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.

 

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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)

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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