Weekend Highlights

Spent the last couple of hours of light at the west end of Rainham on Saturday, which produced two patch year ticks in the shape of a Common Buzzard roosting on a hawthorn on the silts, and a Green Sandpiper flew onto Wennington marsh.


Today was the first Kent survey of the New year for me and Mo.  Arriving just before light we stumbled upon no fewer than 5 Little Owls and two distant Tawny's calling.

On my transit one of the first birds I stumble across is an Iceland Gull on the new created flash, just west of egypt bay.  No sooner had I set my scope up - the bird took off and departed over the seawall never to be seen again!!  The bird seemed to be a 3rd winter type and could have possibly been the bird seen around Rainham landfill in the week by Dom.

Onwards it was nice to see Brents and several hundred curlew using the new habitat to roost, though the local Peregrine was always keeping the birds on their toes.

Several Marsh Harriers, Buzzards and a single Merlin were the other raptor highlights and the Skylark flock still peaking at around 200 birds.

The highlight of the morning was watching a very smart Kingfisher, which fished the small ditch along the site access track, giving great views for us both.

Late evening twitch to Rainham to score 3 adult White fronts which were found on wennington brings my score along nicely to 83, with thanks to H for getting news out.