Sunday 28th February 2010
East-Cliff Ramsgate & Dumpton Gap Area
Out and about in rain and wind with high
tides around the coast between east-cliff Ramsgate and Dumpton Gap area
counting Turnstones only 12 were observed from 10-30hrs to 11-50hrs
what fun you can have in the joy's of bird-watching! other birds seen 1
Black Redstart, 3 Pied Wagtails, 5 Blackbirds, 7
Starlings, 14 Feral Pigeons, while out over the sea Herring
Gulls and Black-headed Gulls and 3 Gannets were the only
birds noted, I did see one other birder out in the rain Mike Schroepfer, I
also noted 9 Joggers and 17 Dog walkers. (Gadget)
Saturday 27th February 2010 Worth
Marshes
These are the highlights after a walk
around Worth Marsh today. Redhead
Smew on the Cinque Ports G.C.
reservoir, Marsh Harrier, Little Owl, 2 Grey Partridge,
150+ Fieldfare, a build up of 4500+ Starling in a pre-roost
Ariel display over the marsh, also in amongst the Black-headed Gulls an
adult Mediterranean Gull Showing a near complete black hood. (Colin
Fisher)
Saturday 27th February 2010 Thanet Coast
I had a drive around the Coast line this afternoon, I was looking for
something out of the ordinary including the sunshine, which was absent for
most of the time, however I did find a 1st-winter Mediterranean Gull
on the cliff-top which was showing well and 2 Pied Wagtails having a
tussle over nothing I could see, other than that just normal sea birds that
one would expect to find this time of year around the coast. (Gadget)
Friday 26th February 2010 Pegwell
Bay
I popped down for a quick look today. No
definite Caspian's today but one showing signs in 1st winter plumage was
seen flying about attacking a Crow then briefly landed. It certainly had
that white head and that obvious neck streaking 'shawl' plus long winged and
necked appearance so I do actually think it probably was one. It was roughly
half way between Pegwell and France mind you. The highlight of the day was
that there were 3 Hen Harriers today including 2 males quartering
across the river at one time. Mick (fame at last eh Mick?) saw a ringtail
before I arrived too. Other bits of note were the 4 normal Twite, a
Marsh Harrier and a Merlin. I also took a few loose counts
which were: 2 Brent, 87 Wigeon,1250 Lapwing, 440
Golden Plover, 290 Curlew and 65 Sanderling. (Phil M)
Thursday 25th February 2010 Pegwell
Bay
A few half decent bits at long last down
the bay today. It's been a bit quiet of late by the sounds of it. Anyway - I
went down early today (6.50 - 09.15) not expecting much. Bird of the day was
a Hooded Crow which flew low north along the shoreline at high tide -
eventually heading low inland around the back of the Country Park - only my
third Pegwell sighting in near twenty years of watching the area. There were
also at least 3 Caspian Gulls in the bay this morning - two 1st
winters and an adult. One of the 1st winters was still present when I left.
There has obviously been a small arrival as I saw three 1st winter birds
yesterday and one of today's birds was different having an obvious gap
in the secondary's of its left hand wing - all of yesterday's birds were
mint in this regard. Also of note and far scarcer than the Caspian's was a
1st winter Shag that I saw fishing in the river before clambering up
onto Shellness. They are surprisingly scarce in the bay especially so as
they are so easy to see in the harbour. Other bits and pieces included a
3rd/4th winter Yellow-legged Gull, a Peregrine with a white
dove breakfast on its way to the larder up on the cooling towers, a Water
Pipit and a single Red-throated Diver flying north through the
bay. There was a small Parrot or Parakeet in the cherry tree at the end of
my garden yesterday at dusk. It was too dark to see any markings but the
call sounded a bit shreepy - like a Ring-necked Parakeet trying to mimic a
Richard's Pipit. It was about half the size of the usual Parakeets and it
had a short dumpy tail. (Phil M)
Wednesday 24th February 2010 East-cliff Ramsgate
A quick look at the Fulmars around the East-cliff end of
Ramsgate this afternoon, I counted 34 Fulmars or 17 couples on Roost
sites, (Gadget)
Tuesday 23rd February 2010 Worth Marshes
A
quick look out over Worth Marshes this lunch time, 7 Barnacle
Geese showing well just by the caravan
park and the Great White Egret few around over by the railway track,
and out on the shallow pools good number of ducks i.e. Wigeon, Teal,
Gadwall, Shoveler with Fieldfares still around within the area. (Gadget)
Sunday 21st February 2010
Margate Road Ramsgate
In
a neighbours garden yesterday dinner time looking at a Collared Dove
in a tree saw something else and got book out and saw my first Turtle
Dove. (Stephen Mould)
Friday 19th February 2010 Seaton Area
An early morning wander around Seaton revealed a marked reduction of
wildfowl than recent weeks presumably due to the slightly milder weather.
