seek shelter closer to the main track and around the willow swamp. I was hoping for something different amongst the ducks but it turned out to be a similar picture to last Friday, without the Black-necked Grebe, although it could still easily be lurking in a secluded reedbed. A Goldcrest by the ponds and a flushed Song Thrush were the only passerines of note. We then had a wander around Dengemarsh seeing very little apart from a few feral geese and Lapwings on the Boulderwalls fields and the usual wildfowl, harriers and egrets across the wetlands. At one stage we copped a blizzard which didn`t seem to bother Ted one bit, being fully equipped for the cold in his thick, Carpathian sheep dog coat. The two Great Northern and a Black-throated Diver remained on Burrowes along with several Goldeneyes.
Elsewhere, reported locally over the weekend were: a Dotterel in the Golden Plover flock at Scotney sward, a dozen or so Cattle Egrets on the dung heap at the entrance to the airport road, Bewick`s and Whooper Swans from the Midley wall and a roving ringtail Hen Harrier across the Marsh. Our weekend Ted walk`s around New Romney delivered little of note apart from a Kingfisher flying along a flooded ditch off Hope Lane and a Sparrowhawk trying its luck in the garden.
I`m not one to make any New Year Resolutions but something I have done is to row back on the socials of late and as a result I`ve kicked X (formerly Twitter) firmly into touch. Originally I joined it, like many birders I guess, for the latest bird news. However, as I`m now not that bothered what`s immediately occurring elsewhere, and we have a very good local Whatsapp group (thanks for setting that up Martin), X has become largely redundant for me. It also means that I don`t have to read endless self congratulatory re-tweets from twitchers, as well as other garbage that seems to have become more prevalent on this forum. Happy days ahead!
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