Kingfisher a rare garden visit

On Wednesday night through to this morning we received a lot of heavy rain leaving our garden and surrounding countryside covered in flashes of water - the field behind the garden with perhaps a quarter of its acreage under inches of water.

Making birdwatching even harder was the heavy and dark looking sky which hung over for most of the morning. Still, there were plenty of finches and thrushes around the dryer parts of the lawn and also a bird sitting on the garden fence with, it seemed, not a care in the world for the pouring rain. Expecting to see another Redwing through my binoculars, it was quite a surprise to find it was a Kingfisher!
I decided not to disturb the bird with any photography as it occasionally plummeted into the pond for food (newts/insects?). The bird stayed for at least half an hour and I managed just a distant image through the window. Just the second Kingfisher I've seen in the garden and perhaps with two good breeding seasons and frost free winters behind them, Kingfisher populations are expanding again.
 At the same time as the Kingfisher visit, the Little Egrets were present just behind the garden too, so quite a sight for inland Kent and some miles away from a significant water site.

From the kitchen window in the pouring rain, a record shot of our second garden Kingfisher in 20 years

New Grey Wagtail and Little Egrets return

The end of 2014 to the present day has seen a new visitor; a very attractive Grey Wagtail, trawling through the water-sodden field at the back of the garden. I can't remember if I've seen a Grey Wagtail in our garden vicinity before, so I'll count this one as the first for the garden officially. The water-logged pasture field resided by sad looking 'farm yard' horses has become an annual event now, and whilst its not a particularly seasonal picture, it certainly is attracting plenty of birds. These include plenty of Redwings, 2 Mistle Thrushes, Pied Wagtails, Chaffinches, Yellow hammers, a handful of Common Gulls, 20 Mallards, 2 Moorhens a regular flock of 20 + Meadow pipits, as well as the two regular Little Egrets.

The Grey Wagtail has been visiting the back garden and field edge for 10 days now, so I hope for the chance of better pictures soon.

Yellowhammers have built up to a flock of 8-10 birds

In the drizzle and murk, our daily Litle Egrets search out the Earth worms.

Watching Starlings at Dungeness RSPB

Dungeness RSPB December 8th including 5 Little Egrets.

Yesterday evening, at Denge Marsh, looking across the RSPB reserve, I could see a modest flock of Starlings wheeling across the sky performing a murmuration before roosting in the reed bed. So tonight, with a nice sunset predicted, I thought I'd walk along the approach track at dusk to see if the Starlings would repeat the show.
As the sun began to set, a Starling show looked promising with compact flocks of several hundred birds arriving and circling the reed bed. Looking over towards the Lade pits many more Starlings were in the sky, some thrillingly flying over me at nothing more than head height, to join the reserve roost. But just as things were looking good, the birds settled to roost quickly and the great show I'd seen the night before wasn't to be.
I looked back once again to the birds over the Lade area only to feel the whoosh of a thousand-odd Starlings leaving the RSPB reserve returning to roost there.
In the semi-darkness there were plenty of other bird activity with two fly-by Ravens, Great White and Little Egrets and a Barn Owl hunting along the approach track. Water Rail, Golden Plovers and Cetti Warblers called away in the background as I returned back to my car.

Grey Phalarope at Dungeness

It seems many decades ago since I last saw a Grey Phalarope and so I'm very happy to find this one along the shoreline at Dungeness. At sea and at first sight, it appeared as just another dull diminutive wader, until it dropped down on top of the swell, spun around searching for surface plankton to eat. And that's the clue to a Phalarope, no other wading bird will naturally behave like this.

My one hour's sea watch came in a little window of sunshine amongst many storms that never seem to be far off the coast at the moment. See pic below.

Brent Geese migrating over Kent

Brent Geese over Packing Wood on route to Rye harbour

A rare sight in mid-Kent, migrating Brent Geese

Yesterday's light winds and clear sky seemed to trigger continental Brent Geese to make the move to our Southern estuaries and coast. At Dungeness, 4000 birds were seen, and then whilst walking at Packing woods we saw a further 500 birds cutting across Kent probably on a line from Margate to Rye.  Between 6 and 8.30pm I heard a further 3 skeins flying over Shadoxhurst, including one memorable moment when I was able to shine a spotight on the birds as they passed south overhead. It was also really exciting to hear other Kent birders on Twitter recording more Brents Geese passing over - suggesting a total number of birds running in thousands for the day.

Fly-by Little Egrets Dungeness

 A one hour sea watch from the fishing boats at Dungeness this afternoon was enlivened by a party of eight Little Egrets flying west down channel. At a similar time a distant dark and long tailed bird came into view, I was hoping it would be a Pomarine Skua, but as it came closer in from the horizon it turned out to be a migrating Marsh Harrier! Also present, there was a large number (hundreds) of Gannets feeding offshore and inshore Great crested Grebes numbers are building up for the winter. Calling in on the ARC pit this evening flying over the top of the many waterfowl, a single Brent Goose arrived and looked likely to roost for the night.

Alex Pastures a once moribund SSSI moving forward

With the kind permission of Mr Carl Floyd, owner of Alex Pastures, a collaboration between Butterfly Conservation, Kent Wildlife Trust and Moat Farm has begun, aimed at restoring the meadows to the species-rich unimproved grassland of the past.

The first stage has been to cut back invasive scrub (mostly blackthorn and bramble) to encourage the rarer meadow plants to re-establish themselves in the first of the two fields at Alex Pastures.  The first picture, below, shows the site entrance before work commenced.

Summer 2014, invasive scrub had over-run much of the original grassland

After scrub removal, just the deeply-rutted track has been left

The first cut and removal of scrub had an immediate effect opening up the meadow to a significant size.

Whilst wishing to return Alex Pastures to the high quality, rare, unimproved grassland of the past, the invasive scrub has allowed new colonisers to breed successfully on the site. These include Red Data listed Turtle Dove, fast declining Bullfinch (feeding flock of 7 there last night) and one of the highest concentrations of Nightingale in Orlestone Forest. Alex Pastures, at less than 15 acres, is a small site and balancing flora and fauna now present with the desire to return the meadows to the splendour of the past is going to be a skillful task.

The original grassland has been left surrounded by nothing much more than dry earth following the scrub removal. Next spring, if my memory serves me well, the fields will be peppered with hundreds of Primroses.

Panoramic of Alex Pastures top field showing scrub removal. The site margin left and to centre has a well developed scrub habitat - a stronghold of Bullfinch, Garden Warbler and Nightingale.