Friday 22 February 2013

Still no moths to report. Made a visit to Dungeness yesterday. In spite of the "bracing" conditions I managed to see 1 of the 2 Snow Buntings at Littlestone, the Glaucous Gull near the fishing boats,  and the 5 Tundra Bean Geese from the entrance track to the RSPB Reserve, where we also managed to get a distant flight view of the 2 Egyptian Geese. There were also 5 Great White Egrets in total (4 of them on the ARC pit) and about 120+ Bewick's Swans on Walland Marsh. (I managed to miss a brief a view of a Bittern from the Dengemarsh road.) 

Snow Bunting

Saturday 16 February 2013

No moths to report but I did go to Stodmarsh to see the Penduline Tit this morning. Earlier this week I spent 4 days birding in Bulgaria with Birdfinders. Highlights were Eagle Owl & Syrian Woodpecker which were both new for me, plus good numbers of White-fronted and Red-breasted Geese. Other good birds were White-tailed Sea Eagle, Long-legged & Rough-legged Buzzard, 5 species of Woodpecker, 4 species of Owl, Calandra Larks, Moustached Warbler and Penduline Tits. (95 species total). I will be posting the better photos on my Flickr site-see link. Meanwhile here's a distant shot of the Stodmarsh Penduline Tit,

Penduline Tit

 

Friday 1 February 2013

After it rained most of the day, the sun came out and I was tempted to go and try to see a Barn Owl at Oare. I arrived soon after 4pm by which time it had clouded up again. I went up onto the sea wall and I’d only been there there a few minutes when there were 2 or 3 very loud explosions on Sheppey. Everything over there went up including the 7 Common Cranes which then flew over the Swale and over the Oare Marshes West Flood. They then crossed the road and circled around briefly south of the reserve before slowly flying away in a south-easterly direction. I still didn’t see a Barn Owl.

Common Cranes