Warm, dry and sunny, light airs -A cracking day of weather for a trip across the Marsh with Clare and Peter where our first stop was a field near Hamstreet, logging 30 Yellowhammers and 10 Tree Sparrows, plus several Reed Buntings, Goldfinches, Skylarks and Chaffinches. In a field off Clubbs Lane 53 Bewick`s Swans showed well, as opposed to five distant Whooper Swans below the Hook Wall. Elsewhere across Walland Marsh we noted 100 Fieldfares, a Great Spotted Woodpecker, a Sparrowhawk, 10 Kestrels, 20 Common Buzzards (one feasting on a dead Mallard), 20 Teals, 10 Wigeons and several mixed flocks of Common and Black-headed Gulls. Passerines were hard to come by, which is hardly surprising as wherever you go the `custodians of the countryside` are cutting, hacking back and chopping down any vestige of tree, bush or cover.
Moving onto Scotney, where we paused en-route to admire a sunbathing Little Owl, a species that has also suffered from habitat loss over the past decade and is nowhere near as common as before Brexit. The front sward was smothered in several thousand Lapwings and Golden Plovers, making for a fabulous spectacle when they nervously flew around, swirling overhead calling incessantly. Several Redshanks, Ruffs, Curlews and a Green Sandpiper were also present along with a few feral geese and hundreds of common ducks and Coots.
On the bird reserve two Great Northern and a Black-throated Diver remained on Burrowes along with six Goldeneyes and flock of 30 Barnacle Geese at the back of Boulderwall fields; while Cockles Bridge paddock yielded five Cattle Egrets. A seawatch from the fishing boats produced a few Guillemots and Red-throated Divers tooing and froing but little else, and a party of 20 Sanderlings flew along the beach. We finished the day at Hanson hide where several Marsh Harriers and Great White Egrets flew over prior to roosting. A fine days birding in great company and a respectable 79 species noted.
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