Month: October 2025

A similar story each day since Tuesday this week, bar the strong winds on the 23rd where a Seawatch from the Bay was highlighted by a single pale phase Arctic Skua plus a Male Marsh harrier & 2 Kestrels arrived in off. Most days have seen presumably the same juv Merlin, up to 4 Ring Ouzels across the patch, Hirundines more obvious today with c75 House Martin and 30 Swallow. Firecrests round 10 per day and Redpoll & Siskin dominating Finch numbers, today with the addition of 3 Groups of Crossbill, a Woodlark, a 1st winter Caspian Gull all SW.

Ive been including the woods up to and around the Bleriot Memorial this week in my walks, adding extra mileage and until today only hearing the Yellow browed warbler thats been up there since before I got back from Scilly. Today, along with Phil and Jack I got some nice views of it. Love seeing these birds close to home.

Back home after 2 weeks on st Agnes, more on that later. A clear and calm start to the day with a light SW wind.

A walk of the entire patch yielded a Yellow–Browed Warbler in the pines Garden, 6 Firecrest, a juv Merlin hunting at Fan Bay, a single Ring ouzel, 5 Reed Buntings, 25 House Martin & 40 Swallow SW. Siskins and Redpolls over occasionally and a Brambling over Top wood.

Very light S winds and a bright start, with a similar theme to the past few mornings here; Hundreds of Chiffchaffs 10+ Firecrests decent Hirundine and Meadow Pipit passage but nothing to really get overly excited about. Ive been averaging about 20km per day in walking up and down this past week and despite enjoying the numbers of common birds, I’ve had little to show for it in terms of scarcity untill an afternoon trip up onto Foxhill down today took an unexpected and thrilling turn, with a Pallid Harrier appearing above the hairpin bends and coming straight over head.

My camera was packed away in the bag and settings were all wrong for shooting into the sky plus the shock of seeing a dream bird up here set me back abit but I had great views of it for 20 seconds before it dropped below the trees. I did my usual trick of legging it after the bird and had more nice prolonged views as it gained height to avoid the crows towards the radar station and continued just above hunting height and out of sight towards Langdon and the top fields of South Foreland.

More running whilst putting out the news simultaneously. I arrived at the Top fields in a breathless mess but after 20 mins or so the bird circled up above Fan bay and moved towards the lighthouse. It zigzagged at hunting height over the fields and was lost to sight towards Sherley’s farm.

Perhaps/likely the same bird Jacob Spinks had a Dungeness this am, which apparently flew North. A dream patch find here for me and a bird I’ve wanted after always.

A Merlin chased a Skylark whilst I waited for the Harrier but other notables in the past few days dont get much beyond 4 Tree Sparrows W on the 30th and 2 small flocks of Crossbill SW today.