Saturday 26 April 2008

A Day of Mixed Fortunes

Many of the birds that make their way on to Bockhill list are seen passing by while we are sea watching. I decided to have a quick trip to Oare Marshes and get some close views of a few of these species.

As usual at high tide, many of the waders that feed out on the mud, came to the reserve to roost. These Black-tailed Godwits, mostly now in their beautiful summer red spend most of the time asleep.
This male kestrel perched up beside me and it was too good an opportunity to miss, although of course is doesn't fit the specification of a migrant passed St Margaret's.
Most of the Common Terns we see are a long way out so it was a real treat to watch this one feeding along one of the fleets.
Occasionally we get small groups of Avocets migrating past the bay. This used to be considered a really rare bird in the UK but now they have become breeding birds at several places in Kent and there are over 800 pairs in England.

Not strictly a migrant over the sea at Bockhill, but mostly seen and heard as the fly over. It was good to see this male on territory even it it has what is probably the worst song of all our "songbirds".

Why! why do people dump rubbish.

This mattress was dumped by the side of the road to East Langdon. This is only about 3 miles from the free disposal facility at Whitfield. I couldn't do anything about this thing, it was too big to pick up.
I did however pick up all this rubbish dumped in pond lane, and it contained a real piece of luck, an envelope with an address on it. Guess who going to be getting it back tomorrow!

Todays Birding A real mixture of excitement, frustration and ineptitude. There were lots of Swallows and some House Martins and Sand Martins migrating this morning, plus an increase in Whitethroats singing. Then while we were lazily sitting around on the grass at the monument a Black Kite flew through. So intent was I on watching it that I never thought to get my camera, Phil thought about it in time to get some "record" shots. I was really cross with myself for not having my camera at the ready as it had flown almost directly over us. The frustration came this evening with the news that a White-billed Diver had flown passed Dungeness. Five of us assembled in the Bay in the hope that it would pass by and close enough for a good view. About and hour and a quarter after the Dungeness sighting Nigel picked up three birds flying up the channel. It soon became obvious that they were divers and that one was larger than the other two. But at the distance they were and the light conditions that was as far as it went. Three divers, one bigger than the other two.

Mothing. Not many moths, but I did have my first Double-striped Pug and Light-brown Apple Moth of the year.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Was the rubbish dumped? Perhaps it was accidentally dropped from a truck or from a dustbin lorry?Assumptions are very dangerous things indeed... :)

Tony Morris said...

A valid point (not in the case of the mattress). I will need to find out whether the refuse lorry uses Pond Lane. Assumptions may be dangerous but are a necessary precursor to experiment and proof.

Kingsdowner said...

Tony, that reminded me of a song called Alice's Restaurant...

We got a phone call from officer Obie. He said, "Kid, we found your name on an envelope at the bottom of a half a ton of
garbage, and just wanted to know if you had any information about it." And
I said, "Yes, sir, Officer Obie, I cannot tell a lie, I put that envelope under that garbage."


The full lyrics of this (long) song about the Vietnam draft are on http://www.arlo.net/resources/lyrics/alices.shtml

Anonymous said...

I agree it would be difficult to accidentally drop a mattress. Nothing can be taken for granted these days, not even rubbish. At least this particular assumption had more validity than the global warming assumption on the earlier thread :)

Tony Morris said...

I don't always feel comfortable being one of a vast majority. But since the majority here are led by just about all the eminent scientists in this field, and the dissenters are either economists or eccentrics, I have no doubt that I'm right.

Anonymous said...

Ah, that old chestnut - he's an eccentric. I see you are still banging on about something that no scientist can ever prove, so, er, you just guess instead and then add that you are 100% correct. Which leads me on to one proper scientist who made this comment:

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein.

See, even Albert admitted that he wasn't sure. I do enjoy our little conversations btw.

Tony Morris said...

Hi Mr Anon, can you post a name so I know who I'm debating with, I feel you are at an advantage knowing who I am, even if your weak arguments give me the edge! I shant be answering, or seeing any response for a few days, but once I'm able to sit at the computer I'll be back.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...
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Tony Morris said...

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "A Day of Mixed Fortunes":

Censorship of my posts just reinforces my point further. You should get your facts right before posting nonsense on your blog. Stick to the pretty bird pictures.... bye.

Tony Morris said...

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "A Day of Mixed Fortunes":

My weak arguments? I merely said that some of this rubbish may not have been dumped on purpose. If you are going to write a blog, you have a duty to keep it accurate. You are a whinger...



Posted by Anonymous to St Margaret's at Cliffe Photo Diary at 16 May 2008 19:03:00 BST