FLAT BEACH CIRCUIT

27 February 2022 AP and I carried out a 7-9am rapid circuit of Flat Beach in the RHNR, shortened by a biting southerly wind, aka gale, around the time of high tide. The view back to Pett Level along the beach says it all. On Flat Beach were the usual roosting flocks of Gulls, Oystercatchers, Redshank, Dunlin, Turnstones, Ringed Plover, Sanderling, one Knot, and Grey Plovers but no Golden Plovers. Of particular interest was the odd mating display behaviour of several pairs of Oystercatchers, no doubt very noisily claiming territory. There were a few Shelduck and reasonable numbers still of Teal and Wigeon. An oddity on Ternery Pool was a Greater White-Fronted Goose apparently paired up with a Greylag Goose on one of the islands before they both headed off together in the direction of Castle Water. This pair has been seen occasionally round about for most of the last year and it will be interesting to see if any hybrids appear in due course.

OUT AGAIN

23 February 2022 I finally struggled out of the house this afternoon at high tide and went down to Pett Pools. The last nine days I have been laid up with a dose of Omicron but hopefully nearly over it now. The usual species were still around except for the hundreds of Lapwings and Golden Plover, both absent today. There was a good sized gull roost at the Roadside Pool and two Snipe were sheltering along the reeds from the brisk west wind. The Greater White-fronted Geese are still here and were visible along with the lone Pink-Footed Goose ( upper centre or just to the left sat down in three of the goose photos ) out east of the Cormorant Pool. An excessively large white Farmyard Goose was also strutting about behind the Main Pool with a few Greylags. All the Common, Black-Headed and Med Gulls are still between plumages and will not look tidy until a few more weeks have past.

ON THE BEACH AGAIN

15 February 2022 I have not been out much of late, this last week spent just dodging storms and carrying out half-term grandchildren responsibilities. We did get down at least onto the beach yesterday, no change, Fulmars in the expected places, full summer plumage Oystercatchers catching crabs and Curlews and Herring Gulls about. Some of the Large Sandstone Blocks on the beach show interesting wave sculpted shapes worthy of Barbara Hepworth or Henry Moore. Unfortunately the stone blocks are about 2 metres wide and must weigh tons and tons, otherwise they would have been a nice feature in my garden. More local news, Med Gulls are above 50 now up at the Pannel Valley and 10 Avocets arrived today at the RHNR.

THE MEDS ARE BACK

07 February 2022 I went down at 10 am to look for the Shore Lark reported yesterday afternoon and again before 8 am this morning on the shingle at the top of the Sea Wall between Pett Level and Pett Pools, but no luck, it must have moved on. However, it was good to see at least two Med Gulls with the sheep at the west end of the Level, they seem to arrive earlier every year, though looking a bit scraggy at the moment as they start to moult into their summer plumage. Included are a few more photos from down at the Pools taken while I was talking to PR. He had spotted a female Common Scoter sitting on the reed edge of the Main Pool, perhaps a sick bird since it should be out at sea. I then went across to Castle Water in the RHNR to look for the elusive Red-Crested Pochard, again no sign but plenty of other ducks mostly Shoveler. The usual BNGrebe was distant and seemingly still in winter plumage. One of the Cormorants on view was in classic full nuptial plumage. A Raven was making a din high up in the trees in the Wood as I went over to the Long Pit. Pochard were the main ducks on view there. Their reappearance seems to have coincided with the departure of the Great Northern Diver which has not been seen of late. Soon I was able to find a distant female Goldeneye and a little later a male flew down the Pit towards me giving reasonable views after it landed. There were five there yesterday, the most this winter, but only two at the south west end today.

PLAN B SCOTNEY

06 February 2022 Having done Scotney to death over the last few months and not seeing much in the way of new birds, AP and I set out early yesterday to do a final different circular walk in the hope of finding elusive Corn Buntings and Tree Sparrows. We started near Lydd Church and headed out to Little Scotney and the Red House, returning via Scotney Court Farm and the Main Road. There has been a dearth of sightings of Corn Buntings and Tree Sparrows this winter in the Scotney area, though we did have 11 Tree Sparrows at Red House on the 7th Nov 2021. Corn Buntings have been absent except for a single bird seen a few times, but a flock of 100+ was by Scotney Court Farm on the 30th Dec 2020. Other bloggers have also only found a few very small flocks of these two species scattered across the Romney Marshes. Probably they are all still out there somewhere, we hope, but again we found none yesterday.

Anyway things started well when the usual flock of 36 Bewick’s Swans flew in past Lydd Church en route from the ARC Pit and landed in front of Horses Bones Farm off Denge Lane. Another smaller feeding flock with five Whooper Swans has been regularly reported further west near Baynham Farm. So it has been an excellent Wild Swan winter here. A Merlin wizzed past near the Farm but after that things went downhill. Distant flocks seen a week ago on the top of bushes that I had thought were Stock Doves were most probably Wood Pigeons, a lot of which were around yesterday. We did however see a few Stock Dove flocks of about 50 birds each at various other localities. A Raven was again seen next to a pylon platform and one hedge line did at least hold a Robin, a Wren, five Reed Buntings with a few nearby Skylarks, meagre pickings. A couple of Green Sandpipers and a Ringed Plover were heard in flight. The Scotney Court Farm Starling flock was arranged in regimented ranks on a ploughed field all facing the freshening breeze. A feeding group of Goldfinches was by the Pigwell Sewage Farm and a couple of birds of prey glided past and the Lydd Rooks were looking iridescently fine in the bright sun.