Saturday 17 December 2011

Sandwich and along the Beach

This morning I went to the obs. The Ancient highway was like an ice rink so the drive was quiet interesting. I had a walk from the Obs  along the beach up to the 100 acre field. It was very frosty when I set out birds were few and far between with sightings being restricted to a few skylarks that I flushed – nothing was flying about at all.
I had hoped for some snow buntings or shore larks but all I had by the time I got to the 100 acre field was a lone juvenile stonechat.
Stonechat

 Looking across towards Pegwell there was clearly something bugging the plovers because 100s of them were in the air but I couldn’t find the cause of their consternation.
By the time I was walking back it was getting warmer and the birds were a little livelier  but still mainly the common stuff (song thrush, redwing, black bird, dunnock) but the stonechats had come out to play and I found 5 – the juvenile again plus 2 pairs.


Highlight of the walk was a flock of 9 snow buntings that got flushed off the beach by a couple of dogs and flew back north – my time was up so I didn’t pursue them. Snow buntings have been absent for a few weeks now so hopefully these will stay around.
Snow Bunting (from last month)

1 comment:

  1. Nice to see the snow buntings again Steve, I didn't manage to get out today but I suppose one has to do ones chores.

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