A WINTERS TALE

At last a few things to talk about- Bullfinch in the garden,Smew,Bittern and Kingfisher at Dungeness,Black Redstart in Langdon Hole,but the list is definitely  not endless:-

 GREAT TIT looking for spiders.

 Two Bewick Swans flew in to the new RSPB pools at Willow Farm last Thursday afternoon.

 TEAL AT REST AT RESTHARROW SCRAPE

 TEAL NO LONGER AT REST AT RESTHARROW SCRAPE

 BULLFINCH AT PYROCANTHA BERRIES IN MY GARDEN

 taken through my bathroom window-note to self- must clean windows

 EXMOOR PONIES are back in LANGDON HOLE.

A DIFFERENT VIEW OF FIRECREST at SOUTH FORELAND VALLEY

KINGFISHER KEARSNEY ABBEY-note the red underside to the bill indicating that this is a female bird.

 POCHARD -DUNGENESS Look at that red eye.

 FEMALE SMEW- aka REDHEAD.

 MALE SMEW a stunnigly beautiful bird.

 
 The SMEW is a winter visitor from the far north of Europe and Russia where it breeds.

THIS MALE SMEW HAS ABOUT 10 FEMALES IN HIS HAREM.........

 KINGFISHER ARC PITS  DUNGENESS-all black bill=male.

 TUFTED DUCK

 BITTERN at the ARC PITS sky pointing-distant but a good sightnevertheless.

 DRAKE GOLDENEYE displaying.

 WATER RAIL at Stodmarsh.

 SONG THRUSH inLANGDON HOLE

BLACK REDSTART also in LANGDON HOLE yesterday morning.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

My years birding started with my now annual walk from home to the harbour following the river as closely as possible,a bit like" Walking the Nile"without the crocodiles.A reasonable 43 species were seen notably kingfisher,firecrest,goldcrest,chiff chaff,grey wagtail and little egret.The harbour is still very quiet no auks,no divers,no rare gulls, and just the odd great crested grebe,a single purple sandpiper is seen occasionally on the hoverpad and a few turnstones.
The highlight so far is definitely the LESSER YELLOWLEGS,(try saying that on a friday night) on the Pett Levels ,Winchelsea Beach,my first attempt ended in failure but yesterday after the deluge eased I tried again and was in luck.

                                                   LITTLE EGRET -RIVER DOUR

                                             GREY WAGTAIL- PENCESTER GARDENS

     A FIERY END TO A GREY TUESDAY AT SAMPHIRE HOE

Having heard through the grapevine that Oare was open for business again,i paid a quick morning visit on wednesday:-

                                REDSHANK IN THE OOZE

                                DUNLIN

                                 SNIPE" AVIN A BARF"

PINTAILS ARE PRESENT IN GOOD NUMBERS AT OARE.
After the deluge cleared on Thursday I set off for Pett Levels--

 LESSER YELLOWLEGS -The American wader very similar to our own redshank.

LESSER YELLOWLEGS - showed well in the roadside pools.

TAKE THAT  PECK YOU ON THE HEAD

 OH BLIMEY I,VE TAKEN IS EAD ORF

 NOT REALLY

 CURLEW

 BEST BUDDIES REALLY.

CURLEW AND LAPWING -
From here I checked out the Cattle egrets and the Great White egrets.

 CATTLE EGRET

GREAT WHITE EGRET.

Between my last post and the new year a couple of things to update...

44871 &45407 THE LANCASHIRE FUSILIERS STEAMING THROUGH SAMPHIRE HOE.

GOLDFINCHES ON TEAZLE AT THE HOE

 TEAL & SHOVELLER AT REST HARROW SCRAPE.

Thats all for now at 1145pm on 9th january a bit worse for wear Timothy Taylor has a lot to answer for.