Ugly ducklings?

I was watching the world go by at Bushy Ruff, where as usual I failed to find that unusual grebe or duck that I hope will drop in one day, when I wondered why and how?

How can you start off with something as beautiful as these Mallards and then through domestication and selective breeding end up with:

something as ghastly as this,

or this?

but then if you think about dogs and remember that they all come are one species and can end up as big as a Great Dane or as small as a Chihuahua it is obvious that by selecting the features that are wanted by 'man', after a few generations the animal can look quite different from the original. This is I suppose an accelerated and distorted insight as to how evolution changes species, but I doubt that anyone could call one of that rather ugly ducks an intelligent design!

A Grey Wagtail wandered along the waters edge near where I was sitting and as usual I couldn't resist a few more pictures of this beautiful bird.

As usual I found it hard to get a shot when the tail isn't a blurr, as they always, or nearly always manage to wag as I click the shutter.

It was only when I was looking at them this evening that I noticed that it was ringed. I can't quite get an enlargement sharp enough to read any all the numbers on the ring. It would be interesting to know if this was ringed locally or if it had travelled some distance to get here.

It seemed to be finding morsels to eat along the edge, but even it there aren't any natural tit bits there are enough crumbs left over from the duck feeding rituals that go on (despite the notices asking people not to feed the ducks) for it to have learnt to utilise these freebies.

Keeping the French at Bay.

I've been fascinated by these Towers since, as a teenager, I stayed with a friend at his parents holiday home at ST Mary's Bay. We'd pass one on the way into Dymchurch in the evening to go to the amusement arcade. The idea for these towers came from a British Naval attack on Mortella Point in Corsica in 1794. Here a tower with just 38 men and three guns resisted an attack by two RN ships, and was only taken b the army after two day fighting.

The name Martello probably comes from watch towers in Western Italy called ‘Torri de Martello', or from a corruption of Mortella Point. There were 74 built in Kent and Sussex between 1805 and 1808 to guard against invasion by Napoleon. The were spaced along the coast from Folkestone to Seaford, and are numbered 1-74 on an interesting site about these historic buildings. The one above is number 14. Located on the beach in the Hythe army firing ranges. The letter ‘A’ was painted on the side of the tower at one time, signifying the range that the tower is located within.

Unfortunately the ranges were firing this afternoon so I couldn't walk along the beach for a closer look.

In the distance No 15 can be seen. It too is located in the Hythe army firing ranges. The letter ‘D’ was painted on the side of the tower at one point, signifying the range that the tower is located within.

This is the tower we used to walk past, on our way from St Mary's Bay into Dymchurch. It is number 25 and was twinned with no 24 and they were built to guard the Marshland Sluice. No 24 has been fully restored and is now open to the public as an English Heritage museum.

On the Hythe side of Dymchurch number 23 stands by the main road. It was built to protect the Willop Sluice in Hythe Road, paired with No.22 but No.22 was destroyed to make way for road widening. This tower has been restored and is used as a residence.

The towers were never used as a defence at Napoleon but others were built round the British coast, around 140 in total. In addition others were built as far afield as Australia, South Africa, Canada and Sri Lanka.

All in the timing and the tide.

Pegwell Bay is one of those places that if you're there at the wrong time everything is miles away. That's why it's important to use tide tables.

That's OK in theory, but it's not just the time that counts, I forgot that if the high tide is not a particularly high one there's still quite a lot of mud and roosting places way out from the hide. When I got to the hide Roly had had a Yellow-legged Gull but we failed to relocate it among the hundreds of gulls out there. Through the scope good numbers of most of the common waders, Redshank, Curlew, Knot, Sanderling, Dunlin, Oystercatchers and Grey Plover could be seen, albeit at a fair distance. I missed a group of Black-tailed Godwits but found one Bar-tailed and a few Turnstones. As the tide came up a bit, small numbers of Golden Plovers came in and a couple of Curlews came closer.

