Short-eared Owls

Cool, dry and sunny, light airs - It`s been a mixed week of weather to say the least for our daily Ted walks around New Romney. A few more winter thrushes have been noted, mostly Fieldfares, and the flooded turf fields continue to attract hundreds of Black-headed, Common and Med Gulls along with a few Little Egrets, Grey Herons, Reed Buntings and Stonechats along the sewer margins. Yesterday afternoon, in a break in the rain, we walked Romney Salts looking for owls at the back of the airport, of which there was no sign, but Ted did flush a Lapland Bunting from the main track which conveniently called as it flew off; how many others were out in the stubble fields is anyone`s guess. While small numbers of Skylarks, Meadow Pipits, Blackbirds and Song Thrushes were noted along the way, the main bird bio-mass spectacle comprised flocks of over 1,000 Feral Pigeons, 500 Woodpigeons, 100 Stock Doves, 100 corvids and 500 gulls.  

                                 

                                 Ted and flooded Dungeness Desert

Visits to the bird reserve this week have yielded egrets everywhere with round 30 Cattle Egrets scattered amongst the sheep folds along the Lydd Road and opposite the golf club, and plenty of Little and Great White Egrets and the four Glossy Ibises, mostly in the heavily flooded Boulderwall fields. A guided walk on Tuesday for RSPB, in heavy rain, was pretty much a washout apart from an adult Little Gull and a very elusive Slavonian Grebe on Burrowes, where a Great Northern Diver also turned up later in the day and was still there today. A couple of visits to Dungeness to scan the sea were notable for further views of the adult Sabine`s Gull and a light passage of Brent Geese from the hide on Monday. A check of Scotney on Wednesday revealed the usual couple of thousand feral geese, Lapwings and Golden Plovers on the front sward. Late this afternoon we headed down to Littlestone golf links where at least three Short-eared Owls have taken up residence, with one showing reasonably well quartering the rough grassland just before sunset. 

Winter thrushes

New Romney - mild, overcast SE2 - Spent the weekend tramping the local farmland with Ted, north and south of the town. Yesterday the weather was superb with an early morning frost and sunshine throughout, while today it reverted to type, dull and drizzly. There was a subtle change to the birding scene as we slip into winter mode with far less overhead passage than of late, although there were some decent numbers of grounded Skylarks and Meadow Pipits about, particularly on the Salts yesterday. This morning I had my first winter thrushes of the season by Hope Lane bridge comprising a grand total of five Fieldfares and two Redwings. Several Stonechats were noted along the sewer margins, two Grey Wagtails over, a Sparrowhawk chasing Pied Wagtails in a paddock field and a couple of hedgerow Yellowhammers. The turf fields continue to attract hundreds of Black-headed, Common and Mediterranean Gulls, while Green and Great Spotted Woodpeckers were noted daily..

                                 Stonechat, Hope Lane

                                 Rook, Hope Lane

                                 Ted ratting

                                 Mediterranean Gull, NR

Red-breasted Mergansers

Dungeness - cool, cloudy, heavy rain, SW3 - For the third day running the winner was the rain with torrential downpours throughout the morning. En-route to the RSPB reserve I noted six Cattle and two Little Egrets in a field opposite Lydd golf club with another 20 odd Cattle and a Great White Egret in the flooded fields by Cockles Bridge. A guided walk for a U3A group from north Kent was a non-starter as nobody turned up, so I spent a couple of hours nipping between Dennis`s, the VC and Firth washout trying to keep dry and scanning Burrowes; the highlight was a pair of Red-breasted Mergansers (rare on the lakes here) that flew in and settled for about ten minutes before flying back out to sea. Three Goldeneyes, six Dunlins and an adult Little Gull were the only other birds of note, plus a count of 650 Teal. A scan from Hanson hide revealed all the islands under water and just the usual ducks, grebes and Coots.

                                   Wigeon, ARC

Arctic Tern

Dungeness - cool and cloudy, heavy showers, W3 - Following on from yesterdays deluge, this morning the rain was pretty much constant apart from a brief two hour window around midday when the sun poked through the clouds. Firstly we checked out Lade where a flock of 50 Wigeon was noteworthy, flying around the lake as though they`d just arrived. Moving onto the point and a late Swallow hurried out to sea off the lifeboat station. We walked the foreshore up to the fishing boats where the juvenile Arctic Tern was still present flying up and down the tideline along with a scattering of gulls, Cormorants and Great Crested Grebes on the water; but there was little else on the move apart from a few distant Gannets and auks. 

                                  Arctic Tern, Dungeness

                                 Ted on the turf

                                 Mediterranean Gull, Hope Lane, NR

                                 Common Gull, Hope Lane, NR

Ted has enjoyed his walks over the local turf field this week, running around and splashing in the pools of standing water like a school kid. On Tuesday in the sunshine there was around 500 gulls feeding on the field, mainly Common and Black-headed, plus a sprinkling of Mediterranean, Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls. 

Cattle Egrets

Dengemarsh - warm, dry and sunny, W 3 - Following on from last weeks deluge the past two days have been most pleasant with sunshine throughout; however, needless to say to get anywhere in the dry welly boots are the order of the day due to the extensive flooding across the Marsh. First thing this morning our Ted walk took in the circular route around the wetlands and adjacent farmland at Dengemarsh where all three species of egrets were noted along with several Marsh Harriers, Ravens and a light overhead passage of Skylarks, Meadow Pipits, Redpolls and Chaffinches. There was plenty of activity in the reedbeds from Bearded Tits, Reed Buntings, Cetti`s Warblers and Water Rails. The arable lands delivered more larks and buntings and three tardy Swallows by Manor Farm. A roadside scan of the flooded sward at Scotney revealed up to 1,000 feral geese, mostly Greylags, 30 Barnacles and a single Brent, plus several hundred Lapwings and Golden Plovers, two Redshanks and a Ruff. A sheep field opposite Cockle`s Bridge attracted 26 Cattle Egrets, which is the largest number I`ve seen down here, and the `regular` three Glossy Ibises had been joined by a fourth bird in the Boulderwall fields where three more Swallows were seen.

