31st January 2021

Not a lot to report this week despite continuing areas of floodwater…

Although it has remained frozen for much of it…

Although this didn’t put off the Black-headed Gulls or the Pied Wagtails with a dozen of the latter feeding on one ice-covered pool …

The only addition to the year list was a pair of Wigeon on the floods at Langlands and there were also six Shelduck here together with around 35 Curlew. The flock of Golden Plover has increased to 110…

with an estimated 200 Lapwing still present but that was about it.

I’ll finish with a Greenfinch taken today in the trees in the Old Rectory garden…

A common species but one that has declined dramatically in the village over the last few years presumably due to the impact of the trichomonosis disease which has hit this species particularly hard. There are some signs of recovery though and I have seen noticeably more this winter than for a number of years.

24th January 2021

The icy weather has tended to concentrate birds in areas of feeding. One of these is where a crop of crab apples have fallen which has also meant a small pool of water here has remained unfrozen. Standing near it today I saw a couple of Redwing, fluffed up against the cold…

At least half a dozen Fieldfare…

...15 Blackbirds, six Chaffinch, seven Greenfinch and a single Bullfinch.  

The floods around the village are some of the most extensive I have ever seen here…

But they have been surprisingly poor for birds with only a handful of Mallard, three Shelduck and four Mute Swans seen. The latter looking very out of place in the meadow on Back Lane…

Unable to wade through the deep water on the Langlands field path I went the long way round and saw a decent flock of around 60 Yellowhammer…

A total of sixteen hares (incl. 11 together in a small ploughed field)…

And a nice flock of around 300 Lapwing with 50+ Golden Plover mixed in.

As I was walking back with the bright winter sun behind me a female Sparrowhawk chasing along the edge of a shelter belt failed to see me. Fortunately I ducked just in time and it just made contact with the top of my hat. I think the consequences for both bird and human would not have been pleasant if I hadn’t!

I walked along the Swale yesterday but still no sign of cold weather movements on to the river, my first Little Egret of the year, Oystercatcher, two Buzzard, a Grey Wagtail and four Mute Swans (presumably the birds from Langlands) were the only sightings of note .

I did meet Rachel though who I hadn’t seen for ages. We were chatting about birds I’d seen and I encouraged her to wear binoculars when she was out walking. She took my advice and I got an email from her today, she had seen what was undoubtedly a Long-eared Owl  roosting in a riverside tree! Unfortunately by the time I had picked up the message and headed down there was no sign. Sort of cruel given the numbers of times I have walked that stretch of the river(!) but a great sighting nonetheless.

Other sightings since my last post have included Green Sandpiper and Redshank on the river, a spring of 12 Teal near the railway bridge and the good year for Grey Partridge continues with a covey of 23 feeding out in the open (but distant) down Potter Lane.

 

10th January 2021

A week of cold and snow in the parish…

And a walk along the river hoping for birds pushed off the frozen local stillwaters…

...in the end, apart from three Goosander, a Little Grebe and a handful of Snipe flushed from the edge, it was largely birdless. Instead the garden was the place to be with excellent numbers of birds feeding there. This included at one point (literally)  four and twenty Blackbirds feeding in our Siberian crab apple…

And regular sightings of Fieldfare…

But more unusually small numbers of Redwings, a normally very scarce visitor to our garden…

Other birds in the garden included Treecreeper (working up the ‘trunk’ of an old rose bush), Nuthatch, Mistle Thrush and Tree Sparrow as well as four corvid species and the usual tits, finches, Starlings and Woodpigeons.

There were also three Treecreepers in the Magic Garden this afternoon along with a Woodcock. A second Woodcock was flushed from the Lower Fields.

3rd January 2021

My parish list for 2020 finished on 106 species, about average for recent years although I missed a couple of ‘easy’ species. First bird of 2021 was…Blackbird. Not surprising given we had a crowd of 20 feeding in our small garden, particularly attracted by the fallen Siberian crab apples. More surprisingly there were two Redwings with them, we rarely get this species in the garden. They are much the scarcer of the two winter thrushes in the parish but there have been reasonable numbers feeding in the fields this week…

We also had three Bullfinches in the garden…

And a couple of Fieldfares…

There have been some quite extensive floods around the village, this is one of my favourite views  

Probably a good representation of a typical winter view before the post war drainage. Unfortunately the water didn’t attract very much, with a pair of Wigeon amongst the Mallard flock and a couple of young Mute Swans the highlights. The floodwater then froze putting an end to hopes of a rarer duck although it didn’t put the gulls off…

And I also saw a Hare running across the frozen water. It made a fantastic sound on the ice, like a flock of Waxwings! Other mammal sightings included six Roe Deer on Langlands and a Weasel here. Although I see Stoats with some regularity I haven’t spotted their smaller cousin for three or four years. I first saw it climbing up the trunk of a tree but despite it constantly returning to look me over it was so active that I could only manage this one poor photo…

Finally a couple of walks along the river turned up two Little Egret,  a group of six Goosander, three Mute Swan, 30 Mallard and a single Wigeon. Three Oystercatchers and a group of 13 Golden Plover were the only waders and a single Grey Wagtail the only passerine of note...