Calm before the storm

Lade - mild, dry, sunny, light airs - A superb morning with a spectacular sunrise over the bay and little wind, perfect conditions for birding. On the local pits several Great Crested Grebes had moved in to establish breeding territories and begin pair bonding with much head shaking and bill rubbing, while five Goldeneyes were on the lakes and several Chiffchaffs around the ponds.
  We then walked Mockmill flushing two Snipe and six Meadow Pipits before flogging out back of the `mirrors` and north lake where a singing Skylark was a first for the year. Also noted a few more Mipits, Linnets, two Stonechats, four Corn Buntings, Kestrel and Buzzard, but little else.
 Given the weather the bird reserve was predictably busy with birdwatchers enjoying some field time before Storm Dennis rushes in at the weekend. The elusive drake Smew was playing hide and seek on Tanner`s Pool beside the usual crowd of feral geese, Wigeons, Curlews, Golden Plovers and Lapwings on Boulderwall fields. Elsewhere around the reserve it was the same winter fare.
  There were no reports of any wild swans on Walland Marsh today, although the five Long-tailed Ducks were noted on the western pit outback of Scotney (PB).

                               Sunrise over Lade bay

Goldeneyes

Dungeness - cold, sunny, w3 - A guided walk for eight guests this morning centred on Burrowes where we had particularly good views of several Chiffchaffs by the Dipping Pond and in front of Firth hide and a male Marsh Harrier from Dunnis`s hide. All the usual gulls, Cormorants and ducks were noted including five Goldeneyes, five Wigeons and a pair of Pintail, plus 12 Black-tailed Godwits from Makepeace hide and three Great White Egrets at the back of New Excavations. The Boulderwall fields held good numbers of Lapwings, Golden Plovers and Wigeons, while the drake Smew was reported from Tanner`s pool late morning.
  The beach continues to attract many thousands of gulls to feed on the bivalve molluscs from Lade around to Dungeness where the 2nd year Iceland Gull was seen coming and going this afternoon (PB).

Feeding frenzy

Lade  - cold, sunny, w 5 - The aftermath of Storm Ciara continues to dominate our weather down here on the south coast with another day of rasping westerly winds blowing up-Channel. With negative news on yesterdays Iceland Gull from Dungeness I decided to check the beach this afternoon on a falling spring tide with a heavy sea pounding away out in the bay.
  Its not often that I`m overwhelmed by nature on my local patch, but today was certainly one such occasion as a combination of a high tide and wave action had washed up gargantuan numbers of  bivalve molluscs (mostly clams or scallops) along the sandy foreshore below the shingle bank. Looking north towards Greatstone and back south to Dungeness the shoreline was covered; there must have been literally millions of them, and countless more in the slack water which, unsurprisingly, had attracted thousands of gulls (probably c5,000) to feast on the easy pickings. The majority were Herring, Black-headed, Common and Great Black-backed with lesser numbers of Lesser Blacks, Mediterranean and a few Kittiwakes. Even the Carrion Crows were getting in on the act!
  I didn't manage to locate the Iceland Gull, but it mattered not a jot as the spectacle of all this activity was a wonder in itself.

                                Bivalve feeding frenzy, Lade bay

Red Kites

Speen - We`re just back from having spent the weekend with friends in the Chilterns, at the village of Speen near Princes Risborough to be precise. The weather was sunny and dry on Saturday, but dreadful on Sunday as named Storm Ciara rampaged across the country delivering heavy rain squalls and wind gusts of 70mph; we almost got clobbered by a lamp column that came down on the M20 yesterday afternoon on the way home!
 However, walking around the village before the storm on Saturday morning and driving across to Tring museum in the afternoon to visit the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition, Red Kites were in view everywhere. In Speen I counted 23 birds soaring over the village gardens waiting for scraps to be put out by the residents, while a field near Wendover attracted six kites following a tractor and plough along with a hundred Black-headed gulls. More kites were seen from the roads and over Tring during the day, plus a kettle of 20 or more over Princes Risborough.

