Birding today

I had another look at the area on the Lees where the elusive Barred Warbler had been at the weekend. I didn't see or hear it but a party of Long-tailed Tits proved entertaining and I couldn't resist a couple more pictures. These seed heads proved irresistible to them, but I don't think it was the seeds they were after, but rather the small insects that were on them.

Long-tailed Tit on wild Parsnip.

This one posed for a picture!

One of the things missing from Bockhill as a "local patch" is a good bit of wetland. We've got the sea but no marsh or river mouth for the birds to rest and feed and unlike Pegwell Bay the shore isn't attractive to most waders. In general our views are of waders is, like this Curlew, flying by with the sun making it difficult to see much more than a silhouette, when it's out, which is my excuse for such a rubbish photo. Mostly birds passing here are a long way out and a telescope is needed to identify them (or some of them).

One bird that does use the rocky shore line between ST Margaret's Bay and Kingsdown are Oystercatchers, with numbers sometimes reaching the twenties.

Other Birds During a short watch this morning there were a lot of Gannets off shore and two Artcic Skuas moved south. Large numbers of terns were moving but mainly at too great a distance for specific identity although a few Sandwich Terns were closer in.