                                 Flooded hayfield 3

                                  Ted loves a puddle!

    Scotney sward

    Cattle Egrets, nr Cockles Bridge

 

    Two of the four Glossy Ibis, Boulderwall fields

Yesterday we walked the farmland out towards St Mary-in-the-Marsh where many of the fields were flooded, none more so than the turf field along Hope Lane, attracting up to a thousand gulls, mainly Black-headed and Common, as well as at least 100 Mediterranean Gulls. Common Buzzard and Sparrowhawk were also noted, plus two Swallows, a Chiffchaff and a Cetti`s Warbler.

                                 Flooded turf field, Hope Lane, NR

                                  Blizzard of gulls

                                 New Sewer

Petrels

Lade/Dungeness - Heavy rain showers, WSW 4 - The past couple of days our Ted walks have commenced at Littlestone, dipping in and out along the bay before ending up at Dungeness. All ten `regular` species of waders have been noted on the sands, although Knot and Ringed Plover took some finding; a count of 65 Turnstones at the Varne was of note yesterday. None of the storm-blown seabirds came into the bay as far as I could see, apart from an Arctic Skua today, although the visibility was dreadful due to the rain and spray over the sea. The highlight for me at the fishing boats yesterday afternoon was the westward gull passage with many Little Gulls and Kittiwakes just offshore; in all nine species were logged including hundreds of Common and Mediterranean Gulls, plus the juvenile Sabine`s Gull that has been present all week, periodically flying up and down the beach. This afternoon was spoilt by the lashing rain but I did manage to see 10 Little Gulls, three Arctic Skuas, a Bonxie and a Leach`s Petrel, plus a flyby Purple Sandpiper near the `dustbin`, courtesy of JTM. Although the petrel passage slowed up today, more were reported earlier this morning along with a few Sooty Shearwaters and a Long-tailed Skua.

                                 Little Gull off the fishing boats

                                 Arctic Skua off Dungeness

PS  - Petrel `wreck` - The pelagic fallout resulting from the recent Storm Ciaran has revealed some fascinating statistics (thanks to Martin C and David W for updating the various blogs). The main players have undoubtedly been the `wrecked` Storm and Leach`s Petrels (in unprecedented numbers for Dungeness) with 84 and 203 respectively on Thursday, nearly all heading east; followed by 44 and 57 respectively on Friday (and a few more today), mostly heading west as they re-orientated and returned to the open ocean to continue their southward migrations. Storm Petrels are thought to winter in the great Southern Ocean off South Africa, while Leach`s Petrels prefer the milder waters of the tropics, although some may winter in the north Atlantic. In contrast there was only one Grey Phalarope and two Sabine`s Gulls, and hardly any skuas and no shearwaters on the first two days, although it was good to see plenty of Little Gulls throughout as they`ve been few and far between this autumn. The wind direction on Thursday was SSW Force 10 and WSW Force 5 on Friday, which favoured `our side` of the Channel for seawatching in the shelter of the fishing boats etc, but not so on the opposite side at Cap-Griz-Nez where you have to scramble down a slippery, chalk cliff to the seawatch site! However, on Friday the locals made it down the cliffs and logged 24 Leach`s and 11 Storm Petrels, which begs the question as to how many more petrels passed through the Channel unseen during the storm in troughs and at night time; probably thousands, but we shall never know... Petrels are something of an avian enigma to most southern birders, turning up briefly after autumn storms and disappearing back to the ocean almost as quickly as they came - just how a bird the size of a sparrow can survive in one of the most hostile environments on Earth, the Southern Ocean, is a mystery to me, but in the words of Richard Dawkins that is, "the magic of reality". 

Storm Ciaran

Dungeness/Lade - mild, cloudy, W6 - Storm Ciaran barrelled up-Channel today with the strongest winds and heaviest of the rain this morning, especially around dawn; we waited for the worst of the weather to pass before venturing out on our Ted walk just before noon. A quick look at the bay on the incoming tide from the Tavern viewpoint revealed the Curlew and Oystercatcher flocks heading off to roost, while smaller numbers of Dunlin, Sanderling, Turnstone and Grey Plover lingered along the foreshore. Our next stop was the fishing boats where a big sea was running causing some large waves to break over the beach in spectacular fashion, ripping and rolling huge quantities of shingle towards the `dustbin` in front of the lifeboat station in a fearful din. 

                                 Dungeness beach

                                 Seawatching from the boats

                                 Storm clouds gathering over the Channel 

In the lee of a fishing boat we joined the regular seawatcher`s where an unprecedented (yet not entirely unexpected given the storm strength) passage of petrels was underway. While the majority were Leach`s Petrels there was also a few Stormies in the mix, a very rare bird in this part of the Channel. During my 90 minutes on site two Storm and 12 Leach`s passed east, mostly a good way out but several close enough to be viewed through binoculars. Hundreds of Gannets streamed west along with a few Brent Geese, several flocks of 30 each of Dunlins and a few Sanderlings, two Red-breasted Mergansers and an Arctic Tern offshore. Also noted before I arrived, a Grey Phalarope and the Sabine`s Gull from earlier this week (for full details of today`s seabird count see the Trektellen website later). Afterwards we checked the bay from the Lade boardwalk to see if any of the petrels had lingered, of which there was no sign, although a Merlin showed well over the beach.

      Lade Bay looking towards Dungeness

                                  Ted at Lade 

    White horses, Lade Bay