  As a native of the Chilterns and living in Dunstable at the time I well remember the Red Kite reintroduction programme when 93 birds were released between 1989 and 1994 on the rolling downland around Christmas Common. The majority of kites came from Spanish stock (with the remainder from Sweden and Wales) and were taken as nestlings, flown to England and after a 35 day quarantine period released into aviaries where they were cared for with minimal human contact.
  The first successful breeding of Red Kites on the Chilterns soon followed in 1994 and I remember writing an article at the time on the subject for Birdwatching magazine, having spent a day at the release site with Steve Carter who headed up the project. Today the Red Kite is a common sight across the Chilterns and Thames Valley with several hundred breeding pairs, but I don't think that back then anyone could have predicted how successful this reintroduction programme would have been.

Dungeness - cold, sunny, W 4 - A trip down the point this morning was a predictably quiet affair with a big sea running and not much on view, although OL had a Bonxie and Velvet Scoter through earlier. Due to the severe weather the interior of the seawatch hide had been temporarily shored up with two Acrows to prevent it disappearing into the power station car park!
  This afternoon the wind continued to increase to near gale force as an immature Iceland Gull was found at the fishing boats amongst hundreds of gulls.

 

Water Pipit

Dungeness - warm, dry and sunny, light airs - Once the early morning frost had melted it turned into a fine spring-like day with warm sunshine bringing forth legions of flying insects in the still air. Spent some time scanning the wet fields and pools at Boulderwall, that paid dividends with scope views of a highly mobile Water Pipit on the edge of Tanner`s pool alongside three Meadow Pipits. Several Cetti`s Warbler were in song and a party of Bearded Tits called from the reedbed in Cook`s Pool.  At least four Great White and two Little Egrets were on the wetlands, plus 500 Golden Plovers, 500 Lapwings, 35 Curlews, 200 Wigeons, 200 Starlings, 20 Stock Doves, two Snipe, two Black-tailed Godwits and various Coot, Teal, Wigeon, Gadwall and Tufted Duck. Raptors included three Marsh Harriers, two Buzzards and a Kestrel, while the drake Smew had relocated to Burrowes.
  On Walland Marsh 41 Bewick`s and two Whooper Swans at Midley and all five Long-tailed Ducks were confirmed on the back lakes at Scotney (OL).  A check of the bay from Littlestone revealed 12 Redshanks and 14 Ringed Plovers amongst hundreds of Dunlin, Sanderling, Curlew, Knot and Oystercatcher.  There was no change to the wildfowl on Lade pits from yesterday.

                                Egrets on Boulderwall fields

Purple Sandpipers

Lade - mild, dry, cloudy, light airs - A spring-like morning on the local patch with plenty of resident species in song. Around the ponds three each of Chiffchaff and Cetti`s Warbler, plus five Goldeneyes on the lakes and two Marsh Harriers over.

                                Goldeneye, Lade north

  This afternoon en-route to Folkestone on the school pick-up run we called in at Hythe seafront where two Purple Sandpipers were on the sea defence blocks opposite the Hythe Imperial hotel. As the tide was out the Velcro birds were constantly picking over the jumble of exposed, weed-covered rocks in their constant quest for food before the incoming tide.
  Whilst there a lady sea swimmer was partaking in her daily dip!

                                Purple Sandpipers, Hythe

                                Distant Dungeness

Scrub-bashing

Lade - mild, sunny, nw 3 - The past few days have been much of a muchness across the local patch and around Dungeness. The wintering Smew on Dengemarsh/Boulderwall pools is still present along with a highly mobile Water Pipit, plus  40 Bewick`s and two Whooper Swans on Walland Marsh at Midley, while at least two Long-tailed Ducks are at Scotney, often on the back lakes. Plenty of feral geese, Golden Plovers, Lapwings,  Curlews and Wigeon are also at Scotney and the fields at Boulderwall.
  I noticed down at the point this morning that where the diggers had been shifting shingle from in front of the seawall more of the old mooring quay has been exposed. On A station a Peregrine and Kestrel were perched on the sheltered east facing structure enjoying the sun

  Winter is the season for cutting back invasive willow scrub and across the Dungeness NNR operations are underway to control this fast growing plant before it takes over. On the bird reserve extensive areas have recently been cleared beside New Excavations and the ARC. Today, volunteers cut out some of the scrub-chocking growth from Lade ponds, a job well done.