Thursday 28th June 2007 Grove Ferry
Arriving at Grove Ferry late morning nearer lunch
time after Ben Ring had left the reserve, the Spoonbill was
along side Harrison's
Drove Hide down the left side also seen was 3 Hobby's, 1 Kestrel
and 2 Mash Harries all hunting and all had success, reed
cutting in front of the Turf Hide was completed about 14-30hrs by Dave F
and one other, My best wishes to the Stour Valley birders who have achieved
wonders within
the past two years, beside being hard work to bird on the reserve it must
be very frustrating watching the reserve overgrow at such a alarming pace.
(Gadget)
Thursday 28th June 2007 Grove Ferry
Spent
a pleasant 3 hours or so between 7:20 & 10:30am wandering around the
Grove end of the reserve - in sunshine for a change!! Whilst there was
very little out of the ordinary, I was pleased to see the immature Spoonbill
in front of Harrison's Hide (7:45am) as a year tick. Sadly the bird was
not close & insisted on keeping it's bill tucked in it's feathers as
it was dozing - apparently it was showing well earlier when feeding. The
accompanying Lapwings suddenly spooked at an invisible threat &
this prompted the Spoonbill to take action by flying around the
pool before landing out of sight - at least the views were temporarily
better! I returned a couple of hours later to find it had returned but
this time farther out, but again dozing - it did preen very briefly now
& again. Amusingly, it seemed to be completely disassociating itself
from the 8 Little Egrets, which were present amongst the watchful Greylags.
A Common Snipe engaged in a short drumming display before plonking
itself down near the Hide. Some of the other birds noted on my walk were 4
Bullfinch (3m, 1f), Cuckoo (very vocal today) Blackcap,
Chiffchaff, Cetti’s, Common Whitethroat, Reed Warbler, Sedge Warbler
& Bearded Tit that Included juveniles. There was some reed
cutting going on near the Turf Hide as I left. (Ben Ring)
Saturday 23rd June 2007 Pegwell Bay
Popped into Pegwell this evening for a quick look,
nothing spectacular but plenty of the usual inhabitants, plus my first Sandwich
Terns this year. On the way back to my car I looked across to
Stonelees and saw a Turtle Dove, which was a nice one to finish on.
(Mick S)
Thursday 21st June 2007 near
Ripple
A Little Owl has
watched me as I pass on the way to work, most mornings since April. It
sits on a tree stump by the side of the road near Ripple, and I was hoping
that it was one of a breeding pair. This morning there was a
different face peering down at me - a Little Owlet! Congratulations
to the parents. (Steve Coates)
Wednesday 20th June 2007 Pegwell Bay &
Stoneless
I
foolishly hoped that after last night's spectacular storm (no
electricity for almost 19 hours in Ash!), a few 'unusual' birds might have
been grounded so I visited the sites between 7 & 10am.I was to be
largely disappointed though but at least the weather was considerably
better (!!), it being mostly sunny, with a strengthening breeze. Two Lesser
Whitethroat were noted in the Park, one individual adopting its Common
cousins' stance of being very visible. 4 Green Sandpipers were at a
pool by the left hand side of Stone Lees entrance & also 2 male Cuckoos
were perched on the stone pillars there. Not rare, but unusually, a group
of 6 House Sparrows were in & out of the nettles near the
'seawall' site of the old hide. Stone Lees had all the expected birds, Blackcap,
Willow Warbler, Sedge Warbler, Common Whitethroat & a flock of
approx 200 Starlings, mostly juvenile, feeding & flying en
masse on the seaward side of the perimeter. A lone Brent Goose
could be seen feeding at the shoreline & 3 Meadow Pipits
engaged in song display over the salt marsh. 5 Redshank were also
noted. (Ben Ring)
Monday 18th June 2007 Grove Ferry
Had
a look around the Grove end of the reserve between 8 and 10am.
Unfortunately, very little to get the pulse racing! An obliging Common
Tern stood on the raft at the Turf Hide. It had displaced a male Garganey,
which in common with its other duck cousins It was looking less than
dapper now! Harrison’s Hide actually had quite a few ducks in front of
it, probably in
the region of a hundred, mixed Mallard /Gadwall, & a 'gang' of
6 Little Egret. I walked up to the river, noting an over flying Snipe,
& along as far as the ox-bow which was a waste of time but spotted a
couple of Turtle Doves, 2 Chiffchaff & a Cuckoo
as I headed back towards the Grove car park. There were several families
of Blue, Great & Long Tailed Tits to be
seen & a Garden Warbler sang from an unseen perch deep within
the bushes. A couple of Blackcap sang from across the river.
