Lade - cool and cloudy, SW5 - It`s been a while since we visited the local patch where this morning a brisk wind blowing up-Channel made for difficult viewing, whipping up small white horses on south lake where c200 Sand Martins were feeding en-route to southern climes, along with a party of Swifts. My first lemon-coloured Willow Warbler of the return passage was noted in the shelter of the ponds, confirming that autumn migration was definitely underway for these two long distance travellers. Elsewhere across the wetlands it was the usual range of eclipse Pochards and Tufted Ducks, breeding Coots, Mallards, Great Crested and Little Grebes and a couple of Little Egrets. A check of Kerton Road quarry revealed a flock of 150 Black-headed Gulls, two Sandwich Terns, several Oystercatchers and a selection of immature gulls.
In past blog posts I`ve mentioned the paucity of birdlife utilising the many acres of grass fields around New Romney, mainly due to intensive management in order to keep the turf weed and worm-caste free. That said about now things do start to liven up somewhat. For example, yesterday morning one such field had about 20 Swallows skimming over the grass picking off insects, five Mistle Thrushes and a Green Woodpecker hopping about probing for invertebrates and a mixed flock of 50 Mediterranean and 20 Black-headed Gulls preening and loafing in the middle. I`ve yet to see a wader of any description using these fields, but I`m ever hopeful... Also on a local theme, a female Dabchick has somehow successfully reared two chicks to near fledging stage on a small flood relief pond beside Church Lane. I say, "somehow", as we (Chris P and I) have yet to see a pair of adult birds, and it`s a mystery how such a small body of water no more than two years old has produced enough food to sustain a family of grebes, such are the wonders of the natural world.
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