The usual suspects were present including 4 Goosander (2 males / 2
females), a redhead Smew and 2 Goldeneye. A Bittern was
feeding in the stream and a ring-tail Hen Harrier quartered the area
for a while. Of most note was an impressive 58 Woodcock flushed from
the Sallow woodland bordering the lakes. Returning home to the
unquestionable delights of Thanet, 2 Bean Geese flew north over
Monkton. (F Solly)
Friday 19th February 2010 Tesco Extra Broadstairs
This morning I went up to Tesco extra and in
the car park i counted at least 28 Pied/White Wagtails that's only
what i saw. (S Moulder)
Wednesday 17th February 2010 Viking Bay Thanet
I
spotted a Herring Gull sporting a rather prominent orange colour ring
with black letters and numbers at Viking Bay today (photo plus close-up
attached). I believe it's the same one Dylan mentioned back in January. It
was also sporting a metal ring on its other leg; I'm not sure what the
purpose of that is, unless it's to balance the orange one. (Mark Kilner)
Wednesday 17th February 2010 Grove Ferry & Worth Marshes
Arriving at Grove Ferry this morning in beautiful sunshine was a nice treat,
as I made my way towards the feast hide, stopping by the dipping pools where
a new hide was being put in place a quick chat with Mat Hayes the warden and
the work party lads who were working hard, then on to the hide Reed
Buntings & Bearded Tits were seen along sides of the path and from the
hide birds noted: Mute Swans, Teal, Tufted Duck, Pochard,
Gadwall, Mallard, Coot, Moorhen, Water Rail & Marsh Harrier, heading
back to the car Lapwings, Cormorants, Black-headed Gulls and Common
Snipe were seen, at Worth Marshes good numbers of Fieldfare,
Lapwings, Black-headed Gulls and out on the pools Teal, Mallard,
Shoveler but no sings of the Smew that had been reported earlier or the
Barnacle Geese from yesterday, (Gadget)
Tuesday 16th February 2010 Grove
Ferry
A couple of Bittern shots, taken from
feast hide at grove ferry on the 16th February 2010. Possibly 4 Bitterns
in the Feast hide area, also 2 Marsh Harriers, Green Woodpecker,
Fieldfares over, and on the pool was 1 Dunlin, several Teal
and Mallard, 4 Pochard, 14 Tufted Duck. (Steve Ashton)
Tuesday 16th February 2010 Pegwell Bay
Watched the incoming tide this morning arriving at ~9.30 and leaving at
midday - it was cold damp and visibility was dreadful! There were good
numbers of all the normal stuff out on the mud - Dunlin, Knot,
Oystercatcher, Grey and Golden Plover (~200 in one group) Bar
tailed Godwit (~90), Lapwing, Redshank, Curlew, Turnstone and on
the waters edge ~20 Sanderling but I gave up trying to count after a
Marsh Harrier put everything up. This was the only raptor I saw.
