Old Lodge with Garry and the Ashdown Bird Group

Friday 18th March pm

After our very successful goshawk experience this morning, 7 of us relocated to Old Lodge for the afternoon session where we had a few interesting birds show up:

• Pride of place for me went to the woodlarks as they sang out boldly during their display flight.
• A couple of Dartford warblers arrived on the scene.
• I saw my first lesser redpolls of the year; they looked absolutely stunning in the bright afternoon sunshine.

courtesy of Alison Playle

courtesy of Alison Playle

courtesy of Alison Playle

• Other birds seen included chiffchaff, goldcrest, nuthatch, treecreeper, siskin, stonechat and raven.

Another set of interesting birds to add to Garry's already impressive day list

 Year total - 152

Goshawks

Friday 18th March

Ashdown Bird Group

A lovely morning spent with 8 friends from the Ashdown Bird Group.  Garry, my youngest son visiting from Australia, was guest of honour for the day and boy did he do well - a first ever shared birding event.  

We were searching for Goshawks and we found them!

• We soon heard then saw the male goshawk in the valley below us.  It was perched on a deciduous tree for a long time.   It took flight before landing again in the same area.

courtesy of Alison Playle

• Of particular interest was the altercation between the goshawk and a couple of crows, the scenario captured brilliantly by Alison in the images below.

 

courtesy of Alison Playle

courtesy of Alison Playle

courtesy of Alison Playle

                                                                                                                    courtesy of Alison Playle

• Also seen was a lovely kestrel

courtesy of Alison Playle

• ... and a fabulous sparrowhawk

                                                                                                           courtesy of Alison Playle

• Charles was looking through some photographs of the buzzards that we saw when he noticed  some ID features that suggested one of them was a female goshawk, the partner of the male we had been watching all along.  This turned out to be the case, adding further to our sense of achievement.

courtesy of Charles Waters

• Other birds seen included marsh tit, chiffchaff, meadow pipit, coal tit and long-tailed tit.

Wow!   What a great day to share with Garry!

 Year total - 151

RSPB Broadwater Warren, Sussex

14th March 2022

RSPB Broadwater Warren, Sussex

4 of us from the Ashdown Bird Group co-opted Kevin to guide us round this lovely local RSPB site.  

We had no luck at all with the target species - lesser-spotted woodpecker - but we did have some superb sightings of other species by way of compensation:-

• Star species for me was woodlark, my first of the year, which we heard then saw, soon after we abandoned our lesser-spotted woodpecker search.  It was flying high above us and gave great views.

courtesy of Alison Playle

• Not far behind was Dartford warbler - we saw 2, obviously a pair getting ready to breed.  The views were, again, superb - they were barely 20 metres away from us.
• A yellowhammer is always good to see.

courtesy of Alison Playle

• Also seen were great spotted woodpecker, meadow pipit, reed bunting, buzzard and stonechat - all looking superb today.

courtesy of Alison Playle

courtesy of Alison Playle

• A real bonus were the fallow deer we saw.

courtesy of Alison Playle

courtesy of Alison Playle

A splendid mornings birding!

 Year total - 151

With Mark and Elizabeth Rye Harbour and RSPB Dungeness

 Saturday 5th March 2022

Martin and I joined Mark and Elizabeth and their friend for a most welcome visit to Rye Harbour NNR.  It was a bit colder today but it was dry and calm.  The reserve was teeming with birds so we were confident of seeing something special today - we did!

 

The target species were green-winged teal, Iceland gull and spoonbill.

 

•  It didn't take long to find the green-winged teal - it was associating with the other teal in the channel by the visitor centre.  The best views were when it was swimming around.  It spent most of the time out of the water  however in the nearby vegetation but it was nearly always in view.  A very well behaved bird, with its characteristic vertical white bar across the side of the breast.

courtesy of David Campbell on Twitter

                                           

                      courtesy of KevEllse on Twitter                    

• Not long after, a fellow birder drew our attention to the Iceland gull.  It was initially just a head view, as the bird was behind a grassy verge on Flat Beach, but it soon took flight and we were able to get excellent views to confirm the ID.

courtesy of Garry Wotton on Twitter

• Things were going rather well with other species too with plenty of golden plover, ringed plover, dunlin, snipe and avocets around, just to add a bit more flavour.
• I saw my first Mediterranean gulls of the year while looking for the Iceland gull.
• Surprisingly, there were at least 4 Sandwich terns showing well;  they surely must have returned weeks earlier than normal. 
• After lunch we headed out to the Salt Pool to look for the long-staying spoonbill.  It wasn't there when we arrived but a few minutes later I saw it fly in and land in its usual place and from there on we were able to enjoy excellent views.

courtesy of Martin Jeffree

                                                                                    courtesy of Martin Jeffree

We then headed off to Dungeness NR for the late pm session.

