Week 2 Some great sightings this week including Owls at Elmley

Dungeness on Thursday 9th January 2025 

This was a reasonably successful afternoon twitch to see the Long-tailed Duck and the Great Northern Divers.  

• The Great Northern Diver was on Burrowes Pit and easily seen from Dennis's Hide.  There were also several gorgeous, drake Goldeneye on view.
• I had to walk round to New Diggings Pit to see the Long-tailed Duck  but it was worth the effort as the bird was showing well between dives.  There was also another Great Northern Diver present.
• I had no luck at all with the White-fronted Geese at Boulderwall Farm.  There were plenty of Canada Geese and Greylag Geese.  By way of consolation, I saw my first Great White Egret of 2025.

On the way home I went via Walland Marsh.

• I managed to see 30 + Bewick Swans but was unable to locate the few Whooper Swans that were around.

Isle of Sheppey with the Ashdown Bird Group on Sunday 12th January 2025.

My birding year took off today when I joined 10 friends in the Ashdown Bird Group for an outing to a packed Elmley NNR followed by a short visit to the raptor viewing point at Capel Fleet just before dusk.

We had great views of 3 of the UK's owl species at Elmley.  

• This Short-eared Owl posed on the post for the duration of our visit.

Courtesy of Alison Playle

• Shortly afterwards, we saw this delightful Little Owl, sunning itself in the apex of the roof at the rear of the old schoolhouse.  This was the highlight of the day for me.

Courtesy of Andrew Burns

• The Barn Owl proved more challenging as it teased us by flying around the back of the school.  Alison got a "record shot" of it flying and a cracking image when it landed briefly on a post.

Courtesy of Alison Playle

Courtesy of Alison Playle

• By way of a bonus, a close Fieldfare posed for us in the field adjacent to the school building. 

Courtesy of Andrew Burns

Just when you thought things couldn't get any better, they did!  

• The combination of bright sunshine, no wind and icy reedbeds produced a spectacular show of bearded tits.  There were lots of them spread all around the reedbed.

Courtesy of Andrew Burns

Courtesy of Alison Playle

Other highlights included the following-

• Black-tailed Godwits in flight

Courtesy of Alison Playle

• This lovely Water Rail showed briefly to a lucky few of our group but, alas, not to me.

Courtesy of Alison Playle

At Capel Fleet there were several highlights:-

• There were numerous Marsh Harriers on show.

Courtesy of Alison Playle

• These Red-legged Partridges were a welcome sight.

Courtesy of Alison Playle

• We usually get Corn Buntings at Capel Fleet - today we saw 2 only.

Weir Wood Reservoir on Tuesday 14th January 2025

• At the reservoir today, the star of the show was this pair of drake Goosanders.

Courtesy of Richard Allan

Courtesy of Richard Allan

The nett result of this week's activity was a huge boost to my 2025 species count from 30 to  80

31 Turnstone

32 Canada Goose

33 Coot

34 Curlew

35 Goldeneye

36 Great Northern Diver

37 Great White Egret

38 Grey Heron

39 Greylag Goose

40 Long-tailed Duck

41 Feral Pigeon

42 Tufted Duck

43 Mute Swan

44 Bewick's Swan

45 Avocet

46 Bearded Tit

47 Black-tailed Godwit

48 Cattle Egret

49 Chaffinch

50 Dunlin

51 Dunnock

52 Fieldfare

53 Grey Plover

54 House Sparrow

55 Lesser Black-backed Gull

56 Little Grebe

57 Little Owl

58 Marsh Harrier

59 Meadow Pipit

60 Moorhen

61 Peregrine

62 Raven

63 Redshank

64 Reed Bunting

65 Shelduck

66 Shoveler

67 Snipe

68 Water Rail

69 Wren

70 Wigeon

71 Brent Goose

72 Corn Bunting

73 Red-legged Partridge

74 Cetti's Warbler

75 Barn Owl

76Nuthatch

77 Long-tailed Tit

78 Little Egret

79 Goosander

80 Egyptian Goose