Author: Jamie Partridge

A weeks work up in Scotland and a relatively quiet start to April have meant this blog has laid dormant recently. A few things to note however in the past 3 days with the highlight a Cattle Egret that flew in over the harbour this morning just after sunrise (06.15)

A long overdue patch tick for me and a scarce bird locally. Despite the rain at 4am there was very little in the bushes to add to this beyond an increase in Whitethroats (10+ today across the headland) a single Willow Warbler on the farm (3 on the 11th were the first of the year for me) and 2 Lesser Whitethroats singing in the valley.

I got a fright when a White–tailed Eagle appeared at tree height just north of Top wood, moving East towards the village and continuing to Bockhill. A black ringed but untagged 2cy bird, most likely one of the Sussex born, last years juvs.

Yellow wagtails today and y’day, a Tree pipit and single Crossbill on the 11th were the first of the year for me and Black Redstarts are still a daily feature with 5 on the 10th being the higher count, Swallows also being seen daily now with 15 on the 11th the best number so far. Little–ringed plover, Golden plover and Whimbrel have all been heard flying over in recent days too.

A couple of days of bright chilly NW wind with fairly little to report. I counted 18 Red Kites moving SW along the cliff tops the morning of the 27th, the same morning Colin counted 31 just inland of where I was sitting.

Notable birds include a Hawfinch on the 28th which was calling in the Pines garden, I picked it up when it flew SW. White wagtails are still a daily occurance but 4 down with the cattle presented the only grounded birds ive seen for a while.

2 Swallows, 2 Black redstarts, c50 Redwing and a Wheatear on the 29th whilst the Bockhill guys had a Hoopoe fly in off the sea.

Light South Easterly winds with the addition of showers and low cloud made for a decent morning. The first notable birds were two male Ring Ouzels that dropped out of the sky onto the cliff face from high up, picked up whilst trying to locate unseen calling Redwings.

Redwing too were moving and a flock of 55 were in tree tops in the valley whilst 22 flew over with a Blackbird early on.

2 Black Redstarts, a Woodcock, c350 Chaffinches, 3 Brambling, 2 White Wagtails were also tallied during the morning. Other birders out and about locally had an Iceland Gull, 7 White Fronted Geese , a Hawfinch, 2 early Tree pipits and 2 Lovely Wheatears (the latter of which I twitched! thanks to Simon & Javi). so a fairly good day to be out.

Another 2 Black Redstarts the day previous aswell as a Flock of Starling approaching 1,000 birds which I never really see here.

A shift in the wind to a moderate Easterly on the 18th and attention was turned to the sea. Some wildfowl movement highlighted by 12 Pochard – followed by 5 Garganey (below) among a mixed group of Shoveler, Teal and Pintail.

Poor pics but they came past fairly close for the bay!

The following day the winds were lighter and from the South East, again I focused on the Sea at dawn and enjoyed c1400 Brent geese fly upchannel between 7.00 – 08.40. Only a small Portion of the vast numbers past Dungeness & Beachy head but still abit of a spectacle, with some very large flocks and varying distances and heights. The birds continued throughout the morning and I saw many more from the clifftop as I checked the head land.

A newly arrived Firecrest at fan bay and 3 Chiffchaff in the wood were the extent of birds in the bushes – clear skies and light SE winds are often poor for grounding migrants here but not bad for flyovers of which 2 White wagtails and my first Swallow of the year noted as well as some very high sounding and basically invisible Chaffinch and Siskins and a Woodlark in over the cliffs at the lighthouse on the 20th.

4 Red kite also moved South West along the cliffs on the 20th

More chilly North Easterlies and clear skies, a Water pipit along the cliffs on the 14th was the most significant bird for me since last posting.

littoralis Rock pipits have been evident too with one the same day over the valley and Phil C found one just inland today (below).

Lighter Chaffinch passage today c200 NE with c50 Siskin counted and 3 Caspian Gulls (2 x 1stW+1x2nd W) among 100’s moving at cliff top height in a North Easterly direction.

Besides these a few really nice looking Caspian Gulls are coming through, with myself and Gerald at Deal seeing them fairly regularly. The March look : bleached heads, slightly worn wing coverts and in their most obvious and contrasting plumage, the below first winter birds were at Deal on the 12th…

and below at st Margs on the 11th

Not much to mention from me during this quiet period except an early Sand martin in over the cliffs at Fan bay on the 3rd. Today was the first day of light(ish) NW winds after a cold NE blast kick started my spring visits up the cliffs; out at dawn, eager not to miss migrant Chaffinches (of which I counted 440 y’day). They didn’t get started really till 7.40 with squadrons of between 15 and 60 at a time moving NE along the cliffs at varying heights (some very high) until about 09.30 when they seemed to tail off. I’m keen to better my high count of 3,470 (a pittance compared to other local high counts) having missed the movement due to work the past couple of years.