There was 1 Great Crested Grebe in the bay and Wigeon numbers
are still good but looking at ducks stopped when I spotted a creamy white
Gull on the waters edge over by the point from ~9.30 to 10.00. The tide was
still a long way out at this time and it was very murky so the views I had
were not good. My initial thought was a first winter Icelandic Gull but the
tips of the primaries looked a lot darker than the wings themselves. Norman
McCanch turned up for my last half hour and told me of the white winged
Herring Gull Phil M had seen but it had disappeared by then and try as I
might I couldn't relocate it perhaps this Phil's Gull though I would have
said it was a little smaller than the Herring Gulls around it. Norman also
alerted me to the presence of a 1st winter Caspian Gull (which
I've never knowingly seen before) which really does look just like the
illustration in "Collins". (Steve Ray)
Monday 15th February 2010 King
George VI Park Thanet late News
Went out on Thursday following the
downfall of snow for a walk through the park and found although there was
snow on the ground, there was certainly love in the air
Parakeets, I also spotted some today inspecting the chimney pots on top
of the Gate House. (Sue Smith)
Saturday 13th February 2010 Dumpton Thanet area
I was in place at Dumpton park drive from 07-10hrs looking for the
Waxwings that Steve Ashton had phoned me about yesterday, and at 07-38hrs 4
Waxwings flew overhead towards the King George VI Park a (male)
Sparrow Hawk was seen around the same time, on my return home I found
the Garden and field holding good numbers of Fieldfare, Redwing,
Blackbirds, 3 Song Thrushes, 9 Goldfinches,4 Green
Finches, 4 Chaffinches, 5 House Sparrows, Robin,
Dunnock and the (male) Blackcap which is wintering in my garden.
(Gadget)
Friday 12th February 2010 Pegwell
Bay Country Park
A glorious male hen harrier floated over the park and shortly after a
Peregrine freaked everything in the Bay. Five Gadwall mingled
with the Wigeon and an impressive flock of 200 or so Linnets
were feeding in the middle of the country park with a handful of Redwing
and Meadow pipits. (Jason M)
Thursday 11th February 2010 Grove
Ferry
I have attached a photograph, being my
poor attempts at trying to photograph the Penduline Tit at Grove
ferry reserve today, showing well at time around the old Green hide area.
(Steve Ashton)
Tuesday 9th January 2010 Minnis
Bay to Reculver
Another big walk today in less than
favourable weather conditions it was a choice with here or the Stour
Valley, the sea being the pull, never mind. A raw NE wind with snow showers
late morning. Started of with a look at the sea at Grenham Bay for half an
hour or so just after high tide. Good numbers of Common Gulls c300
offshore and a single Kittiwake, on the sea 60+ Red-throated
Divers, 100+ Great Crested Grebe, 150-200 Cormorants east
then west far out in the Thames estuary was notable but little else. Down on
the first rock pools as the tide receded all the usual waders with 35
Ringed Plover, 110 Grey Plover and 225 Sanderling noted
with a few hundred large Gulls, fortunately no C-Rs. Then the walk to the
towers apart from 2-300 Lapwing 30+ Golden Plover and 3
Meadow Pipit were i would expect Rock Pipits to be, apart from
that zilch. The Oyster Farm held 4 Tufted Duck, 2 Gadwall, 7
Shelduck, 10 Little Grebes, 6 Snipe and 7 Reed
Buntings. As i made my way back inland back past the farm the mobile
flock of c450 Dark-bellied Brent's made there way west along the sea
wall to feed in fields west of Reculver in these loose flocks 2
Pale-bellied Brent's were among them. Walking back east along the
railway embankment there was 12 Mute Swans, sub-adult Marsh
Harrier, 1 Kestrel, 20+ Coot, 1 Green Woodpecker, 5
Chaffinch, 5 Fieldfare but very little to be seen, still it
past the time. (Craig Sammels)
Friday
5th February 2010 Pegwell Bay
We watched the bay, from Milton’s mound
near the hide, between 13.00 to 16.00 today. The weather conditions were
ideal for bird watching: - sunny and mild with an absence of the cold wind
that has plagued us for most of this year. There were still good numbers of
Golden Plovers (2000+), Lapwing (2000+), Wigeon, Curlew,
Bar Tailed Godwits (140) Knot, Sanderling and Redshank,
also Grey Plovers, Brent Geese (18) and Dunlin, Raptors of
note: - 1 Merlin, 1 Peregrine, 1 Kestrel and 1
Sparrowhawk. Passerines of note: - just a single flock of 12 Linnets,
no sign of any Twite, Reed Buntings or Water Pipits. (Barry Woolhouse,
Malcolm McVail and Richard Smith)
Thursday 4th February 2010 Ramsgate Harbour
A
quick look around the harbour this afternoon which produced very little;
there was 1 Shag in the inner basin and 2 Pied Wagtails along
the harbour wall, Gulls were very few as well 20 Black-headed Gulls,
18 Herring Gulls, 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull on and around the
slipways, the other sad thing was I could only fine 4 Turnstones, 1
Rock Pipit with the few Feral Pigeons, along the way round.
