Kent Ornithological Society Providing information about birds and birdwatching in Kent (Registered charity 21489)

• Peter Eerdmans
• 10-Jul-2025
• Weekly highlights

Caspian Tern – Martin Casemore

One of the regular North Foreland watchers kept the incredible year so far for that broader area going with an adult Laughing Gull flying past on the 6^th. If accepted, it will only be the 10^th for Kent and the first since the 2016 Dungeness bird. Unfortunately, it was not seen by anyone else. The other rare gull in Kent (the Bonaparte’s) was more cooperative and was on show at Oare throughout the week.

The fourth Caspian Tern of the year (although likely involving the same individual on at least some occasions) was found on the evening of the 4th roosting on the beach of Greatstone-on-Sea.

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• Peter Eerdmans
• 3-Jul-2025
• Weekly highlights

Zitting Cisticola – Peter Eerdmans

Another mega was recorded in Kent this week!! A Zitting Cisticola was found at Foreness Point on the evening of the 2^{nd, only meters away from where the Black-headed Bunting was seen earlier in the Spring}. It was mobile, but sang and showed regularly, including in display flight. It was seen until 21.10 and fortunately it was still there for the early risers the next morning as it continued to perform from 5am in the suitable habitat of scrubs and grass. However, at 6.10am it flew high inland. This is only the 6^th record for Kent with less than 10 seen in the UK.

Other exciting news over the week was the return of the Bonaparte’s Gull at Oare Marshes on the 2^nd for its 13^th consecutive Summer!

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• Peter Eerdmans
• 26-Jun-2025
• Weekly highlights

Ruddy Shelduck – Peter Eerdmans

A relatively quiet week, with the best bird being a Rosy Starling that was seen briefly in a private garden in Burmarsh on the 23^rd. Another nice bird was a singing Serin on the morning of the 22^nd at St Margaret’s at Cliffe. European Bee-eaters were seen or heard flying over Kingsdown on the 19^th and on the 20^th over Aycliffe.

Several White Storks toured the county, with the largest group a group of six over Betteshanger near Sandwich Bay. Wood Sandpipers have started to return with sightings at Oare, Worth, Dungeness and Bough Beech.

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• Peter Eerdmans
• 19-Jun-2025
• Weekly highlights

Hobby - Terry Laws

As the weather warmed up, the birding got expectedly a bit quieter. An immature Golden Oriole was seen and heard at Reculver on the 17th.  As so often with this attractive species it only stayed around briefly. It has been a good spring for Black Kites, with another flying into the county at Dover on the 17th, while about the 10th Bee-eater of the Spring flew over Kingsdown on the 19th. 

Intriguingly, two Cranes were seen again, this time circling over Haysden CP on the 14th

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• Martin Collins
• 17-Jun-2025
• All news

In this video the KOS Chair Andre Farrar describes the importance of protecting Old Park, Canterbury and its role in giving a home to some of Kent's (and the UK's) most threatened species.

For more details of the campaign to save Save Old Park & Chequers Wood in Canterbury please visit the Friends' website and don't forget if you visit the site to submit your bird sightings.

• Peter Eerdmans
• 11-Jun-2025
• Weekly highlights

Rose-coloured Starling – Martin Casemore

Another week and another very rare bird in Kent. A Western Orphean Warbler was found on the 11th near Cliffe singing and showing well. It was found during a survey on private land and access for more birders was unfortunately not granted. If accepted this would be the first record for Kent! Another good record was a beautiful adult Rose-coloured Starling that performed well at Dungeness near the Observatory also on the 11th. 

The south-westerly winds provided some sea-watching opportunities, with two Balearic Shearwaters past Dungeness the best of the bunch. This however wasn’t a new bird for the Kent year list as we had a very unseasonal sighting in January already. Good numbers of Manx Shearwater (with 27 past Dungeness on the 7^th) and Arctic Skua were also seen.

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• Martin Collins
• 9-Jun-2025
• Survey news

A national BTO survey of heathland birds (Nightjar, Woodlark and Dartford Warbler) is taking place this year, in partnership with the RSPB, as detailed in the March and May KOS Newsletters.

Woodlark and Dartford Warbler do not really feature in Kent, mainly due to our lack of heathland, which is generally the preferred habitat (although some areas do exist around Pembury, Hothfield and on the Blean) so there were only a few squares (1km) to be surveyed. However, Kent does have a population of Nightjars, mostly in woodland habitats, which have been the subject of BTO surveys at intervals in the past (1981, 1992 and 2004), and so, after an interval of 20 years, it will be great to survey Nightjar again and get an update on its status in Kent. In terms of the other species, the occasional pair of Woodlark and Dartford Warbler do sometimes breed, but they are RBBP (Rare Breeding Bird Panel) species and survey effort has mostly been directed to a few local observers for the known potential breeding sites.