The occasional Siskin was heard, but only a flock of 16 were counted. During this time a Woodlark and 2 White Wagtails also moved along the same line NE.

3 more White wagtails were with the cattle at Fan bay, another Woodlark flushed off the deck near the Lighthouse and seemed to go down in one of the fields and a Red kite Flew N over the valley.

A desperate check of the usual Wheatear spots was fruitless and the completely unexpected highlight of the day came (as it sometimes does) as I walked home over Fox hill down – An adult male Goshawk, which circled up from the direction of the harbour and continued North up the line of the A2. The same circumstances in which I’ve seen Osprey, HB and Redfoot arriving, although it could have been following the coast perhaps.

Slightly stunned I took some distant photos as the bird circled, drawing the attention of local carrion crows before continuing on towards the military school, wreaking havoc among hundreds of corvids and gulls.

The last spring Goshawk along this stretch of coast was a 2cy bird at Bockhill almost 4 years exactly to the day – 13/03/21 . Curious to know today’s bird’s origins.

A photo dump of the 12 different Caspian Gulls I’ve seen this month between Shakey beach and st MArgaret’s (and not including the 9 i counted following the ferry en route to the Wallcreeper on the 31st Dec). Lower numbers compared to December due to a period of calm and bright weather, which is pretty useless for winter gulling here.

1st winter above and below

Different 1st winters above and another below

Another different 1st winter above and also another below

Second winter above and below

A different second winter below

Adult above and below,

Fourth winter above and below

Third winter below

Adult below.

A sudden injection of Common gulls here at the coast and a few ‘eastern looking’ birds around between Shakey beach and st Margaret’s, mostly sitting o the water or moving south further out to sea. Nothing actually identifiable as heinei cam close enough for inspection until this adult briefly came in to the melee at shakey on the 27th. Picked up at a distance with its dark mantle and long winged look, the mostly clean, unstreaked head, yellow bill and Caspian Gull like ‘shawl’ of neck streaks was obvious, plus in flight what looked like reduced white and a good chunk of black in the primaries. (any birds showing heavily streaked heads, equally sized mirrors on P9&10 and paler mantles get mostly ignored!)

There are several primary patterns that, along with the correct head and bare part pattern can prove heinei – in this case a relatively small P9 mirror with minimal white tongue tip to P7 and the black on the outer web of P6 covers more than half the exposed feather.

It sounds like other people were seeing Common Gulls moving south that, and the following day, so perhaps more to be found out there, Ive also known feburary to be very good for common gull numbers as birds begin moving north again.

I’ve tried looking for Wallcreepers in multiple mountain ranges aswell as reliable winter sites in Cyprus and France and its never worked out. Ive been putting off twitching one for long enough and so before xmas formed a plan to spend New years looking for a bird that turned up on a Chalk cliff above the banks of the Seine in Les Andelys, Normandie – less than 3 hours SW from Calais.

Present since early November there were a few sightings on ebird mid December and a friend living in France assured me it was reported for a few consecutive days just before Christmas so a plan was hatched and Amy and I boarded a ferry and headed down there on the 31st.

Not such an unfamiliar thing to look at, these craggs are formed from the same Chalk strata as the Dover cliffs. A nervous 35 mins were spent looking for the bird early(ish) on New years day, I eventually caught a glimpse of it up busily feeding high up on the above cliff and basically detonated with excitement… Excellent prolonged scope views when suddenly the bird flew to the neighbouring cliff, much closer to where I was stood, and eventually came down to the lower levels, thrilling views of a mind blowing bird.

I watched the bird continuously for almost 2 hours, views of it on a chalk cliff too were extra meaningful, and quite painful on the neck! I gave the camera some time but not much as light was poor and views were much more fun. At around 12.30 the bird disappeared into a cave high up and didn’t come out. We came back after some lunch and it was feeding high up again and enjoyed some more scope views.

I may go back before winter is over, feel free to get in touch for gen, its easily done from Kent or Sussex channel crossings. emailpartridge@gmail.com

The end of the festive season and end of the birding year for me, Its been mostly/only gulls this month for me, I havent seen either of the enormous rarities that popped up in Kent over Christmas but hope to at least see the warbler at least, when the crowds die down.

Amy and I plan to spend NYE looking for a wallcreeper thats been present since november in northern france.

Heres some of the many Caspian gulls ive seen this month, mostly bewtween Shakey beach, st Margaret’s and the marina, no particular order, all ages.

See you next year.