Hooked on Twilight

The last few evenings have produced beautiful light at about 3.40 p.m. Today the sunset at 3.46 p.m. and I watched a flock of Lapwings flying round, sometimes to the west and at other times to the south. Of course I was waiting for them to pass through the illuminated sky as they came in to land. Below are a few of the results, all taken within a couple of minutes.

White Owls

This week it is two years since I started my Photo Diary. I must admit that I have moved my objectives and scope quite a bit since I started. Back then I intended to post one image a day taken in the village. Now I have broadened the subjects, to include my wanderings around East Kent, and a few form further away when we take holidays or breaks with the family. I reckon that I've posted about 2300 pictures, which have been fun to take and hopefully have been enjoyed by a few readers.

After my encounter with the Short-eared Owl, or rather during the time I was watching it, I met local photographer, Tony Flashman. He told me the best area to watch for Barn Owls at Worth. It turned out to be just where I'd parked in the rain a week ago. This evening was fine, and as I parked I stopped to watch a group of Grey Partridges in the stubble.

Near me a the hedge was a continuous staging post for a host of thrushes going to roost. Most seemed to be Blackbirds and Redwings, with a few Fieldfares chuckling as they passed by. Most of the time I was looking into the sun and the identification of some of the smaller birds arriving and disappearing into the bushes was not possible.

One danger of repeatedly looking for owls is the temptation for repeatedly taking sunsets. As Oscar Wilde said I can resist everything except temptation.

Two mute swans flew over, and I think they were off to roost on the flood you can see from the Mary Bax stone.

Finally I suddenly realised that the white, ghost like shape above the reeds was a Barn Owl. It was too far and too dark to take photos, but when did that stop me getting a blurred smudge?

It hunted along a ready area on the other side of the field. There were several digging machines and trucks being used, not far from where it was hunting, but this didn't seem to be any deterrent to it.

You can see how dark it is by the brightness of the light it is passing. In the background you can see the gasometer at Deal. When it reached to corner of the field I was surprised to see it joined by a second Barn Owl and the flew together for a few seconds before the second owl flew back and away over the reeds.

Although it is just a shape, you can see the large head and flat face from this angle.

A helicopter came over and I took this picture as it passed. It's interesting that even at a 1/250 sec the movement of the blades is almost stopped, I wonder what rpm the go at?

By this time it really was getting too dark to see the owls.

The Murder of Mary Bax

After yesterdays Owl photo session I stopped to catch the sunset at Mary Bax.

On 25 August 1782 Mary Bax was walking along the Ancient Highway from Deal to Sandwich carrying a parcel. She was 800 metres beyond the Chequers Inn when she was apprehended by a Swedish sailor, Martin Lash, who demanded the parcel. She refused, and in the struggle Mary Bax was struck many times and murdered; her body concealed in a ditch.

The murder was witnessed by a young boy, described as the son of 'a looker in the Marshes' (a looker was a shepherd). The boy ran back to Deal to raise the alarm.

Martin Lash was eventually apprehended in Folkestone asleep at the foot of one of the tombstones in the parish churchyard, still in possession of the stolen parcel. It transpired he had deserted his ship while it was in the Downs. He was taken to Maidstone Gaol, tried and executed.

The bleak lonely site of the murder is marked by Mary Bax's Stone. The notice reads "On this spot August the 25th 1782 Mary Bax, spinster, aged 23 years was murdered by Martin Lash, foreigner who was executed for the same."

This evening I went to Maidstone for the monthly KOS meeting. Tonight's talk was "Sichuan - The Hard Way" by Gordon Allison (RSPB warden in North Kent).

Gordon gets ready to continue the talk after the tea break, while in the background one member describes the size of the fish he saw the Green Heron eat at Hythe.

I couldn't resist copying this picture of Gordon's. I've long forecast an Olive-backed Pipit in the garden of Ship House on Kingsdown Lees, and this could just about pass for that occurrence.

The secret forests of South-West Sichuan are in trouble as modern life encroaches further and further into these isolated hills, where the values of Tibetan Buddhism have helped to protect the unique biodiversity for centuries. Gordon's talk illustrated the work carried out in conjunction with Beijing Forest University and the World Pheasant Association during a sabbatical visit in October 2007, to raise public awareness of the plight of the "King of the Forest" - the White-eared Pheasant - and the fragmented habitat where it lives. Gordon finished off with some photos of Giant Pandas in a breeding project. It was in Sichuan that much of the Pandas natural habitat was damaged by the earthquake that killed 10,000 people in May 2008.

Evening Hunter

A full days birding, with no rain today. This morning, Jack and I had a visit to our BTO tetrad, as part of the winter atlas survey. It seemed as if most of the small birds had seen us coming and disappeared as there were fewer birds around than we had expected. The most notable exception were Common Gulls, these seem to have arrived in large numbers over the last week or so. Then, as I settled down to have a cup of tea, Peter Wells phoned to tell me to get out in the garden as a Red Kite was heading my way. Within a few seconds I heard a bit of a hubbub of Crows and there it was being mobbed by a gang of corvids. I had time to get Pam out into the garden to see it, but forgot to get my camera and record the event until it was too late, as by then it was flying directly into the sun. This was the 84th species identified from the garden, but there are loads missing that should turn up some time. Thank you Peter for the quick call!

