A round Rock Pipit

Lars Jonsson, one of the great bird artists in Europe, is sometimes criticised for making his smaller birds too plump, by those used to seeing them in our gentle climate. This Rock Pipit is demonstrating just how round it can look, when facing a cold wind coming from the Channel. There was little else on show when I popped down to the Bay, but I always look through the Rock Pipits hoping to find a Water Pipit or a Scandinavian Rock Pipit, both of which have occurred here.

As I drove out I noticed the Kestrel sitting on an aerial close to the road. Fortunately there were no cars coming either way and I turned the engine off and to a couple of pictures.

Changes in the garden

I noticed some change in the guard in the garden today. Fine and a lot colder than of late there was a lot of activity in the feeding stations.

There are always a fair number of Blackbirds around the garden, but they tend to be protective of their individual feeding areas and repeated drive interlopers away.  Today there were five on the patio feeding area busily picking up the spillage from above with little interaction between them In total there were at least ten around. 

Like many people I've noticed the number of Greenfinches in the garden has been very low. This has been the situation for a couple of years, probably due to Trichomonosis a disease caused by the protozoan parasite Trichomonas gallinae. It has been recorded in a number of garden bird species and is widely acknowledged to be the causal factor in the rapid decline of the British Greenfinch population that was first noted in late summer 2006 

Today there was small influx of around six birds, all looking very fit and healthy. Sick birds are normally very fluffed up and slow moving unlike the sleek bird above, that does looked startled at having to share his feeder with a chaffinch.  

Down in the Bay the sea was quite calm, but the tides high. These are good conditions to watch Rock Pipits that move into the Bay when the areas below the beach are covered.

Above I noticed two Kestrels cruising along the top of the cliffs. Their numbers do seem a bit down as other predators have increased in the county.

I'm not quite sure what this one is doing, but it seems to be scanning the area, either for prey or for any danger around.

Our magnificent car park is now perfect habitat for pipits and wagtails, that all seem to enjoy rough ground with puddles in it.

Altogether there were three Rock Pipits and one Pied wagtail making use the shambles that out council taxes financed

Coming back for a trip to Folkestone I stopped to scan a field with around 40 Common Gulls. There were a few Black-headed Gulls with them, (One above).

Towards the back of the field I noticed an adult Mediterranean Gull, still in complete winter plumage.

When it flew it had a ring on its right leg, but it was to far to be able to read any information.

The Windhover

Do you remember when there seemed to be Kestrels hovering by any motorway at about mile intervals. Although you still see some in this situation it certainly seems that there are far fewer in these obvious circumstances than there were. The last BTO Bird Atlas indicates a breeding decline of over 40% in the last forty-five years.As it is a widespread species, and the usual[measure is the presencein a 10km square this isn't immediately obvious when suitable squares can sustain as many as 50 pairs

Fortunately there are still reasonably obvious around the village and I watched one lazily scanning the fields from a telegraph pole along Collingwood Road.

I was interested to see how they were doing in Kent and the new Kent Breeding Birds Atlas, an essential book for anyone interested in the County, gives a more local picture. There are 1001 tetrads in Kent (that is 2km x 2km squares) and this was the survey unit for the Atlas. In 491 of these Kestrel were probable or confirmed breeding and possibly bred in a further 381. In good habitats the breeding density is 4-6 pairs per tetrad, lower in urban or predominately arable farmland. This would been a county population in the range of 2500-3000 pairs.This would make it still our commonest bird of prey, with Sparrowhawks and Buzzards in secondand third place.

The bird I was watching was probably one of last years young, and it was rather inactive while I watched it, except when it was buzzed by a second bird, possibly one of its siblings.

This afternoon I had a few tasks that took me into Dover and I took the opportunity to have a look at the much photographed, and sketched (by Norman Maccanch) Red-breasted Merganser. 

She wasn't in the mood to let me get photos of her swimming and diving, but instead rested in the comparatively warm winter sunshine.

Of course there were lots of Cormorants around. Sensibly there were no other birds standing behind this bird at this moment.

When you see Red-breasted Mergansers in more usual surroundings they seem quite large ducks, but next to the photo-bombing Herring Gull it really does look tiny.

I mentioned the Breeding atlas at the start. Anyone interested in obtaining a copy (they're £15 for KOS member and £22.50 for non members they can be ordered on the KOS web sight on the publications page, or if you are near St Margaret's, let me know for a personal delivery.

Autumn has arrived

This morning the weather relented and the gloom partly lifted, and I motivated myself to walk across to Bockhill and Hope Point. 

As I walked down the Droveway, a Peregrine, with a rather full crop flew over my head and proceeded inland towards Ringwold. I hastily snapped it, but failed to allow properly for the dark silhouette effect against the sky, hence the poor picture.

At farm wood I was aware of a bit of a kerfuffle and as I got closer a Kestrel, followed by a Sparrowhawk left the wood and circled in the sky.

The Sparrowhawk was definitely less than enamoured with the presence of the Kestrel and was giving it a hard time.

