Somewhere beyond the sea Somewhere waitin' for me.................

 I wandered down to the bay after lunch and spent some time looking at a mainly empty sea.

I did come across three Common Seals some way out and not visible without the aid of a telescope. I bumped into an OLD friend, or rather he covered my telescope to attract my attention. Jack told me that the local fishermen are reporting a lack of fish, and this will account for the lack of auks, Gannets and Divers on my sea watch. I did manage to add a few common species to my year list including Kittiwake, Fulmar, Great Black-backed Gull, Great Crested Grebe and Cormorant.

Even with the sun in my eyes I still enjoyed the view of the Bay from the Lees. 

From up here a big chunk out of the cliffs reveals some quite clean chalk face formed when the was a large fall a couple of years ago. As I looked out to sea a small group of Brent Geese headed north.

As dusk arrived I had another look round for the Barn Owl, but ended up looking along Pond Lane for anything in the field there. Almost immediately I came across a Common Buzzard, and as I watched it a Kestrel was up in the air, hovering behind it. Apart from that and a few Black-headed Gulls there was very little to see until I surprised a Common Snipe from the side of the road as I drove down the hill.

 From the top of pond lane there isa good view back to the village and "The Hidden House" is clearly visible.

 From up here I can see our attic windows It helps me to realise what a good view I get from them back over the fields. The attic list is quite good and includes Osprey, Honey Buzzard and Hobby.

 Just at the bottom of Pond Lane is St Peter's Church and Wallet's Court. The Church yard and gardens is a good place for Little Owl, but no sign tonight.

St Margaret's Church from Pond Lane.

A Date with Imogen

I had a date with Imogen around lunch time today. She was impressive, more so than Gertrude, but her spray made taking pictures without endangering my camera difficult, so I opted for a fairly safe distance.

Rather quieter was the water at Crabble, sheltered and almost flat as a mill pond, yes I know, it was a mill pond.

Asusual a Little Egret was defying the no fishing notices,

Hello Gertrude

A few shots of the Bay when Gertrude came to visit, a couple of days ago.

More gazing out to sea

The morning started with the disappointment of the scorecard in Sydney, bad even by the standards of this series, but improved as I watched a Green Woodpecker feeding on the grass while I drunk my first cup of tea. Unfortunately it wasn't as cooperative as they often are and spurned the photo shoot opportunity.

At the moment I'm finding the lure of the sea difficult to ignore. Not only is it beautiful to watch but news from near by raised my hopes of finding something our o9f the ordinary. Reports of a Glaucous Gull along the front at Deal and a Black Guillemot passing Dover Harbour had me, once again behind my scope watching the waves.

Of course sea birds aren't the only birds to be seen down there, but I only managed two species (apart from Crows and Jackdaws over the cliff) on dry land. One Pied Wagtail was feeding along the "car park" wall and about ten Rock Pipits were working their way along the shingle. Like most passerine birds, feeding on the ground, it is almost impossible to see the minute morsels of food that attract their attention.

This Rock Pipit hoped onto the breakwater (or is it a groyne?) and peered at the metal structure, before leaping up and picking something off the surface.

I have to say I do have a liking for Rock Pipits. They are hardy creatures, getting their livelihood along the bottom of the cliffs, and just coming together in the bay at high tide when the bay is the only feeding area left.

As the still over-active sea reached the beach it through up a large amount of spray and the surf foamed along the retreating waves. I was in this area that I noticed the flock of Black-headed Gulls feeding attentively amongst the bubbles.

I can only assume that the wave action brings to the surface small items of food that the gulls pick from the foam. Needless to say I didn't find a Black Guillemot or an unusual gull. There were still a lot of Common Guillemots, known as Murres in the USA, and large numbers of Kittiwakes and Fulmars. Again just one Red-throated Diver passed, quite close by and there were also a couple of small groups of Brent Geese flying up The Channel.

Today was FA cup day, but my team (the Gunners was given a bye into the fourth round by the Sp*rs, so there was no competitive game to see this afternoon!

The Bay today.

The Bay at lunch time was a great place to be. We're sheltered enough here for the extremes of the weather to be somewhat softened.

