Stodmarsh NNR near Canterbury. Joint trip EGRSPB Local Group and the Ashdown Bird Group

 

Saturday 20^th May 2023

Stodmarsh NNR

East Grinstead RSPB Local Group

(11 members present)

Originally planned for 23^rd April 2023, but rescheduled because of poor weather, our final outing of the 2022/23 programme took us to the Canterbury area with the Ashdown Bird Group.  The group size was an impressive 15 and we enjoyed another terrific visit, with nigh on perfect conditions.

At this time of the year our target species had to include hobby, turtle dove, cuckoo, swift, bearded tit and, of course, marsh harrier.  A red-footed falcon and a purple heron had been seen here earlier and, although they had since left, we were hopeful of seeing at least one visiting rarity.

  

With the exception of bearded tit, we saw all of our target species and we did indeed encounter a couple of interesting, visiting, rare birds.

• ·         First place on the honours list went to the turtle dove that we saw at Grove Ferry, in the so called “jungle” area.  Martin first picked up the purring sound and soon afterwards we spotted the bird, showing well, out on the open branches at the top of a nearby tree.  All our photographers then had a field day as the dove held its pose for some time before flying off deep into the trees and out of sight.

 

Courtesy of Ian Hodgson

Courtesy of Martin Jeffree

 

• ·         Hobby’s were seen early on and then repeatedly throughout our visit.  Most of the time they were high up in the sky but occasionally they came within range of our cameras.

Courtesy of Alison Playle

• ·         We had at least 2 sightings of a cuckoo in flight but in every case there wasn’t enough time to get a picture.
• ·         We had better luck with the marsh harrier.

Courtesy of Alison Playle

• ·         One of the strangest and most humorous events was when a young treecreeper landed on Alastair’s leg and then moved onto a nearby bench.

Courtesy of Martin Jeffree

 

 

• ·         We had a rare sighting of Cetti’s warbler today – more often than not you only hear this bird.
• ·       Garden warbler was perhaps the pick of the passerines.
• ·         Swifts were abundant and always a welcome sight.
• ·         As we were having lunch at the Viewpoint a bittern flew in to the reeds ahead of us, giving splendid views for a brief period.

 

 

We had two very welcome surprises today.

• ·         There was a drake garganey and a ruff present with the latter just about to complete its transformation into summer plumage.   We even got the chance to photograph the two of them together!

 

Courtesy of Ian Hodgson

 

We saw more than birds today.

• ·         There was lots of evidence of beaver presence along the path leading to the Tower Hide and we were intrigued by a number of quite deep trenches, at right angles to the path, and obviously used by the beavers to exit the water.  Alas we didn’t see any.
• ·         We heard a lot more marsh frogs than we saw.

Courtesy of Martin Jeffree

 

 

Alison led the way with our interest in butterflies and dragonflies etc.

• ·         Our butterfly sightings included speckled wood, red admiral, large white and orange tip and we also saw a common carpet moth.
• ·         We saw mainly Azure damselfly and variable damselfly but also banded demoiselle.

Courtesy of Alison Playle

 

• ·         The dragonflies seen were all hairy dragonfly.

Courtesy of Alison Playle

• ·         Alison also took photographs of a pirate wolf spider and a nursery web spider.
• ·         There was a dreaded terrapin.

Courtesy of Martin Jeffree

 

This was a fitting end to what has been a rich and interesting outdoor programme of visits.  Thank you Kevin!

 

Today’s species list

Name:	Count:		Name:	Count:
Bittern	1		Lapwing	34
Black-headed Gull	2		Little Egret	35
Blackbird	3		Little Grebe	36
Blackcap	4		Long-tailed Tit	37
Blue Tit	5		Magpie	38
Buzzard	6		Mallard	39
Carrion Crow	7		Marsh Harrier	40
Cetti's Warbler	8		Moorhen	41
Chaffinch	9		Mute Swan	42
Chiffchaff	10		Pheasant	43
Collared Dove	11		Reed Bunting	44
Common Tern	12		Reed Warbler	45
Coot	13		Robin	46
Cormorant	14		Rock Dove / Feral Pigeon	47
Cuckoo	15		Ruff	48
Dunnock	16		Sand Martin	49
Egyptian Goose	17		Sedge Warbler	50
Gadwall	18		Shoveler	51
Garden Warbler	19		Skylark	52
Garganey	20		Song Thrush	53
Goldfinch	21		Starling	54
Great Crested Grebe	22		Stock Dove	55
Great Spotted Woodpecker	23		Swallow	56
Great Tit	24		Swift	57
Grey Heron	25		Teal	58
Greylag Goose	26		Treecreeper	59
Herring Gull	27		Tufted Duck	60
Hobby	28		Turtle Dove	61
House Martin	29		Water Rail	62
House Sparrow	30		Whitethroat	63
Jackdaw	31		Woodpigeon	64
Jay	32		Wren	65
Kestrel	33

 

Species count = 65

 2023 species count = 172