(Gadget)
Wednesday 3rd February 2010 Pegwell
Bay
I watched the bay between 09.30 and 1.30
today. It was pretty slow for most of the time - a large distant flock of
100+ grey Geese were spotted across at Sandwich at 11.25 then a skein of 70+
grey Geese flew west inland at 12.30 neither of which could be identified.
Craig arrived just before dinner time - he'd had single Goldcrest and
Firecrest near the farm on his way down plus an adult Black Brant
which was feeding in the fields behind the horse paddocks of Little
Cliffsend Farm amongst a group of 30 Brent. We (Steve Ray and I) could see
the bird from the country park - it was present until about 12.30 but then
disappeared. I took a few counts amongst the mayhem of a day spent amongst
the general public, they were: 1 Diver - south, 37 Brent, 67
Shelduck, 460 Wigeon, 250 Teal, 1 ringtail Hen Harrier,
1 Sparrowhawk, 2 Peregrine, 1080 Golden Plover, 3500
Lapwing, the Sandwich Tern, 2 Water Pipits and 6 Twite.
(Phil M)
Wednesday 3rd February 2010 Worth-Marshes and Kingsdown area
I
arrived at the Sandwich bay bird observatory at about 11.30hrs where I had
arranged to meet Graham Crick, we left the OBS and headed down the ancient
highway stopping at the drove gate and scan the marshes, Birds noted:
Lapwings, Redwing, Fieldfare, Curlew, Mute Swans, Marsh Harrier, and a
flock of cc 100 Greylag Geese flying over the marsh, moving on to
Kingsdown stopping at Walmer
for the (Taiga) Bean Goose, also noted were 2 Great Spotted
Woodpeckers, onward to look for the Black Redstart at Kingsdown which we
never found, we did find Stonechat, Meadow Pipit, Fulmars on and
around the Cliffs, with a few Black-headed Gulls on the sea and a
flyby Peregrine Falcon. (Gadget)
Wednesday 3rd February 2010 Pegwell Bay
I
called down to Pegwell bay today looking for the Twite hoping for
some photographs wasn't disappointed two photos for the website. (Steve Ray)
added to the Twite Photos
Tuesday 2nd February 2010 Pegwell
Bay
I popped down for a couple of hours this
morning. The mud flats were quiet (i.e. 11 Lapwing and zero Golden Plover!)
but I did get a flight view of a Woodlark as it flew across the river
landing on the Sandwich side, 4 unidentified grey Geese which flew north
into the bay then back off south at 10.25 before they got close enough for
identification also 2 Hen Harriers (a male and a ringtail) 4 Twite,
2+ Water Pipits and 3 long range Tufted Ducks flying around
over near the sampher. The only other counts I took were of 3 Divers
- south, 24 Brent, 370 Wigeon, 460 Teal, 2 Gadwall,
720 Dunlin, 310 Knot and 3 Ringed Plover. Just to head
off anyone at the pass so to speak there hasn't been any sign of the semi
white-winged Gull since last Friday. I've grilled every Gull that come into
range and haven't seen it again. On looking at the video in greater detail
of it, it's definitely not the bird we saw on January 16th - there are a few
subtle differences. (Phil M)
Monday 1st February 2010 River
/Kearsney/Bushy Ruff
On a very cold but frosty morning I
thought I would take the opportunity to do a bit of bird watching and
photography. Starting off in Lower Road River I had a Grey Wagtail,
Moorhen, Coot and a Water Rail. Moving on to the Crabble Mill lake/river
area there were 62 Black-headed Gulls, 12 Herring Gulls,
Several Moorhen and Coot, Little Egret and a Kingfisher.
