SOUND &VISION,LIFE&DEATH IN THE AFTERNOON

After clearing the frost from the windscreen I arrived at Samphire Hoe just as the sun was coming up over France,with the sheep fed I walked along the back track by the railway to Woody Gully where a song thrush was in full song in the warming sunshine,

SONG THRUSH IN FULL VOICE,can you hear him?

This BLACKBIRD was only half hearted in his song.
Meanwhile

The LITTLE OWL slept through all  the noise.
After lunch with lifebelts checked my attention was drawn to a now familiar sound : the kronk of a raven right over head at the Dover end of the sea wall.

RAVEN CALLING TO
ITS MATE
There followed a fine aerial ballet as the birds circled around

The distinctive wedge shaped tail can be seen here,then the resident peregrine falcons decided they didn`t much like the new noisy neighbours and tried to run them out of town,A long spectacular dogfight ensued over Shakespear Cliff

The action was taking place at quite a distance and was enthralling in the binoculars so this is the only photo of the two together,there was no winner and no blows were struck,can`t wait to see how things pan out.

One sad note was the demise of one of the many RAZORBILLS that have been around recently.....

Thats all folks,see you soon.

NORFOLK N CHANCE

Friday was big twitch day,kindly invited by Martin Collins to see western sandpiper and lesser white fronted goose in faraway Norfolk,joined by Les Collins and Malcom Mcvail we set off at 6am and got to Buckenham Marshes at about 9.30.By midday we had found egyptian geese,canada geese,barnacle geese,white fronted geese,pink footed geese,bean geese and greylag geese,guess what the lesser w.f goose remained hidden until we had left the scene,well it was friday the 13th.Never mind the western sandpiper had been seen at Cley that morning,guess what it went to ground and stayed hidden all afternoon or was taken by a merlin as we arrived? who knows.

WIGEON AT BUCKENHAM

BRENT GOOSE AT CLEY

PINTAIL WIZARD

GOLDEN PLOVERS

As we drove away from Cley a barn owl was hunting in a field beside the road,a good way to end a day of dipping,serves you right for twitching do I hear?

AROUND AND ABOUT

The last week has been a bit of a whirl  with two funerals, a trip to Norfolk, and a whizz round locally.
The little owl is still at the Hoe.....

LITTLE OWL

PIED WAGTAIL

GREAT SPOT AT LARKEY VALLEY WOODS.
There were also a full set of tits here and bullfinch but no sign of hawfinch.

A sunset lit CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL from Larkey Valley

RUFF ROUND THE EDGES

Friday found four of us at Dungeness for the day with the sole intent of boosting the year list; messrs Wells, Woolhouse ,Mcvail, and myself went first to the fishing boats for the glaucous gull which was found easily enough the caspian gull was not.The ARC pits  had drake smew and goldeneye to drool over and a couple of chiffs on the willow trail were a bonus kingfisher and tree sparrow were good too.The long tailed duck was on the RSPB reserve and two great egrets were quite active.From here it was Scotney and finallyWalland marsh for the Bewick swans and the harrier roost with a Merlin for good measure..A very good days birding with lots of sunshine and about 70 species seen.

KINGFISHER ARC PITS

LONG TAILED DUCK

LONG TAILED DUCK IN A FLAP

LONG TAILED DUCK

GREAT WHITE EGRET

TWO OF THE 33 BEWICKS SAWNS ON WALLAND MARSH.
Apologies for the poor quality pics but nothing came close today.

Today Monday it was the turn of Oare to add to the list; I want to get to a 100 before going to India,I was picked up at 8 by Charlie Stokes and arrived about half an hour later. The light was dismal but there were plenty of ducks and waders on view,and a single greenshank from the west hide had the honour of bringing up my century,got there before Sachin Tendulkar(lol).After lunch there was time for a quick visit to Stodmarsh and a sticky walk to the marsh hide was rewarded with water rail, snipe,ruff  water pipit and redshank .

RUFF

WATER RAIL

WATER RAIL

REDSHANK

RUFF No 2 from the Marsh hide
There was no sign of the Glossy Ibis presumably disturbed by the ground works that have taken place recently,which should pay dividends in the spring.

WET WILD AND WINDY

2012 started on a dull overcast note then got wet wild and windy through the first few days.As new years eve had taken on a gallon of beer I unlike the england scrum half walked. Starting from home my walk took in Bushy Ruff,a sad sight indeed with just a couple of puddles left,hopefully the recent rains will fill the aquifers and set the springs running again soon,Kearsney Abbey where thankfully there is still a reasonable flow,here I found KINGFISHER,LITTLE GREBE,TREECREEPER,GOLDCREST,GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER,REDWING and GREY WAGTAIL,moving on through the village of River following the Dour I found GREY HERON and WATER RAIL.In the town centre a LITTLE EGRET was perched in a conifer in the steadily falling drizzle ,it was decision time to go to the pier or call it a day?Iwent to the pier getting absolutely drenched in the process,there were still thirty or so GANNETS feeding in the harbour entrance and RAZORBILL AND GUILLEMOT numbers were increasing, I was not the only mad person as two other birders from London were perched in the lee of the cafe,luckily for me they offered me a lift home which was gratefully accepted ,if you read this thankyou once again.Sorry there are no pics but as it was so dull I didn`t even take the camera out.
However here are some taken yesterday wed 4th I think.

Juv KITTIWAKE walking on water.

Adult KITTIWAKE sinking in the water.

RAZORBILL

Razorbills are outnumbering guillemots about 4:1 which is amazing for Dover Harbour where you are lucky to see a couple a year,it is also a very unusual event to have gannets feeding inside the walls of the harbour,I can only assume that large sprat and /or herring shoals are present.

GUILLEMOT.
Yesterday also provided a rare bird in the form of a GREEN WINGED TEAL at Sandwich Bay

GREEN WINGED TEAL a visitor from America,very similar to our teal but with a vertical white stripe on the breast not horizontal on the wing.

American on the left Eurasian on the right.

CURLEWS on Rest Harrow Scrape.