I was hoping to find more hides had been opened but it was the opposite - a further 2 hides had been condemned since my last visit.  Apparently the plan is to provide more "lookouts".

• I managed to see my first sparrowhawk of the year, it was having an altercation with a carrion crow. 

Rich pickings at Rye Harbour - wonderful!

 Year total - 150

Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve with the Ashdown Bird Group

 

Sunday 27th February 2022,

Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve

Ashdown Bird Group

(12 members present)

 

Trip Report

There was a really good turnout today and we were, once again, fortunate to have mild conditions throughout as we moved around the reserve. 

There was a real buzz among the group as they contemplated what was ahead.  Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve would not normally feature on our programme and most of us hadn’t been here before or, if we had, it was a long time ago.

 

 

There were no obvious target species.

 

 

We set off from the visitor centre on the clockwise route round the reserve, finishing around 13.00

 

·         The most surprising aspect of today’s walk was the number of species seen.  We managed to record at least 53 which was way above our expectations.  None of them were in any way rare but, collectively, they contributed to making this a rich birding experience.

·         Another surprise was the size of the reserve.  It was much more extensive than most of us thought and goes some way to explaining the high species count.

 

 

On the Water

There was a good variety of birds on or by the water, from cormorants, greylag geese, Canada geese which tended to dominate the scene to the more graceful teal, gadwall, pochard, tufted duck, mallard, great-crested grebe, little grebe, coot, moorhen and shoveler. 

We did see some, but not many, little egrets, oystercatchers, grey herons and lapwings.  Kevin sighted a kingfisher and a few of us saw the 2 Egyptian geese.

 

 

Gulls

 

As expected, there was a good gull presence with the black-headed variety the most abundant, many of which were already showing signs of moving into summer plumage with the brown hood forming. 

 

Herring gull numbers were significant and there were a couple of common gulls and lesser-black backed gulls around but we did not see any great black-backed gulls.

 

 

 

Woodland Birds

 

There is a good area of woodland around this site and this is reflected in the birds we managed to record as we moved through. 

 

·         Star bird was probably the singing, male chiffchaff that we heard, and then saw, near Willow Hide. This was probably an overwintering bird rather than a very early migrant.

·         Earlier, Alan N heard a treecreeper.

·         Other notable sightings included nuthatch, long-tailed tit and great-spotted woodpecker.

 

 

 

In the Sky

 

·         A couple of buzzards and a red kite caught our attention for a while. Later on, we saw a couple of kestrels.

·         Pick of the corvids was magpie.  I agree with Bob R; the flock that we saw flying over the East Lake must have been one of the largest for some time and they looked majestic in the sunshine.

 

.

After lunch, 7 of the group moved on to Bough Beech reservoir where they managed to add marsh tit to the species count (shown in yellow on the list)

,

 

                      

 

 

There were 53 species seen today; they are listed below:-

 

Species		Species
Blackbird		Kingfisher
Black-headed Gull		Lapwing
Blue Tit		Lesser Black-backed Gull
Buzzard		Little Egret
Canada Goose		Little Grebe
Carrion Crow		Long-tailed Tit
Chaffinch		Magpie
Chiffchaff		Mallard
Common Gull		Marsh Tit
Coot		Moorhen
Dunnock		Nuthatch
Egyptian Goose		Oystercatcher
Gadwall		Pochard
Goldcrest		Red Kite
Goldfinch		Redwing
Grey Heron		Reed Bunting
Greylag Goose		Robin
Cormorant		Rook
Great Crested Grebe		Shoveler
Great Spotted Woodpecker		Song Thrush
Great Tit		Stock Dove
Herring Gull		Teal
Jackdaw		Treecreeper
Jay		Tufted Duck
Kestrel		Woodpigeon
Pheasant		Wren

   CoalTit 

 

 

 

This was another very enjoyable visit!

 Year total - 144