They got pretty close to each other and it almost look like their own tribute to the dog-fights that had taken place over the White Cliffs during the Battle of Britain.

When |I got to the Kingsdown Leas I was a little disappointed to see that the large part of the lawn at Little Green and be recently mown. Happily they had left two large areas that contained some beautiful spikes of Autumn Lady's-tresses (Spiranthes spiralis).

This is the smallest of the British Orchids and they are particularly fond of growing in short turf on the chalk around St Margaret's and Kingsdown.

This year many of the spikes have grown a couple of inches higher than I've seen in previous years. Perhps this is due to the amount of rain that has fallen at their peak time of growing. 

A close-up shows the intricate individual flowers on each spike. It is a shame that an enthusiastic lawn mower man, can't call him a gardener, 'cos a gardener wouldn't cut the grass while these precious flowers are growing, probably mower about 8,000 spikes in the name of a short lawn!

There were still some Painted Ladies around, but in the increasing cloud and dropping temperature, they weren't sunning themselves much.

View to the monument from near Hope Point. 

The Golf Course, with Hope Bay Studio in the background.

Bockhill Farm, with the Empty Wood to the fore.

Ring Ouzel Day

After I'd finished going through my moth traps, a good morning with a Gem and a Humming-bird Hawk-moth, I decided to have a walk around Bockhill. The first week of October is ideal for Ring Ouzels and I was sure I'd find some. In fact I drew a blank along the hedges round the farm and the Freedown. There were a few Chiffchaffs around and the sky was full of feeding Swallows, not birds flooding through on migration as they were at the weekend but birds making the most of the warm weather and the insects over the fields to stock up before moving on.

I did move on, down to Hope Point. Well before I got there I could hear the characteristic chacking of Ring Ouzels. The best way I can describe the noise is a cross between a Blackbird alarm and an old fashioned football rattle. Standing by the stile and scanning the shrubs at the point, I quickly found a couple at the back sitting up and chacking away.

Another one was slightly closer, nearer the edge of the field that goes up the hill beside the gold course. I could hear others calling and in the end saw six birds, although given the density of the scrub, there may have been more.

There were a few Song Thrushes around and two fed along the footpath by the scrub. They were feeding intently and were reluctant to fly as I walked along. I got the feeling that they were probably migrants that had arrived with the Ouzels.

Also along the path this Spotted flycatcher was chasing a Small White butterfly. I was surprised that it missed, but like the thrush above the pale tips on the coverts show that it was a first year bird, possibly not yet very experienced at butterfly catching.

In the more open area towards Hope Bay Studio a Stonechat was flycatching from the tops of the bushes. This ones been around for at least a few days and will probably be with us through the winter, provided it isn't too harsh.

Overhead one of the local Kestrels was hovering. On the left wing you can just see the Alula being raised. This group of small quill feathers attached to the first digit are used by the birds to prevent stalling at low speeds, rather like the flaps on an aircraft wing.

Making a viewing point out of a Mole Hill

Not only is the spring late and the weather awful, I was away when many of the migrants that have arrived or passed through did so. Therefore, rather late this was my first Common Sandpiper of the year

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At the same time the Reed Warblers singing in the ditch behind the Hide at the Restharrow Scrape were also new for the year. Water in the scrape has dropped by about six inches since last week.and this could have an architectural consequence

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Last week the House martins were collecting from the sandy island at the far end of the scrape. The mud here is much darker and may well give rise to two tone nests on the estate.

As I drove along the Ancient Highway I watch a Hobby zooming passed and then just after Willow Farm I noticed a lump sitting on top a a mole hill, and that seemed to be a continuing theme. The distances were quite large so I apologise now for the photos, but I thought the story worth telling.

There were at least two Hobbies around, and I suspect that they were fairly newly arrived and hadn't yet been given the route to Grove Ferry and Stodmarsh.This ones not actually perched on the cows nose, but another mole hill!

Most of the time I was watching they only took short low flights around the filed and I didn't see them catch anything, although it may be they were using the mole hills to find invertebrates on the ground.

There was something very "English Countryside"about this bucolic scene, but it's one that wouldn't have been possible twenty years ago, when Hobbies were still quite scarce in Kent.

This one had just move to what was obviously an extra attractive molehill, and had settled down for a preen and general chill out.

Then  another falcon caught my eye, at first expecting a second Hobby I was surprised to see it was a Kestrel and that it was making straight for the Hobby.

There was little doubt as to who was the aggressor in this confrontation, although to be fair the Hobby showed little reaction at first.

 For a while they sat there staring at each other, the Hobby somewhat perplexed that his presence had caused such a reaction from the locals. In the end he flew a short distance to the next mole-hill. At this point I did wonder if the Hobby had indeed found a prey item because the Kestrel seemed to be picking something up from where the Hobby had been,

While I'd been watching this a pair of Grey partridges had been quietly gewtting on with their business, presumably neither of these two small birds of prey offer any threat to them.