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Kent Birding – Highlights of the Week – 13 Mar 2025

Caspian gull

Caspian Gull – Dungeness – Martin Casemore

Amazingly the Pintail record from two weeks ago (which was breaking a previous record from 2006) was broken within two weeks! A brilliant 3705 Pintails flew past Dungeness on the 7th, with 474 Shoveler in tow. Conditions were good, but increased observer coverage in early Spring over recent years might also be a contributing factor.

Another ‘white-winger’ showed briefly, this time a first-winter Glaucous Gull touched down at Foreness Point on 7 March. Other than that, sea-watching around the county delivered Slavonian Grebes past Tankerton on 11th and past Sandwich on 13th, plus a Great Northern Diver past Cliftonville on 11th. The Serins remained on view at Restharrow Scrape early in the week but haven’t been reported after the 9th. A White-tailed Eagle from the Isle of Wight re-introduction project was at Dungeness on the morning of the 13th.

Kent Birding – Highlights of the Week – 6 Mar 2025

Spoonbill

Spoonbills – Oare – Peter Eerdmans

In a week with lots of glorious sunshine, the best new birds only showed briefly. A juvenile Iceland Gull only spent a few minutes at Swalecliffe on 28 February while a Common Crane flew off shortly after being discovered at Elmley on 1 March. The Serins were more accommodating resurfacing at Restharrow Scrape, Sandwich Bay on 2 March after hiding from view for 10 days. Two males and a female showed well at times, with the males starting to sign softly.

Kent Birding – Highlights of the Week – 27 Feb 2025

Pintails

Pintails – Dungeness – John Young

Highlight of the week was a record passage of Pintail past Dungeness on 21 February. An amazing total of 994 were counted, surpassing the previous record of 860 in 2006. With the strong southerly winds, there was a nice support cast as well, with two Sooty Shearwaters, several Velvet Scoters and Eider and large flocks of Brent Geese recorded on various days.

With the slightly warmer weather from the South, there was certainly some early bird movement, also outside of sea-watching. The first, and very early, Sand Martin of the Spring was seen on 21st over Bough Beech with two a couple of days later at Grove Ferry. A calling Stone-curlew on the evening of the 25th over Dungeness Bird Observatory was also an early surprise. More expected perhaps was a Woodlark past North Foreland, while a White Stork flew over Godmersham.

UPDATE: Save Old Park and Chequers Wood - by Andre Farrar

There’s still time to support the application for Old Park to be registered as an Asset of Community Value.

If you have visited Old Park in the last few years you can help by submitting a paragraph in support of the application to register Old Park as an Asset of Community Value. This  matters as it will allow more time to fundraise to bid for the site which has now been put on the open market by the Ministry of Defence.

If you have already taken action – thank you! The response to the appeal by the Friends of Old Park has been heartening but more is needed as the risks of the site being sold for development is real.

As well as a paragraph stating that you have visited the site and made use of the network of informal paths. You can add a photograph or (and thanks to Brendan Ryan for this idea) why not add a bird list from either eBird or BirdTrack.

The deadline is 10 March 2025 – thank you!

Andre Farrar

Kent Birding – Highlights of the Week – 20 Feb 2025

Serin  – Sandwich Bay – photo John Neighbour

Highlight of the week was the discovery of four Serins in a Linnet flock at Restharrow Scrape, Sandwich Bay, on 18 February. Often only recorded as a fly-over, a group of four, comprising two males and two females, was certainly noteworthy and a patch tick even for some of stalwarts of Sandwich Bay.

Sea-watching picked up as the week progressed. Highlights were 450 Kittiwake on the 19th, Red-Necked Grebes on the 18th and 20th and a Sooty Shearwater on the 20th, all past Dungeness. There were also a couple of Black-throated Divers (St Margeret’s and Dover), two Great Northern Divers (Foreness and Dungeness) and an Eider and early Sandwich Tern also past Dungeness.

Kent Birding – Highlights of the Week – 13 Feb 2025

red necked grebe

Red-necked Grebe  – Oare – photo Mark Chidwick

Easterly winds persisted throughout the week, with temperatures staying low, below freezing on some nights. It didn’t lead to a big movement of winter birds, say from the continent into Kent, but two new Red-necked Grebes were nice and stuck around longer than those seen in January. One was at Oare for three days on the Swale as well as into the mouth of Faversham Creek, while the other was with Great-crested Grebes offshore at Hythe.

A female (red-head) Smew was discovered at Dengemarsh, the first for Dungeness since January 2022. Interestingly, one of the old guard at Dungeness looked back in his records and noted 29 Smew on Burrowes in January 1984..

Kent Birding – Highlights of the Week – 6 Feb 2025

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 Wagtails then and now – the Journals of Charles Knight - by Andre Farrar

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.

Kent Birding – Highlights of the Week – 30 Jan 2025

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.

Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers in Kent – a new survey (by Andre Farrar)

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.

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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.

In doing this, we seek increase knowledge and understanding of birds and their habitats in the county and encourage and support people seeking to take up birdwatching as a hobby.

Membership of the society is open to all and costs £15 a year. Members receive a free copy of the annual Kent Bird Report and regular electronic newsletters. See details

The Society runs regular online talks and an outdoor programme of field meetings. They are opportunities for both beginners and experienced birdwatchers to meet others in the county and to develop their knowledge and skills.

We are a charity regulated by the Charity Commission registered as charity number 212489.

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