Driving along the Ancient Highway, across Worth Marshes the afternoon I watched this Black-headed Gull following a Lapwing. It reminded me of a paper I read a while ago "Kleptoparasitic attacks by Black-headed Gulls on Lapwings. As far as I remember the situation was quite complex, with a Gull "looking after" a Lapwing, i.e. preventing other gulls bothering it, in return for half of its food. A bit like getting married. I think that Lapwings even learn to feed at night to avoid the Gulls attentions.

At the Restharrow Scrape hide there was a Common Snipe feeding close by. The sun was beginning to set, and I think the evening sun really sets off the Snipes subtle plumage.

The first field guide I had was about 1955, and it was Roger Tory Peterson's "Field Guide tot he Birds of Britain and Europe". Inside the front cover were two Pages of Silhouettes of birds perched and inside the back cover, birds flying. He didn't have this species, but he did have a Little relative. Well since I got the exposure all wrong into the setting sun I thought it would make a good quiz question.

Although you can see Short-eared Owls on the wing in full day-light they are more active in the evening. By the time this bird was flying around in range it was getting quite dark.

It sat on a post about 50 yards away, but I'm sure it heard me open the car window. First it looked left.

The it stared straight at me, with those piercing yellow eyes.

And then it looked right.

Before flying over the rough ground hunting. It did drop into the grass a couple of times, but I didn't see it come up with any prey. There favourite food is small mammals, mostly Field Voles in the UK. The winter population here is supplemented by birds from Northern Europe, and in years when there are few Lemmings there can be large influxes into the UK.

Pigeon Hole

December can be very birdless at St Margaret's unless the weather brings us refugees from the north that are trying to avoid a particularly bad spell.

I thought that this Black-headed Gull was looking particularly smart, showing off its red flippers.

This relic, left over from the war seems to have become refuge for Pigeons.

While I was wasting time, looking a nothing much in the bay, I noticed an unopened message on my phone. As usual I'd left it in my coat pocket so hadn't heard the message arrive yesterday. It was news of some Lapland Buntings seem by Peter Wells on the other side of the village. Of course when I phoned I only got the answering service, Peter being almost as likely as me not to know where he phone is (according to his message). I did find a good flock of Chaffinches in the area, but no Lapland Buntings, I guess they will have moved on.

There was a discussion on KOSnet last week about the rise in the numbers of Green Woodpeckers, and as I regularly seem to find them in from of my lens they do seem common round here. This one was feeding by the large pile of manure along Collingwood Road. I imagine that the rotting straw must both help kept the near by temperature up and attract a fair few insects.

No WInd Farm!

The bay at high tide was quiet with just a few Black-headed Gulls bathing in the large pond, or puddled car park.

The sea was fairly gentle, unlike Venice there were no flood warnings here.

There was one surprise, a single Brent Goose drifted round the southern edge of the bay and out of sight.

From the house I could see the "blimp" at Langdon. From my landing window the height of it, moored where the top of the Wind turbine would be, if planning permission is given, was a frightening reminder of the horrible desecration of the landscape it will bring. The worst thing is that from all the information I can find it is obvious that schemes like this do NOTHING towards helping the environmental problems with global warming. So inefficient are they, when all the infrastructure "carbon" costs are included that they are not in credit by the time that they are due to be decommissioned. It is a con, by the Government and by the Electrical industry, with the tax payer the financial victim and the residents the environmental victims.

I went along to the site to get a closer look. Let us hope that the hard work of the LANGDON ACTION GROUP pays dividends and the application is turned down.

Near by I noticed a few thrushes in a small field a few thrushes fooeding, but the two Miatle Thrushes that I intended to target (with my camera) decided to fly the moment I put the car window down, leaving this Song Thrush, along with several Blackbirds.

What connects this Tug to St Margaret's Bay?

I spent some time sea watching this morning, and unfortunately that was it most of the time sea. There were a few Fulmars around, often sitting in a small raft off shore, but very little else.

My attention was taken by this smart little barge that was coming by. It had a nice ornithological name Osprey Fighter and a flag I didn't recognise.

I was quite a way off shore so this is as good as it get for the flag.

The flag of St Vincent and the Grenadines

Well google is a wonderful thing and I quickly found out about the Osprey when I got home. It is a Tug and was brought into service a year ago. Build in China, by a Singapore company it was delivered to Newcastle (coals too?) last November, and is said to mark a significant step forward for owner Osprey Shipping Ltd. The flag is that of St Vincent and the Grenadines. So somewhat like a tortuous crossword puzzle we come to the connection. I was sea watching next to the house in the bay that was once owned by Ian Fleming, himself a keen birdwatcher. Fleming wrote the first James Bond story while on holiday in Jamaica, and named him after the ornithologist who wrote the first field guide to the Birds of the West Indies. This includes such birds as thew St Vincent Whistling Warbler. Even better, my son Robert spent a summer on St Vincent on an expedition to study this rare endemic Warbler.

The tug passed by and for some reason all the gulls roosting on the rocks, and the only birds to look through in the hope of something unusual, took off and followed it as it disappeared towards Deal. Of course all this begs the question, why this flag?

We often talk about winter thrushes and normally mean Filedfares and Redwings. Round here most of them have arrived and moved on, but we still have a big influx of the commonest of the thrushes, The Blackbird. Today as I walked round the farm there were loads feeding on the edges of the fields, ready to dive for cover as soon as danger appears. Unfortunately there was little else, so I wasa forced home in the rain to watch the football. Disappointed with the first derby result but over the proverbial moon with the second.