Stock take

Despite seeing hundreds of Wood Pigeons on a daily basis, so far I haven't bumped into any Stock Doves when I've been doing my Timed Tetrad Visits this winter. I know that they're out there but I've missed them so far. I think that they are very attractive in an understated way. Nome of the swagger and pomp of the Woodpigeon, or the yobbish behaviour of the Feral (Rock) Dove, they just quietly and all to often unobtrusively get on with their lives.

As soon as I'm in another area, this time near Little Mongeham, I see them. It was a species in severe decline back in the 1950's and 60's due to the use of organochlorine seed dressings. The population index has fallen slightly over the last five years, but they are still about five times more numerous than in the 1960's. The large flock of resting Herring Gulls in the background are taking a break from feeding on the waste that comes from Tilmanstone Salads. It's funny how some people in some places complain about how many "Sea Gulls" there are and yet man's dirty habits at refuse tips and waste sites continues to encourage them. It's rather like anglers, artificially stocking lakes and them complaining that Cormorants come and eat their fish. What on earth do they expect? If you provide free food then you will naturally get grateful takers!

Out for a paddle

When the rain stopped it seemed like a good idea to get out and do some birding. It was also an opportunity to get another TTV done. The 2km square I walked round today was centred on Studdal and goes by the official name of TR34E. I was rather disappointed at the number of birds I found, perhaps they've had enough of the monsoon season and moved! I would have done better to have worn wellies, even our well drained footpaths were beginning to resemble paddy fields in places.

One bird that did show was a Mistle Thrush (three in total) and I realised that this was the first I'd seen in a week of surveying, where have they all gone? In the old Birds of Kent (now over 30 years old) Mistle Thrushes were found in more than three quarters of the tetrads in Kent. Of course that was in the breeding season, when the males sing loudly from a high singing post. Perhaps they are just less easy to find at the moment.

The Common Gull, which winters with us in some numbers seems to like wet field to feed in and today they were particularly partial to horse paddocks, a common habitat in this area.

Rooks were fairly prominent, and there is a rookery in the village of Studdal. They never move far from their colonies and are one of the earliest species to get into the breeding cycle in spring, in fact it won't belong before they start the annual renovation job on their nests. I saw just 33 species today, but of course there is a second count later in the winter and casual records can also be added, so hopefully many of the gaps will be filled in.

How are your Sparrows?

For a long time, despite the reports of the huge crash in House Sparrow numbers from many places in the UK, the flock visiting my garden seemed to be in good health and number.

I'm sorry to say that this year all seems to have changed and instead of the 20 or 30 that regularly visited the feeders in past years, we are lucky to see more than a couple at any time. I can think of nothing that has changed that could have caused this reduction, the number of Greenfinches, Chaffinches and Goldfinches is building up, but the number of Sparrows is still low. I even noticed that although I saw and heard a few when walking through Whitfield yesterday it was just a few, and not what you would have expected to see in that sort of habitat ten or so years ago.

One species that hasn't suffered a reduction is the Woodpigeon, the number visiting my garden continues to increase, they particularly like taking a bath, and when they do I always have to refill it as they seem to take much of the water with them when they leave.

Yesterday afternoon, one of the farmers where I was doing my TTV told me he sometimes saw a Barn Owl near by. I decided to take a look round the area towards dusk this afternoon. I didn't see any owls, but as I was passing one field I noticed a couple of Carrion Crows on the ground next to an odd sort of lump. It was a narrow road and by the time I'd parked safely I could see that it was a Buzzard with it's wings spread over something on the ground. As soon as I wound down my window it took off and landed in a near by tree.

It was followed by second bird I hadn't seen, and it disappeared into the trees in the gloom.

Black Bunny

I took the opportunity, in the fine weather, to do an other TTV (timed Tetrad visit) for the BTO atlas project. Today's tetrad included most of Whitfield and I enjoyed exploring some of the North Downs Way, that follows the old Roman Road, near Pinenum.

