Another windy and cold weekend delivered a mere morsel of migrants including my first of the year Common Whitethroats (one on Saturday and another today) and half a dozen Swallows in of the sea, 2 White Wagtails, a few freshly arrived Chiffchaff (complete with Pollen horn) and Blackcap but Im still to see or hear a Willow Warbler.
Black Redstarts continue to be present and entertaining with a high count of 9 today including a singing male.
The highlight of the weekend was picking up a White tailed Eagle that had reportedly flown in off the sea at Samphire Hoe 5 minutes beforehand. It came in high over Dover Castle, drifted over my house and got higher higher. I lost it in the sky whilst dicking around with the camera, poor shots as a result but enjoyed the views and Ive just learned that its an Ilse of White bird that flew out into the Channel before coming back inland.
The Ravens have been hassling the Peregrines near me for the past few days, you can hear the stress in the female Peregrine’s calls, I wonder what their up to.
The Iceland Gull was flying around the eastern end of the Harbour after not seeing it for a week. I had nothing more interesting than two Argentatus Herring Gulls at my Gull spot, a 2nd Winter and a 4th winter, big northern looking beasts. Numbers of small gulls really down.
P10 mirrors on the 2nd winter is pretty cool and black on p5 of the 4th winter, both were large birds.
PERDIX BIRDER 