The second programme of the series "Animals on the move" was on BBC4 this morning. It's about migrating animals and it featured some news of early migrant birds seen in the UK, so far this year. Two of the bird observatories taking part were in Kent, Dungeness, with David Walker and Sandwich Bay with Ian Hodgson, who for many years kept records of the birds at St Margaret's. It's a great programme with a good WEB site.
Yesterday I saw a Peregrine along the cliffs at Bockhill and today I saw two more at the masts along Reach Road. I was actually scanning the fields hoping to see an early Wheatear when I saw a flash of Falcon.
It was only when the Peregrine landed on the mast that I truly comprehended the scale of the structure. It looked just a tiny dot up there, but it certainly had a good view over the terrain.
Next a Carrion Crow passed me, carrying half a tree, well a couple of good sized twigs anyway. It dropped one and had to go down into the field to retrieve it.
It then headed up towards the left hand mast, but didn't have an easy time getting there. Both the Peregrines that had be in the air earlier buzzed it a couple of times, but it made it to a platform about half way up the mast and reappeared of couple of minutes later, minus the wood work.
On the way back to the village I noticed that David was ploughing the field that leads down to Reach Court Farm. I wanted to have a quick at the gulls as there seems to be an oiling problem along the coast with seabirds at the moment, with oild birds being reported from Thanet to Folkestone. I'm pleased to say I didn't find any here. Reach Court Farm has quite a lot of holiday accomodation, and the detailes can be found on their WEB site.
2 comments:
Maître Corbeau tenait dans son bec un fromage ( ou plutôt une brindille)...
Master Crow hold a cheese in its bill ( it seems to be a stick)...
Nice shots of the crows. Did you happen to feel any aspects of the quake down your way?
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