Overall the number of birds, and the variety of species I encountered was rather disappointing, although I did enjoy bumping into a noisy and very active flock of Long-tailed Tits. The bird above looks as if it is in urgent need of renewing it's rather tatty tail feathers.

This one look rather more spick and span, but the group wasn't attracting any of the more unusual species that sometimes travel with tit flocks.

Even in the fields where there were some handsome horses, as is to be expected in this area, there were few birds to be seen, amonsgt the commoner birds, Blackbirds and Chaffinches seemed to be the most numerous.

One animal that I did encounter was a completely melanistic (black) Rabbit. Although it isn't that unusual, it is the first I can remember seeing since I was on Skomer, of the Pembroke coast. Here the black Rabbits are famous as they form a high proportion of the population.

I only saw the one black Bunny, all the others were quite normal. This one was so encouraged by the rare sunshine it allowed me to get quite close to take this photo.

Take away food.

The pond in our front garden is rather isolated, no over looked by the house and behind a high fence. It is quite a small area with a large tree at the top of a steep slope and I always thought that a Heron would find it difficult to land and take off there.

When I saw a Heron circling the house I did wonder where it was destined for, and I picked up my camera, just in case and went round the house to the front.

When I peered through the slightly opened gate, there it was, standing on the path by the pond.

It was only a few days ago that I'd said to Pam that the fish weren't very evident when I fed them. I'd presumed that the colder weather had made them stay deeper in the pond. The Heron suddenly jumped in the pond and emerged with a fish! I tried to get in a better position for a photo, but the bird saw me and flew off. I guess I'll have to try some sort of protection until it finds someone else's pond to feed in.

A new month, and a new resolve.

After what was a terrible month, both from the point of view of the weather and because I managed to injure myself so I didn't get any surveying done in TR34, today was a new beginning.

I must admit that there didn't seem a huge number of birds about but there were a few surprises. This Sparrowhawk wasn't one of them, but it was an interesting few minutes. First I saw it flying towards the hedge in front of me. I was on the last footpath, beyond Nelson's Park, walking towards Station Road. It sat there for a while and I tried to melt into the hedge so I didn't disturb it.

It was obviously interested in something in the hedge and suddenly dived in with just bits of the tail feathers and wings sticking out. I took the opportunity of advance towards the bird while it was buried in the bush.

I stopped as soon as it appeared, it was still looking into the thick hedge, and still without it's breakfast.

When it completely surfaced it stood there for a while, peering downwards, looking somewhat confused. I have to say I didn't see anything making a run for it. I always get the impression that Sparrowhawks rely on their prey panicking and breaking cover. They do however have very long legs to reach into the thickest bush, so it takes a strong nerve for a bird not to take a chance and flee.

There are few more stunning sights in the British birding world than a male Sparrowhawk sitting about eight yards in front of you, seemingly unaware of your presence.

It did seem aware of the noise of the camera shutter and looked up, as if checking out what the noise was.

Then it was off.it's little barrel chested silhouette dashing across the field. I'm sure that hte current generation of young birders must find it strange that us older chaps get so excited at seeing Sparrowhawks so frequently. It is easily forgotten that during the worst effects of the organo-phosphorus pesticide poisoning epidemic it was easy to go a year in Kent with out seeing a single Sparrowhawk.

It was a small male, and as it disappeared across the field I remembered how many descriptions of "Merlins" I'd look at when I was on the London rarities committee, mostly in the most unlikely sites. Male Sparrowhawks can look compact, and very falcon like.

I was surprised to see this rainbow as I looked towads Deal from Pond Lane. There were a few bonuses on the walk. A small flock of Golden Plovers on one field, near Westcliffe, and another of 19, flushed by a Peregrine going towards Beer Farm, was pleasing. I also had a couple of interesting fly-over calls, a single Redpoll went over calling loudly, but more exciting and frustrating was the loud "teu" repeated several times and then followed by a rattle. I didn't see the bird, but it sounds to me as if there's a Lapland Bunting to find out there.