Looking out the waders were in strata, with a layer of Curlews about half way out and a dense layer of Oystercatchers near the waters edge.

Groups of Redshanks were feeding in the muddy edges that were left, their noisy calls ringing out over the bay.

A couple of Shelducks came into the scrape area, and although they were still quite a long way out I liked the reflection in the shallow water. I had bee a fine day but a band of cloud brought the light levels down quite early, and when the Warden arrived for a last look before locking up we chatted for a while but there were still no close waders as we left. Even when all the birds are those that you expect I find the spectacle of so many birds feeding and roosting, flying and sleeping totally absorbing, a well spent afternoon.

The young Naturalist.

Sam has already started to identify various birds, well groups at least. He can tell Toucans and Parrots as well as Ducks and Swans. Now Simon (our youngest and Sam's' Dad) has started him on some more difficult ID challenges.

I guess it's best if you don't cover up one lens with your gloves but it is a start at least. Simon took this picture earlier and it nice to know that another of the next generation is showing some interest. Today we did have a look at some garden birds.

We saw a lot of Chaffinches, there were up to 30 in the garden, but nothing more interesting joined them.

On the beach there's a lot to do, throwing stones is one of those irresistible things that everyone does.

We did find a couple of things to look at. This is the egg mass of the Common whelk - Buccinum undatum. These empty egg masses, known as 'sea wash balls', are often found on washed up on the beach and are sometimes mistaken for sponges.

One of the problems of being common is that you get called rude names. The Common limpet has a scientific name of Patella vulgata. A bit like the Common Starling that is Sternus vugaris. The Common Limpet is in fact extremely plentiful, but as the tide was up we had to do with finding empty shells. I'm sure that Sam will enjoy a bit of rock pooling in the summer.

Is Spring really coming?

With the news that London had its earliest Wheatear on record yesterday I set off along the path to Hope Point full of that eponymous quality. It was a glorious, but misty morning and the Skylarks were in full voice.

There were no migrants that I could find, just one of the small influx of Stonechats that arrived this week.
Nothing much on the sea either though I did have a fly by of two Shelducks. The dredger, I think it#s the Coral Millepora was off shore towards Kingsdown, this seems a favourite mooring site for this vessel.

Further out in the channel a tug was towing this strange object, any ideas?

In the garden there has been a definite increase in the number of Chaffinches and Greenfinches this week. Last year this was a prelude to a few Bramblings later in the month, so I'm hoping that they will stay a few days this year.

Greenfinches are beginning to sing and display, but I think it is a little early for them to be nesting, although I have seen a Blackbird acting rather furtively around one of the bushes they normally nest in.

Frogs are back in the ponds in some numbers, but so far no spawn. Last year there was a lot of spawn on the 14th Feb, but a late frost seemed to kill most of it off. I hope we have better luck this year.

Retreating Cliff Top.

A misty start to the day but it was still possible to see the latest large chunk of cliff to fall into the sea.

It doesn't look that much from the photo, but it's a long was down and some of those lumps of chalk are pretty large boulders. It makes that part of the shore look so clean, the slightly paler area nearer to the view point is from a fall about six years ago. We live about 1 Km back from the cliff top, so I reckon that it will be a while before the cliff erodes back to us, a good few centuries in fact.

Just below the view point a pair of herring Gulls were calling continuously, I wasn't sure if there was something around that was upsetting them, Jack told me he'd seen "the thing" (escaped falcon) around last week, but I couldn't see it around today.

One of them did have a fly round and not long after there was a huge commotion of Herring Gull calls as the whole of the local population escorted a Grey Heron as it flew along the cliff top.

Out in the fields the Rooks and Jackdaws were feeding noisily, they are early breeders and the Rookery in the village is already a noisy hive of activity.

In the garden the Great Tits were noisy, it's too early for them to nest but not too early for them to be making a claim for the nest box they want.