Happy New Year
After an evening of celebration without any drink we woke to find a beautiful sunny New Years Day, so David and Lynda decided to stay a little longer for a trip round the marshes. As I am still not up to hiking around so everything was done from the car. With such a short time and confined to the car the daily tally was only 36 species. Walland Marsh lived up to its name as a marsh with roads and fields flooded. There was a group of birders near the flying club with reported bewick/whooper/crane and waxwing none of which I saw. At the feeding station yellowhammer , Mistle Thrush and tree sparrows were present and still only Mute swans to be found. Returning via Scotney produced huge numbers of Golden Plover and Lapwing but only geese seen were Greylag. Dropped into Dungeness and was amazed at the amount of visitors have never seen the car park so full. The sunny weather and New Years day Holiday had everyone out in droves. Little on the notice board considering the amount of birders there was out and about. Parked on the causeway to have a Great White Egret sitting on a bush then to our suprise a Bittern flew alongside the car and dropped into the reeds further along the road . The Dungeness Estate was again awash with cars so chances of Glaucous was slim so we did not even stop. So probably one of the lowest counts I have ever had on New Years day list. No geese other that Greylag and not one raptor. Heres hoping my back gets better so I can do some walking and add to the list. I have never recorded more than 200 birds in Kent in one year ( 198) and was hoping that my first year in retirement would exceed that total so my health has to improve a lot to enable me to meet that total. Also have to rely on Val to be my chaffeur.
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