1st February 2020 - Halstow Marshes, Kent and Ashdown Forest

I met up early morning with Dave Morrison and Paul Hawkins and we ventured out onto the North Kent marshes for what was to be my first ever visit to this remote and very windy location. First impressions of the area were very good with lots of nice habitat on offer. The general feel of the area reminded me of Pevensey Levels back home in Sussex. As we made our way down the track towards the starting point of our two transects we found a Corn Bunting, a Common Snipe and 25 Grey Heron whilst Dave and Paul who were ahead of me flushed a Woodlark off the track which we couldn't relocate. When we got out to near our starting points we found a Little Owl which was nice to see. Dave then split off from Paul and I and as we headed around the new bund we had 45 Golden Plover flyover as well as 20 Brent Geese east along the River Thames. First point of call was to count the waders in Egypt Bay where we found c2800 Dunlin, 75 Knot, 40 Grey Plover, 14 Curlew, seven Oystercatcher and a Redshank. Just as we had finished counting the waders, Dave gave us a call to say he had the long-staying Richard's Pipit but we couldn't go back to look for it as we were now mid-survey. We walked round to view St Mary's Marsh where we found little other than a few Greylag Geese. The new reservoir near the boarded up house held c750 Lapwing, c100 Greylag Geese and two Brent Geese as well as hundreds of Wigeon which were all spooked by a Peregrine which flew over causing mayhem. On our way back to Egypt Bay we found two Egyptian Geese, 12 Mute Swan, c250 Starling and a Kestrel. When we got back we spent some time looking for the Richard's Pipit but we could not find it, the conditions weren't ideal with the wind being very strong. A special thanks to Dave and Paul for having me along on this visit!

Lapwing, Halstow Marshes, Kent

After a very interesting morning in North Kent, I headed off to Ashdown Forest where I met Max in the Gills Lap car park to look for the Little Bunting which had been reported earlier in the week. There have been conflicting reports during the week of where the bird was actually seen but luckily Max met a Kent birder earlier in the week who had met the finder who told him exactly where to look. We headed off to the pony enclosure on the eastern side of the road and after big search the best we could come up were c25 Reed Bunting, 15 Linnet, two Woodlark, two Meadow Pipit, a pair of Stonechat and singles of Goldcrest, Dunnock and Coal Tit. During our stay a Common Buzzard and three Raven passed overhead whilst another birder in the car park reported a ringtail Hen Harrier which managed to elude us during our visit. 

Reed Bunting, Ashdown Forest, East Sussex