Heading off to Kearsney Abbey there were 16 Mute Swans, 64 Moorhen,
12 Coot, Grey and Pied Wagtail, 22 Herring Gulls, 41
Black-headed Gulls, 9 Jackdaws and a couple of Crows. Russell
Gardens and Bushy Ruff produced 6 Mute Swan, 36 Black-headed Gulls,
2 Little Grebe, 3 Coot, 8 Moorhen, male Sparrow Hawk,
12 Long-tailed Tits, Tree Creeper, 4 Redwing, Song Thrush, Robin,
Chaffinch, Mallard, Grey Heron and several Magpie. It was a
pleasure to be out though I much prefer 32c to 32f any day. (Graham Crick)
Monday 1st February 2010 Walmer Castle
Photos of 1st Winter "Taiga" Bean Goose (Anser fabalis fabalis)
Walmer Castle taken today 1st February 2010 (Tony Flashman)
Monday 1st February 2010 Pluckley area & Dumpton Thanet
I spent a few hours in the Pluckley area where I tried to get some
photos of a few birds i.e. Bullfinch, Nuthatch and Lesser spotted
Woodpecker two out of there was all I could muster, the area held good
number of birds lots of Fieldfare and Redwing, I have never seen so many
Blue & Great Tits in just a few hours, when I got back home the
Blackcap was feeding on one of the pears around the garden. (Gadget)
Monday
1st February 2010 Pegwell Bay
A nice day to be out but only if you could find a bit of shelter out of the
blisteringly cold wind. There was a fair bit going on today with Brents and
a few Ducks moving north plus a few Divers and Wildfowl heading south. The
Skylark numbers were back up into three figures plus a few Twite and at
least one Water Pipit was showing today for the first time in quite a few
days for me anyway. Scarcities included 4 Pale Bellied Brents in one
group - flying in off then north, 3 Bean Geese flying south plus a
Velvet Scoter which landed offshore briefly before flying off south.
There was also a smallish wader across on Shellness until 11.30 when it got
spooked by a Merlin which looked quite interesting. Other 'of note' stuff
included 8 Common Scoter - north, 42 Divers (37 south and 5
north), a Hen Harrier, a Marsh Harrier, 2 Merlin's (1
male), 2 Yellow-legged Gulls, 9 Twite and 1 - 2 Water
Pipits. The counts were 121 Brents north plus 34 present, 42
Shelduck, 630 Wigeon, 2 Pintail, 6 Gadwall, 135
Mallard, 420 Oystercatcher, 205 Curlew, 153 Bar-tailed
Godwit, 120 Grey Plover, 800 Lapwing, 220 Golden Plover,
5 Ringed Plover, 245 Knot, 960 Dunlin, 46 Sanderling,
6 Fieldfare, 1 Redwing, 100+ Skylark, 3 Stonechat
and 1 Corn Bunting. On the way home I stopped off to have a look at a
mixed flock of Redwing and Fieldfare using the horse paddocks in Sprattling
Street and I found a Dunnock sitting on the path along the short stretch of
cycling path. I ended up bringing it home as it didn't look too injured and
to be honest I thought it might have been a casualty of the weather. Anyway
as it happened after getting it home and trying to feed/water it suddenly
came back to life after 10 minutes of playing dumb and it took Joshua and I
plus my moth net about five minutes to catch the darn thing as it shot
around the front room hiding in every crevice it could find. It all went
well eventually and on release it shot off across the road as if it hadn't a
thing wrong with it. No doubt it must have been stunned ... or having a kip?
The Norwegian blue enjoys kipping on its back! (Phil M)
Monday 1st February 2010 Dane Park Area
A
quick visit to the cash machine early this morning produced a Peregrine
on the lookout for a spot of breakfast. (Barry Hunt)
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