black necked grebe

Black-necked Grebe  – Dungeness – photo Richard Hanman

The days are getting a little brighter, the sun is out a little more. Mistle Thrushes are singing, and Great Crested Grebes are getting fuller crests. But it is still cold and we are far from Spring, which meant little change in the bird highlights over the week. On eBird, for instance,  there was no new bird added to the Kent year-list in the past seven days.

Two good birds, but of probably ‘untickable’ origin, were a White-tailed Eagle over Bough Beach on the 3rd and the long-staying Lesser White-fronted Goose at the Swale NNR. Two Glossy Ibis on the 5th for 10 minutes on the West Flood at Oare Marshes were also good as there hasn’t been a regular Glossy this winter in Kent so far.

Grey Wagtail

Grey Wagtail - photo by Jack Farrar

I think it’s a fair bet that Jane Austen hasn’t featured in the annals of the KOS. She has a significant connection with Kent in that her brother owned Godmersham Park and Jane was a regular visitor. She would walk through the park to worship in the church and, who knows, she may have noticed a fat finch sitting in the same Yew trees where many birders have enjoyed views of Hawfinches in recent years. We will never know as nature is not a feature of her writings.

However, her nephew, Charles Knight, took an active interest in the birds and other wildlife in Godmersham and thankfully kept a journal. His 1832 records are not, as far as I know, part of the ornithological record in Kent so in occasional series of posts I look at some of his records and set them in a modern context.

kittiwake

Kittiwake – Dungeness – photo Martin Casemore

The best sighting of the week was a group of eight Twite that flew West over Coldharbour Lagoon on 25 January, a rare bird in Kent these days. Hopefully they can be re-found somewhere, a few used to winter on the Stoke Saltings on the Hoo Peninsula..

With very strong winds on several days in the past week, sea-watching seemed a decent option. The best sightings were three Sooty Shearwaters past the Dungeness sea-watching hide on 28 January.

lesserspot1

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker - by Heather Mathieson

I once missed a bus on account of a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker – suddenly appearing and working its way up a tree as my bus disappeared. ‘Sorry I’m late, I had to watch a Lesser Spot’.

Most of my encounters have been unplanned – an individual amongst a large bird-party passing through a winter woodland and once visiting the garden bird feeder. That was a long time ago – the fate of this diminutive woodpecker has been steadily downward since the 1980s with a decline of over 80% between 1997 and 2022.

Now red-listed with a population of around 600 pairs in 2015 according to the BTO, the status in Kent is unclear and it is time to put that right, so we’re running a survey in 2025.

whitefronts

White-fronted Geese – Swale NR – photo Richard Hanman

Even as the weather stayed cold and grey, there were still a few good birds to be found in Kent. Two Tundra Bean Geese on Sheppey from 21 January were the best of the bunch and the first for the year in Kent (although two had been seen earlier very close to the Kent border at Scotney). A Balearic Shearwater past North Foreland was also a first for the year and very unseasonal, with also a Black-throated Diver flying past that day (16 January).

Long-tailed Duck, Dungeness - photo Peter Maton

In a week that remained very cold, the birds around Kent stayed relatively stable. The Eurasian Scops Owl at Broadstairs continued to be very elusive with the only sighting on 9 January. Last week's Iceland Gull stayed on till the next morning, showing just south of Deal Pier also on 9 January.

The winter ducks proved more cooperative with the Smew on show all week at Seaton GPs (although it could at times hide near the banks of the lake). The Long-tailed Duck remained on New Diggins at Dungeness while the male Scaup was seen again on Collard's lake on most days. A nice group of 22 Goosanders graced Bough Beech. 

 KOS Free Winter Online Talk  

This Wednesday - January 15th 7.30pm by KOS Member - Simon Ginnaw 

 "Elmley Conservation and the Curlew Recovery Project

 Just 40 miles from London, at Elmley on the Isle of Sheppey, sits the highest density of ground nesting waders in the UK away from the Scottish islands.

KOS member Simon Ginnaw, Warden and Lead Guide, will explain about the Reserve, its conservation story and objectives, and how the pro-active ground -breaking Curlew Project is proceeding.

                                                 ________________________________________________________

KOS is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: KOS Winter Talk - Elmley Conservation and the Curlew Recovery Project

Time: Jan 15, 2025 07:30 PM London

Join Zoom Meeting

Click link below to join meeting:-

 

https://zoom.us/j/99455968972?pwd=nuAqmQQ0QauCbDH53tsLbTDHfDwahB.1

 

Meeting ID: 994 5596 8972

Passcode: 155047

Talks last approximately 40 minutes with time then for questions and discussion from participants.  We look forward to seeing you 'online' on the January 15th.  

Smew

Smew, Seaton GPs – photo Richard Collins

The two star birds from last week lingered into this reporting period, but were tough to connect with. The American Yellow Warbler at New Hythe was last seen the morning of 3 January. Despite extensive searching, it wasn’t seen on subsequent days. While the weather got a little bit colder, it still was a surprise that it would have moved on at this time of year. Perhaps it has perished, or, more hopefully, maybe it will be refound in the area in coming days or weeks. The Eurasian Scops Owl is still around, but only shows briefly and irregularly, frustrating observers, some of whom have already tried three or four times to see it. The bird was only seen on 5 and 6 January this week on its favoured fence at Broadstairs cricket ground.

The best new bird for the week was a female Smew at Seaton GPs. This is a rare bird these days in Kent, with some winters where there are no records at all. This female may be the same individual that was seen earlier in the winter at Worth Marshes. Another good sighting was a juvenile Iceland Gull at Deal Beach on 9 January.

                 Ray O’Reilly - KOS Field Trip Organiser writes:- 

 “We wasted no time in getting our 2025 Kent Ornithological Society Field Trips underway this year with our first outing taking place on Thursday January 2nd.

We had a record five cancellations for this outing mainly due to ill heath but we still managed a group of eight of us for the day.

 We started at the RSPB's Cliffe Pools and it was a classic case of what a difference a day makes. New Year’s Day’s high winds and rain had given way to a dry, cold windless morn with beautiful sunny spells in the afternoon. Cetti's Warbler and a bonny male Stonechat were two of the first birds recorded and a couple of Song Thrushes serenaded us as we walked the trail. Ralph Todd found a Sparrowhawk and we admired several Redwings and marvelled at 35 Little Grebes or Dabchicks as they are colloquially called.

When we decided to start a ‘Kent birding – Highlights of the Week’ from January onwards on the KOS website, we could not envisage it would start with two mega rarities. What had so far been a modest year for rare birds in Kent, ended with a bang. On 24 December, an American Yellow Warbler, was discovered at the sewage works at New Hythe GPs. The first ever for Kent and an amazing record also for British and European standards. Extraordinarily, the location was not far from the famous Golden-winged Warbler, also a warbler from America, that was seen in the winter of 1989 near New Hythe. If that wasn’t enough, news of the third Scops Owl for Kent, and the first since 1971, broke on 28 December. It had been present for a few days in trees along a cricket field at Broadstairs. Both birds were seen by many observers, although they could be elusive, and were not seen on some days at all. Particularly with calm, sunny weather, the Yellow Warbler showed well. Both birds were still present in the New Year.

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The Kent Ornithological Society was founded in 1952

Our aims are to record and monitor the county’s bird life providing both an accurate historical record of Kent’s birds but equally importantly providing data that can be used to help protect valuable habitats from development and other threats.

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