Short-toed Treecreeper Samphire Hoo

What a terrible photo, but the only one I got before I had to leave. To be fair the bird had already crossed the railway line and was now distant and difficult. It called like a Short-toed and the brownish flank is quite evident above. It managed to keep stems in the way of the wing. Hopefully it will come back later and someone will get a proper definitive picture so that the BBRC can't reject this one!

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!

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.

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.

I See You Baby

After the torrential rain and gale force winds of last night today became calm by late morning.

I did see this Kestrel sitting quietly, as it was relishing the better conditions.

Down in the Bay I found this Pied Wagtail. It had obviously had a close shave with death. My guess would be a Sparrowhawk or possibly a Kestrel, either way all it ended up with would have been a claw full of feathers.

Even with out the tail it still went through the "wagging" motion, and this looked quite funny, it reminded me of the Groove Armada song "I see you baby"

I see you baby, shakin that ass, shakin that ass, shakin that ass,
I see you baby, shakin that ass, shakin that ass, shakin that ass.

There was little around and I popped down to Samphire Hoe, hoping the Little Owl that's been showing at a hole i the cliff would be there so I could have a go at digi-scoping it. It wasn't, but I did have a good chinwag with the Paul Hold and Phil Smith.

As I left there was a pair of Stonechats by the road on the way out of the car park.

In the distance to shape of Dungeness PS was silouetted against the evening sky. Thats about 30.5 Km away, too far to see the Caspian Gull that was there today!