Reculver in the Mist

27th Nov.

It was just a bit of exercise at Reculver this morning as two large lorries were parked to the east of the towers loaded with some large concrete structures.  Started the walk only having to jump off the seawall as a large tractor and trailer rumbled past back to the lorries, one with the load, the other with a large crane attached.

I walked a good way towards Cold Harbour seeing nothing on the beach except c.20 linnets and seeing diggers etc further on I decided to abort.

The only bird photo I got was a pied wagtail on the car park! Time to go in Hats Hats.

Starting the Blog Again

25th Nov.18

With the demise of flickr changing the amount of postings I thought I might see if I can remember how this blogging works. 

The past week or so has been cold with the easterly wind so I only made a few trips in between the school runs etc.. A couple of visits to Hampton finally paid off and I found the two purple sandpipers resting on the breakwaters at high tide on the 22nd and just one redshank.

Last week on a miserable day I took the wife for a drive to Thanet ending up at 'The Captain Digby' where we had coffee and a pastry or two. I went down onto the beach with my camera and got a few shots of the cliffes and tidal foam.

Kingsgate Bay

Today, 25th Nov., I took a walk along the Swale meeting Peter Maton and Chiddy where we walked along the beach hoping to find Mark' snow buntings he saw yesterday. No luck of course but plenty of brents c.2500 on the incoming tide and fields, c100+ wigeon amongst them at Castle Coote. A couple of the fields had not been ploughed and crops planted, the remaining stubble held loads of skylarks, reed buntings and linnets, if only farmers could do this a bit more.  Also at this point the view inland might be covered with solar panels in the future!

Reading the latest plan for the solar farm they have increased its distance from the seawall to 63 meters, which includes the present strip of the LNR reedbed. So they are very close the edge of the dyke, 300yards might be acceptable and give the wildlife a chance and not be quite in your face!

Wigeon and brents feeding close to the shore as the tide came in at Castle Coote

Future Posts

9th March

For the time being I'm giving the blog a rest as its another time consuming job that I find difficult to keep up with, plus I only get about 20 hits each time which doesn't make it worthwhile.

However, my flickr site is always kept right up to date and now Facebook.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/whitstablewildlife/

Nuthatches at Bossenden Wood

23rd Feb

Made a visit to Bossenden Wood and photographed the nuthatches in the cold weather.

Dunlin and Fieldfares.

16th Feb. 18

Another visit to Seasalter hoping for better dunlin shots finding just a few along the shoreline with turnstones. On the back field were 105 curlew plus c.600 golen plovers and c.300 brents. Lapwings were plentiful with c.400 dotted about over the fields.

17th

No birding but a drive out in the afternoon and a stop for a cup of tea at Brogdale with the wife was rewarded with seeing several fieldfares in the car park.

18th

Lovely sunny morning after the frost, spring in the air and great to see the barn owl flying around at 9.30 plus a marsh harrier later on.  I went on to Oare marsh but it looked extremely quiet with  only a few pintail and shovelers close to the road.........went home.

Hawfinches, fieldfares and redshanks.

1st. February

                           https://www.flickr.com/photos/whitstablewildlife/

Another attempt at hawfinch photography at Godmersham. There didn't seem to more than  half a dozen about but I had one close encounter on my own and got a few shots.

Also it was the night of the 'super moon' so I took a few shots.........it didn't seem any more 'super' than any other night.

8th Feb.

Nothing much more until the 8th and another go at the hawfinches.

12th Feb.

An afternoon drive over to the back of Faversham with the wife, we stopped for a cuppa at Brogdale and on the way out noticed several fieldfares feeding at the back of the carpark......just right for photos, didn't even get out of the car.

15th Feb.

A morning visit to Hampton spending most of the time photographing a couple of redshanks.

Out And About In The Latter Half January

20th Feb

Just catching up with all the PC stuff on these two drizzly days, unfortunately the blog comes last in the queue. More up to date photos here;

https://www.flickr.com/photos/whitstablewildlife/


Wed 10th Jan.

A lovely sunny day so I took a trip to Dover harbour meeting Steve Reynaert and Nick Smith where we spent time photographing the 14 guillemots and 3 shags.

Where's the bread?

 pm

At Seasalter, 2 marsh harriers plus several fieldfares in the Graveney cherry orchard

Fri 12th Jan.

A quiet morning at Hampton finding 2 redshank, 4 turnstones and one purple sandpiper.

13th Jan.
A quiet morning at SS but c.400 barwits and c.500 knot and a similar number of brents.

14th Jan
A trip to Godmersham seeing 5 hawfinches, 1 grey wagtail, several greenfinches and chaffinches plus a mistle thrush, 2 goldgrests, long-tailed tits, sparrowhawk and a buzzard. Also met Rob and Marie from Twiddle.

16th Jan.
Another cloudy day but I took a short walk to SS finding a few turnstones and dunlin on the shoreline and took a few photos. Also, 105 curlew on the back pasture with c.300 brents and c.600 golden plovers.....lots of lapwings dotted about, maybe c.400 birds.

17th Jan.

Heavy seas at Hampton

18th Jan

4 hawfinches at Godmersham.

19th

More dunlin photos at SS. plus whilst testing my old SX50 on gulls by the outfall I think a yellow-legged gull revealed itself when looking at the pictures back home?

Yellow-legged Gull?

20th Jan

Turnstone survey for the SBBOT, Whitstable harbour to the Sportsman, c.3 miles to be done in an hour and in the rain!  However, I managed to find 78 during hightide.  Also at SS were 21 grey plovers, c.300 dunlin, c.50 ringed plovers, 1 sanderling and a dozen redshank.

28th Jan

Another visit to Hampton.

29th Jan.

A trip to Margate and North foreland seeing c.200 sanderling in Margate harbour, right outside The Turner plus a few turnstones.  I moved ontoPalm Bay finding a few fulmars and 1 rock pipit and a stonechat.

30th Jan

Another trip to Margate again  seeing the sanderlings again plus 2-3 rock pipits.