ON GOLDEN POND

The last day of January was a good one weatherwise and I spent the afternoon at Reculver and Oare.
There were lots of brent geese at both sites and at the former a flock of 75 golden plover were performing an aerial display over the arable fields.The trio of shore larks were found near Coldharbour but were very flighty.

BRENT GEESE AT RECULVER

At Oare the light was superb good numbers of teal,shoveller,wigeon and pintail mingled with lapwing, golden and grey plovers,snipe black tailed godwit and at least 5 ruff ,which I think are very early arrivals,on the east flood.

TEAL

LAPWING

On the seaward side of the of the wall the tide was way out providing ample space for redshank,dunlin,curlew and avocet to feed on the muddy foreshore.
More brent geese and shelduck were on the Swale.

As the sun lowered in the west a barn owl appeared and began quartering the fringes of the east flood giving good close views on several occasions.

BARN OWL AT OARE

The sun was setting now and several pairs of mute swans were starting to perform courtship rituals on the water and a shoveller was silhouetted on the golden west flood.

MUTE SWANS COURTSHIP DISPLAY

SHOVELLER ON GOLDEN POND

P C BEHAVIOUR

LITTLE GULL

SHAG 

SCAUP

SEAL AND EEL

GREY HERON             No I dont mean Andy Gray! my pc went bang on new years day,but now I am back on line and there`s a bit of catching up to do.For various reasons most of my birding has been done locally so far  this year,with just a brief rain sodden trip to Dungeness with Paul Holt, and a quick trip up to Denge wood to see the hawfinches being my only away days, apart from the FA Cup trip to Huddersfield.What  a nice friendly town that was and with good real ale pubs at reasonable prices.New years day, the scaup and shag were still present and are still there now , a little gull in the harbour was a rare sight ,it took me until november last year to see a guillemot,there was one in the harbour today unfortunately oiled.There have been up to a dozen chiff chaffs along the river from Kearsney Abbey to the centre of town and I have seen four separate blackcaps in the town too,must make Dover a warbler hotspot..My son phoned me in the afternoon saying there was an odd looking bird in a tree down by the river,so I thought I`d better check it out, it was a grey heron but you never know,as you can see it was a very well presented with a fine plumage.The common seal was still in the harbour and was seen doing battle with an eel which was eventually despatched.The only bright spot on a cold wet grey day at Dungeness was the sight of a bittern preening in a willow tree outside the Hanson hide at the ARC pits

, it was fitted with a BTO ring and Bob Gomes thought it was probably ringed at Minsmere.

BITTERN AT DUNGENESS

Hawfinches were next on the agenda and once you go to the right parking spot they are easy to find,sitting atop in the conifers.

HAWFINCHES AT DENGE WOOD

JUV KITTIWAKE DOVER HARBOUR

RAZORBILL DOVER HARBOUR

YOUNG COMMON SEAL HAULED UP ON THE OLD HOVERPAD

IF ANYONE HAS NOT SEEN IT YET THE SCAUP IS STILL IN THE WELLINGTON DOCK

2ND WINTER GREAT BLACK BACKED GULL P.O.W.PIER DOVER.

So that just about brings me up to date,lets hope the weather gets a bit better soon Im fed up with grey murk.Oh I nearly forgot to those of you I haven`t seen HAPPY NEW YEAR.