Even so the sea had a certain angry look about it as high tide approached. The car park is a mess, even more than when it was "renewed" in 2007 The sea has deposited a lot of shingle onto the top, but compared to many places we have nothing to complain about.

Sea watching was quite interesting, with loads of Guillemots both flying through and settled on the sea. The odd Gannet came through and there were loads of Kittiwakes and Fulmars zipping around in te windy conditions. One Red-throated Diver was about the only other bird of note.

Here it's quite safe to watch the waves crashing into the sea wall, but I'm always amazed how many people end up losing their lives because they are prepared to takes risks with the sea, despite all the warnings that are given each time a storm arrives. The line between exhilaration and irresponsibility is a fine one, but unfortunately the result can be devastating.

As a cricket fanatic, who has been disappointed by the performance of the English team in Australia one thought did come to my mind.

It's OK to play like a six year old when you're six, but not when you're 33 +. Sam hopefully will learn .............

Don't know why there's no sun up in the sky, Stormy Weather

The title of my post yesterday turned out to be prophetic and the port of Dover was closed for the morning due to force 11 winds.

It is hard to believe that I took this picture barely two hours after one of the heaviest downpours I've seen in the UK. This monsoon seemed to signal the sudden drop in the wind, that had been around 38-40 mph for several hours with gusts up to 68 mph late morning. Already the sea had calmed and it looked like a gentle surf rolling into the bay.

The view past "White Cliffs" is one of my favourites and were I still fit enough I would make the walk at low tide to Kingsdown along the bottom. I imagine at the height of the storm the waves would have been crashing into the base of cliffs adding to the slow erosion that the annual falls testify to.

Along at the White Cliffs NT car park it was evident that the wind had relented enough for the port to be back in action, and the ferries were on the move.

As I was now on the move I popped along to Samphire Hoe to see how the start of the year was treating then there. I met Phil Smith and we did the happy new year thing as the sun slowly dropped just to the lest of the Dungeness peninsular.

From the west, the nest bank of clouds were already building up, and before I got hove we had another heavy shower. Just to the left of the grass bank you can see Dungeness Power Station on the horizon, although it isn't responsible for the red glow in the sky!

Some of the waves breaking were still quite large, but despite warnings this didn't prevent one couple walking their dog along the path. Sadly or luckily, depending on your point of view, they seemed to have managed to miss the waves as they broke, thus denying me a dramatic photograph!

Afternoon in the Bay

After the away-day I decided a local day was called for. I put up a couple of new feeders full of delicious fat balls and refilled the seed feeders. There does seem to have been a small increase in the number of finches around, and with some poor weather on the way they might be needed.

After luch I went t the Bay. There have been so few birds around in the hedges and fields round here for the last couple of weeks, the sea seemed the best bet. Despite the fact that the bay looked at it's best at high tide there were few birds out in the bay. A few Guillemots flew by distantly, but I failed to find any divers or grebes off shore.

The sea here calms down very quickly after a blow, and although there was a slight swell the only indication of the rough seas we've had over the last few days was the covering of pebbles on the paths just inside the railings. As we approach the winter solstice the sun dips behind the headland quite early in the afternoon and very soon the chill air begins to creep through even the warmest jacket.

Although I've not seen as many Rock Pipits around this year as in past years there were six together at the north end of the car park.

This is certainly one species that appreciates the appalling quality of the work done on the car park, as they feed round the edges of the many puddles, or small ponds accidentally designed into the structure.

Of course there were gulls, but only the usual two came to see me, in the hope that they might be fed.

I did check on all the legs I could see, but so far this year I haven't found any ringed birds. This Herring Gull has almost lost all of it's winter streaks and is looking quite spick-and-span.

Spring is in the Air?

My car had it's annual MOT today, (only needed one side light bulb that I'd missed) and as it was in Kearsney I had an hour or so at Bushy Ruff when I picked it up.

I had no luck along the stretch of river where I've seen Kingfishers on previous visits, partly because an industrious worker was blowing leaves into piles with a rather noisy piece of kit. I have to say I question to value of this work. If they need to be moved good old fashioned, pollution free manual means would be more sympathetic to the environment.

