Author: Jamie Partridge

An afternoon visit up the cliffs in almost undetectably light SW wind and a clear blue sky was highlighted by a lovely Snow bunting. Seen the day before by fellow Dovarian David T the bird fed along the track to Fan bay, one of the usual spots this charming species turns up in annually.

Later on Colin and I watched it a little further East along the tarmac path in warm late afternoon light. A woodcock and several Firecrests were in the Valley.

Im away now travelling till Christmas. Looking forward to some gulls over that period!

Strong Southerlies first thing and a wild looking sea from st Margaret’s. A close in Leach’s Petrel downchannel was the highlight early on, making little headway and nicely on view for around 5 minutes followed by a long period of nothing notable bar a Sooty Shearwater which i missed when i went to get myself, Phil and Jack coffees.

The rain stopped, winds dropped and shifted to the west and the cloud begin to thin out, I began throwing bread and we got at least 8 Different Caspian Gulls into the melee (4 x 1st winter, 3 x 2nd winter and a 4th winter) also at least 3 Yellow legged amoung them.

Southerly airflow over night turning very light WNW before dawn. The first bird I got my bins on this morning was a Pallid swift.

I walked the lower path along the cliff tops above the harbour and at 07.35 I picked up a Swift sp coming towards me from the direction of Foxhill down. Initially a silhouette, the dull early morning light was behind me at least and as the bird grew closer I switched between bins and camera so as not to miss out on either visual.

Very aware of the current influx of (mostly) pallid swifts and having rehearsed finding this species many times in my head I looked quickly for the most obvious Common swift features in an attempt to rule Pallid out . Namely the ‘white winged black tern’ like underwing pattern shown by Common swift and the more contrasting head pattern with a clearer distinction between white forehead, chin and rest of the face. These features could not be detected and instead the bird appeared diffusely marked with smooth fades between features on a paler head generally that was itself Punctuated by an isolated dark eye sat in a pale surround of ear coverts lores etc. The underwing aswell was fairly featureless and no pale leading edge to wing.

After coming overhead The bird meandered somewhat, moving fairly slowly for a swift and caught insects over the eastern docks above the cliffs infront of me at a distance of 50-100 m, few photos were taken at this greater distance except in an attempt to capture the shape of the spread tail. At this further distance I watched the bird as it moved away, staying on it incase it came close again.  it was basically moving out over the harbour and drifting NE but over the channel rather than hugging the cliffs.

People talk about a ‘blunt winged’ look to Pallid swifts which I have not really picked up on myself when watching a lone swift in the past, I have however noticed the reverse; Common swifts looking ‘sharp winged’ after watching Pallid swifts in places where both occur (Tarifa in spring for example) The bird did present an overall shape of large head and shorter back end.

Views had not been excellent but neither were they poor and I felt certain that I had been watching a juvenile pallid swift so put the news out and called Phil C to let the bockhill guys know what was potentially coming their way.

A quick photo edit for the purposes of this post, I have more images look through but Photographs are fairly poor with high ISO and will need some work before submitting a description.

With the realisation that the swift had moved on I continued along the cliffs. A warm, sunny and still morning ensued, many Skylarks were arriving off the channel, a single Brambling and a small flock of Tree sparrows came in at Lighthouse down, moving North. As I walked back through Langdon hole I heard some Goldcrest calls followed by the sudden squeak of a Pallas’s Warbler! It was right next to me, low down feeding in a Blackthorn at knee level.

The bird was vocal and showed well, some very close views. Perfect.

My first here since a few birds in 2022 and the past 2 autumns without them have felt lacking for sure. I am now away for a couple weeks, it seems a terrible time to leave Kent with so much turning up but I am immensely happy with today’s birds and still have a stab at the last days of November when I return.

Here’s a quick rundown of the highlights since I last posted. Strong winds have dominated, mostly from the SW. A little Auk flew down channel, close in at st Margaret’s on the 31st Oct. Phil had another the next morning just before I arrived, also that morning a Short–eared Owl over the sea, Bonxie and Red Breasted Merganser all down channel. A woodlark over Foxhill down early on the 30th and another two with Rich B over the valley the same day.

This morning I spent the first hours of light on light house down, where 20 Skylark, a Mistle Thrush 105 Crossbills in 6 flocks, c40 Redpoll, 2 Brambling, 15 siskin, 3 House Martin 5 Swallow flew SW.

At 08.45 a Glossy Ibis appeared over the cliffs above the bay and flew SW over head, a Scarce bird here.

Almost every visit up the cliffs recently I have encountered a Merlin, this juv was hunting as the light faded today.

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.

A week of moderate NE winds saw me otherwise engaged until the morning of the 25th, a slightly lighter wind but from the same direction. 6 Ring Ouzels, a Redwing, 100 Siskin, 5 Redpoll, 2 Reed buntings & 25 Brent Geese downchannel were the notables. This morning (26th) with a light Easterly was more encouraging, the morning started with 2 Firecrests in the ornamental flowerbed at the end of my road, a further 6 throughout the day +5 Goldcrest, 4/5 Ring Ouzels & another Redwing in Langdon hole, a 1CY Caspian Gull NE along cliff tops, c4,000 Swallow, 200 House martin, c10 Sand Martin, c300 Siskin, 20+ Stonechat, Whinchat, Redstart, Black Redstart, Whitethroat, lesser whitethroat, 2 juvenile Hobby, up to 3 Grasshopper warblers – 2 in the same bush on the edge of the cliffs at langdon. (below)

A quick check of the harbour on the 25th also produced a smart 1CY Caspian Gull on the Harbour arm near my house.

The first day of light winds after over a week. An almost still SE morning and an early start. My highlight of the day came over the Windmill garden just at tree height and flew towards the lighthouse where I stood – a dark juvenile Honey Buzzard just before 9am.

Nice views of it as It flew out over the channel but stayed parallel with the coast and continued SW towards Dover, Later a 2cy male Marsh Harrier flew out to sea over fan bay.

Meadow pipits were moving with c500 counted in the first 3 hours of light, 4 Spotted flycatchers, 5 Whinchat, Wheatear, Willow and Sedge warblers, c150 Chiffchaff and 100 or so blackcap.

Hirundines were pretty spectacular especially into the afternoon, a rough estimate would be c10,000 birds. I counted almost 1k several times and at one point the sky was full of hirundines as far as I could see with perhaps half that number Swallows and the rest Sand and House martin + 3 Common Swifts.

The strong SW winds continue, thus more seawatching. Sharing the shelter at st Margaret’s with Brendan and Jack for the most part.

Highlights from the 17th: A juvenile Long–tailed skua early on down channel, 10+ Arctic skuas throughout the day, 52 Sooty shearwaters (between 07.00 – 13.15), a single Manx, 1CY Caspian gull, a tight flock of 7 Black terns first thing and a single later on all also down channel. 

Today’s sea watching (18th) began with 2 Ospreys (below) out and south over the water within 5 minutes of each other, a Hobby did the same shortly after, more close Arctic skuas both passing and lingering, again 10+ and later a Little tern came past down channel close in.

A return tomorrow to some more ‘birdable’ weather.