A pair of Marsh Harriers patrolled the reeds near the Turf Hide
& a Kestrel was hovering near the entrance track. Just a couple
of Swifts & 10 House Martins seen. (Ben Ring)
Sunday 17th June 2007 Pegwell Bay
I popped down for an hour this evening with my camera to get some pictures
of the Bee Orchids. Birds seen included: 9 Little Egret, 5 Grey
Heron, 1 Brent, 4 Greylag, 9 Mallard, 1 Ringed
Plover, 4 Redshank, c30
Oystercatcher, 12 Curlew, 1 Sandwich Tern, c60 Black-headed
Gull, 600 Herring Gull, 12 Lesser BB Gull and 25 Great
BB Gull. (Phil M)
Saturday
16th June 2007 Ramsgate and Pegwell Bay
On hearing all the local Herring Gulls going nuts outside my house I
eventually noticed a high flying Honey Buzzard passing over the
estate. (At 17.40) It's amazing what you can see if you keep your ears
open for the spooked Gulls. Then in the evening I went down to Pegwell to
have a scout around for a peep at some orchids (33 flowering Lizards
and 2 Bee's etc.) and saw a few Egrets plus a Peregrine
and a Hobby. Good numbers of Shelducks were present with
c.100 showing between the point and the hoverport. I did see 120+ last
Monday - exceptional numbers for Peggers. (Phil M)
Saturday 16th June 2007 Ramsgate Cemetery
A possible Greenish Warbler singing in the
southwest corner of the Ramsgate Cemetery. (Phil B)
Wednesday 13th June 2007 Sandwich Bay
Sandwich
Bay, great morning sun shining. Spent all morning looking at orchids and
birds. Nothing new, but it was nice to see plenty of Corn Buntings
perched on posts and wire along side the road. At the scrape were two Little
Ringed Plovers, Lapwings and Redshanks with
young. 6 Oystercatchers, Tufted Duck,
and Shelduck. A solitary Curlew flew in
and stayed for a minute. Just outside the hide a Sedge Warbler
posed for some while on a reed-mace stem, singing its heart out. (Don Wilks)
Wednesday 13th June 2007 Ramsgate area
After 10min of scanning a ''good looking sky'' for a
raptor or two, i come across a very high Common Crane circling just
below the clouds at 11.25-11.40 when it disappeared above the clouds. Same
bird as the 9th? (Craig S)
Wednesday 13th June 2007
Restharrow Scrape & Dumpton Thanet
Escaped for a few hours this morning went over to the
SBBOT Restharrow Scrape to try and get some photographs of the (juv) Lapwings
& Redshanks but they were on the far side of the scrape, one of
the Oystercatchers was obliging also a smart Cock Pheasant along
the road side on my way back to the OBS and then home, having lunch in my
garden aloud me to take a photograph of a (juv) Goldfinch on one of
the feeders. (Gadget)
Wednesday 13th June 2007 Stone Lees
07-10hrs.
Almost 3 weeks since my last visit & very little changed bird-wise
except the songs aren't quite as prolific & the birds even less
visible! There were now however a few families of Blue, Great &
Long Tailed Tits (one a group of 10 birds), & the odd (quite!)
fledged Robin. Caught a couple of snatches of Lesser Whitethroat
'song' in the CP & half-hearted Willow Warbler song at Stone
Lees. Common Whitethroat still very evident throughout, with a
supporting role by Sedge Warbler. Six Swallows in total
noted. A non-calling Cuckoo attracted brief interest from a lone Redshank
as it flew over the salt marsh & a few Turtle Doves here
& there. A small group of 4 Little Egrets sat at the shoreline
awaiting the tide to drop, as a flotilla of Shelduck bobbed about
not doing very much! Not a single raptor to liven up proceedings & I
think I've bloated this report as much as I can!! Oh, there are a few
mosquitoes at the SW end of Stone Lees! (Ben Ring)
Saturday 9th June 2007 North Foreland
Today at North Foreland a Common Crane heading
N/W over the area at 12:25.
(Simon Mount)
Friday 8th June 2007 Worth Marshes
The path inland from the Sandwich Bay Bird
Observatory holds breeding Wagtails, and a walk this evening showed some Yellow
Wagtails including a small flock mobbing a passing Sparrowhawk.
It's the first time I've seen and heard these birds singing - a double
'tsooeep' from a wire fence in this case. There were about 6 Tufted
Ducks on the dikes, occasionally flying fast and low around me, and
plenty of Sedge Warblers. Just past the Observatory a family of Pied
Wagtails foraged in a mud pool. (Steve Coates)
Monday 4th
June 2007 Dumpton Thanet
Restricted to the garden for the time being, so today when 8 Starlings
with 9 (juveniles) came in had a good feed and then wash &
brush up i just had to get a photograph. (Gadget)
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