I did find a pair of Grey Wagtails by the edge of the lake and the male flew onto the Lodge roof and had a sing. The beautiful weather certainly made it feel like spring and there was quite a lot of enthusiastic bird song, possibly prompted by the sunshine.

Quite a few Song Thrushes where singing, but they seemed to be quite shy, mainly staying hidden in the evergreen trees. Song Thrushes are one of the species that will sing most of the year, but as spring arrives they are more consistent and become one of the mainstays of the dawn chorus.

Not only Blue Tits, but also Great Tits and Coal Tits were very vocal. Blue Tits often get very active in good weather at the beginning of the year, investigating potential nest sites and displaying territorial protection, but when the weather is bad this dies down. Inevitably they nest pretty much at the same time each year.

I noticed the Mute San swimming towards me with the sun behind it. Normally I do everything I can to get the sun behind me, but in this case I thought the back-lit image was effective.

I could resists trying again with these Teasels, I know it is completely the wrong lens, but I still quite liked the pattern that the fine spines produced around the edge of each seed head.

A look at the bay failed to find anything unusual, but I did like the patterns on the wing coverts of this juvenile Herring Gull.

The seas was calm and there were lots of gulls (Black-headed and Herring) and a large group of loafing Fulmars off shore. Occasionally a Cormorant came by, and two Brent Geese flew up channel. No Auks, Grebes or Divers were on show today, but the windier weather towards the end of the week may change this.

Wet Wet Wet

Today we were promised rain and we got rain. About 2 inches worth. The roads were inundated and although it doesn't quite look like Rockhampton in Queensland, the fields are looking very wet.

I drove through Rockhampton on Nov 15th 2007, but I remember little about the town, except that it made me think of the Rockhampton Rocket, Rod Laver. It was some where near here that I stopped in some forest and found a Little Friarbird. My photo notes just say "Forest off the Bruce Highway near Rockhampton QLD 15/11/2007". All I can remember is a very dry, flat area, now an area as large as France and Germany put together is under water, quite unimaginable.

Down in the Bay today I did note this very clean and tidy looking Herring Gull. already smart having lost it's head and neck streaking.

The rain was torrential and I didn't manage to see any divers or other interesting birds. These two Cormorants went by, but I can't explain the "ghost" under the front one, or the strange outline on the back one. It seems the rain had a strange affect.

Back on line

After a day and a half with no access to the WEB or e-mail, I'm back on line. The problem seems to have been with a server somewhere but I don't know how many people were affected. It's when you haven't got it that you realise how often you use it! Bird Guides, the Weather, BBC Sports etc etc. So not post yesterday.

The night of Tuesday/Wednesday was wild and windy and "Scar-face" turned up at about 10.30 and quickly demolished his peanuts. Looking well healed I think you can see two puncture marks on the side of his nose. Whether they were caused by teeth or claws I'm not sure.

Over night the wind gathered pace and by mid-day was getting up to a force eight and perhaps even higher out a sea. Down in the Bay the waves were breaking over the railings and throwing up large amounts of shingle.

The spray was sufficient of me not to get too close with the camera. sea water not being very sympathetic to photographic gear, but even from a distance the power of the sea looked pretty awesome.

The Spring tide was pretty high and I think it is the first time that I've seen waves come over the walls at Dover Harbour. The swell in the harbour was sufficient to have the waves breaking over the beach and onto Marine Parade. From Dover I went on to Samphire Hoe where I shared a pleasant half hour chatting over a cup of tea. Finally we made it out into the wild weather and were treated to a pair of Black Redstarts and a cracking male Ring Ouzel that flew up and disappeared into a large bramble bush half way up the Cliff.

"Pretty" face came first last night. It's not difficult to work out that after all the rain "snouting" out worms had been on the agenda before arriving at the peanuts.

While I was looking round the lawn this afternoon, find evidence of Badger feeding, and cursing how fast it was growing since I cut it last week, I was joined by " Donald and Daphne" from the village pond. They seemed to fing the freshly grown grass to their taste but I don't think the two of them cam manage to graze the whole lawn for me.