The main emphasis in Kent will be to survey Nightjars. The species favours areas of clear-felled and freshly replanted conifers and areas of Sweet Chestnut coppice up to about 3 years of age. It is recommended that anyone volunteering to survey Nightjars should make a daytime recce visit before the survey is undertaken in order to establish if suitable habitat is present, and if so where. This will save time wandering around at dusk during the survey to locate suitable areas.

There are a large number of 1km squares available for survey which cover the main woodlands in Kent where Nightjars do or have occurred. Areas where volunteers are particularly required are:-

Bedgebury Forest

Hemsted Forest

Denge Woods

Blean Woods (particularly south of A2)

West Blean/Thornden Woods

Orlestone Forest

Lyminge Forest (West Wood, Elhampark Wood) 

Volunteers selecting squares (see below for how to do this) will notice that the BTO have attempted to identify areas of suitable habitat and shaded out areas deemed unsuitable. Please ignore this (toggle to remove this feature before printing map) and make a daytime visit (as suggested above) to identify suitable areas. In Kent, the coppicing of chestnut can continue quite late into the season (even early April) so potential areas will likely be missed on the BTO assessments. It will probably be the case that many of the squares do not contain any suitable habitat, in which case please notify the organiser and select another square.

Nightjar survey instructions are given here:-

https://www.bto.org/sites/default/files/nightjar_survey_methods_2025.pdf

In brief, volunteers should make two visits (at least 10 days apart) during the survey period which is (25 May – 31 July) covering either the two-hour period after sunset, or the two hours prior to sunrise. Volunteers are asked to mark locations of any birds recorded on a printed off map with date and time of visit and some basic habitat details.

Update: due to the early arrival of birds this year, the survey period now starts on 20 May

Volunteers are asked to record a few other species if present and to make a note of these, something that may add purpose and interest to visits if there are no Nightjars! The species of concern in Kent are Hobby, Long-eared Owl, Cuckoo, Stonechat, Grasshopper Warbler, Tree Pipit and Linnet.

Sign up

Have a MyBTO account already?

• Log in and sign up to the survey.

Don't have a BTO account?

• Create a MyBTO account and then sign up to the survey.

Once logged in, you will find the survey sign up for the survey in the 'Sign Up for Projects' section.

Request a site

Once signed up, you can request a square via the survey portal.

• Log in to the survey portal using your MyBTO account details.

Full details of the Nightjar survey can be found on the BTO website for the survey  Heathland Birds Survey | BTO - British Trust for Ornithology

• Chris Roome
• 9-Jun-2025
• Outdoor Meeting Reports

KOS Field Trip - Saturday 7th June 2025

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

 ‘We held our June 2025 KOS Field Outing on Saturday the 7th and facing a gloomy weather forecast we chose a trip to Dungeness.

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• Peter Eerdmans
• 5-Jun-2025
• Weekly highlights

White-tailed Eagle – Terry Laws

An Icterine Warbler found singing at North Foreland on the morning of the 30^th was the best bird of the week. Unfortunately only a portion of the local birders connected with the bird as it could not be refound later in the morning.

Further highlights included more of the species we have been enjoying over the past few weeks with a Black Kite flying over Seasalter and later Elmley on the 1^st, a pair of Red-footed Falcons at Stodmarsh on the 30^th and a Bee-eater over Thanet on the 1^st. A White-tailed Eagle from the Isle of Wight reintroduction program was at Elmley on the 3^rd and 4^th.  Continuing with the raptor theme, several Honey Buzzards entered the county, mostly over Dover, but singles were also seen at Hope Point and Seasalter. At Oare there were four Curlew Sandpipers on the morning of the 3^rd. A Quail, the first recorded for the year, was flushed from a garden near Sandwich Bay on the 31^st, while a Ruddy Shelduck was seen at Cliffe on the 4^th.

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• Peter Eerdmans
• 29-May-2025
• Weekly highlights

Eastern Bonelli’s Warbler – James Dee

Last week’s mega was topped by another this week, an Eastern Bonelli’s Warbler was found in the trapping area near the Dungeness Bird Observatory! The first confirmed record for Kent no less, and only the 9^th for the whole of the UK. Many birders descended on the area during its one day stay. While it had shown well to the initial finder, as the winds picked up, it became increasingly hard to see during the day, with many of those present struggling to get ‘tick-able views’. It did sing almost constantly though and also called its diagnostic ‘chip’ on occasion.

The Dungeness area also enjoyed a Bee-eater which finally showed well on the morning of the 23^rd. As the female Red-footed falcon disappeared from Stodmarsh, one turned up at Dungeness and was seen hawking with the local Hobbies for most of the week. Stodmarsh didn’t have to do without one long, as a second calendar year male Red-footed Falcon showed up on the 26^th.

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