Saturday 16 March 2024

16th March 2024

 The morning started very quietly with a small movement north of Redwings, Chaffinches, Siskin and a couple of Bullfinches. Other than these were 11 Stock Doves, 2 White Wagtails, 4 Stonechats, a Blackcap, 4 Chiffchaffs, 4 Goldcrests, 5 Firecrests  and a Woodcock around the area. It was not until approx 09:30 that things changed with a Short-Eared Owl at Kingsdown Lees and Buzzards began to move. By about 11:00 we had at least 40-50 Common Buzzards, 5 Red Kites and a Marsh Harrier flying north as were 500 Starlings.

Also had a male Brimstone butterfly and, at sea, a Harbour Porpoise 

Gerald, Nigel, Phil, Richard, Jack.





Red Kites, Sparrowhawk, Stock Dove - Nige Jarman



 

Wednesday 14 February 2024

13th February 2024

Phil walked along the base of the cliffs from Kingsdown to St Margaret's Bay and had 33 Rock Pipits. Other than that there were only 7 Curlew and an Oystercatcher.    

12th February 2024

Very few birds today apart from the resident pair of Ravens and the wintering pair of Stonechats. As we left we stopped at the fields inland of Bockhill and had 21 Buzzards in the air,

Phil, Jack.

Sunday 11 February 2024

11th February 2024

From 11:00 until 12:45 in the Bay we had at least 100 Red-throated Divers plus 1 Black-throated Diver moving down Channel. On the sea were 500 plus gulls, mostly Herring, and several Guillemots. At  12:17 a Sooty Shearwater dropped down quite close in and gave us excellent views for 10 minutes before it moved off South.

Gerald, Nigel, Jack. 







Sooty Shearwater - Nige Jarman


Monday 5 February 2024

Very little today apart from the usual pair of Ravens on the clifftop and a small flock of 32 Redwings feeding on the ivy in the Farm Wood.

Phil, Richard, Simon, Jack.

Saturday 3 February 2024

3rd February 2024

There was very little on the sea apart from a few Red-throated Divers and Great Crested Grebes. In the area we only had a couple of Goldcrests and Ravens but about 11:00 we heard that there was a White-tailed Eagle at Dover so we went up to the Paddock where we watch for raptors. It was about half an hour before we picked the eagle up moving north and we had good views for some 20 minutes as it flew off towards Sandwich.

White-tailed Eagle (Nige Jarman)

Nigel, Phil, Richard, Jack.      

Wednesday 3 January 2024

31st December 2023

 This year's seawatching ended quite spectacularly when Rob Ratcliffe had over 8000 Auks, 60% of which were Guillemots, move S in two hours.

 Let's hope that more good seawatches continue in 2024.

Sunday 31 December 2023

30th December 2023

 On a cold windy day there were few birds in the area apart from 3 Stonechats and singles of Chiffchaff, Firecrest and Goldcrest. On the sea a pair of Goosanders, rare for us, flew down channel.

Phil, Richard, Jack. 

Friday 29 December 2023

29th December 2023

Phil and I walked around the area today and had 5 Stonechats and a Chiffchaff on the clifftop. In Oldstairs Road we also had 3 Firecrests,

  

Thursday 28 December 2023

23rd December 2023

On arrival at the Bay this morning we were greeted with small groups of Razorbills pouring down channel, after a couple of hours we had counted at least 5500. Other than these we only had 42 Red-throated and 3 Black-throated Divers.  

We were joined by Gerald (Gull King) who proceeded to find this first winter Caspian Gull. 


Simon, Gerald, Jack.

16th December 2023

We did a seawatch in the Bay and had very little of note apart from at least 1000 Cormorants moving down channel in about 10 minutes at 09:30.

Simon, Jack.    

Sunday 10 December 2023

10th December 2023

 In a quite strong SW wind, with most birds moving down channel, we had 22 Red-throated Divers, at least 450 Gannets, 37 Kittiwakes, 82 Auks of which 18 were Razorbills and also 40 Fulmars which were presumably the local breeders off the cliffs.

Unfortunately there was a recently dead Harbour Porpoise washed up on beach.

Simon, Jack.    

Sunday 12 November 2023

12th November 2023

A seawatch in the bay from 0730-0900 in a chilling SE wind produced the following birds (mainly down channel): 246 Brent Geese,  2 Great Skuas, 1 Sandwich Tern, 500 Gannets, 1 Razorbill, 100 Kittiwakes, 2 Shags, 3 Red-throated Divers and 2 Great Northern Divers. 

There was also an adult Yellow-legged Gull on the sea.

Up top, we had 7 Swallows, 23 Goldcrests, 2 Firecrests, 650 Starlings coming in, plus 2 Redpoll, 4 Siskin and 1 Reed Bunting.

Gerald, Jack, Nige, Richard

Yellow-legged Gull