This is a new post

Whetsted 0600 - 0900

....and here is the new post....

....these have appeared on the north field area.....for what reason...some may say obvious, but they have never before bothered and it hasnt been that dry......who knows.....

Meanwhile plenty of Nightingale song around the site.  Its actually nice to always seemingly be walking toward a singing bird.

Always good to see nesting birds, Swans are incredibly obvious, this one is next to the footpath.  There are three breeding pairs on site.

And lastly....is it a spider or a fungi.....look for a spider within if you find one....though apparently something called Dollar Spot creates these effects on lawns.....im pretty sure this one is a spider though.....

Lets go round again

 Whetsted GP 0530 - 0900 cool, overcast, warming, little to no wind

Everybody records Nightingale...so.....heres a Garden Warbler......

A massive day at the gravel pits.....that time of year when everything is going to be as good as it gets for spring/summer birds.....loads of song everywhere and some nice surprises too....

The return of Turtle Doves.....over the past few years they seem to have declined from three pairs on site to one pair last year.....seemed the inevitable blank was coming.....so it was a great morning to find at least 3 purring away on the eastern half of the site.

The major reason for going was to try to finalise the number of Nightingales on site.....last count out was 15 though there had been 17 previous to that.  Today I counted at least 18 on site, there may be another one or two but they are in difficult to get to areas so I will try to work on this over the next two weeks.  There was another south of the pits, across south field and one over by East Lock on the Medway.  And yet one more further along the Medway, east, somewhere off the eastern footpath.

7 Garden Warbler

8 Lesser Whitethroat

2 Cuckoos plus several females

2 Willow Warbler

3 Cetti Warbler

2 Shoveler....bit of an oddity for Whetsted as they all usually leave after spending the winter....there havent been any on site for a few weeks so...this return....seems odd.....the male was displaying to the female though.

3 Pochard

2 Lesser Black-backed Gull

Today is brought to you by the numbers 2, 4 and 15

 0530 - 0900 not so cold...

Found 15 Nightingales today....a couple of them doing the moving thing....and one new one some distance over toward the Medway....maybe one of the 17  I found a few days back....so looking like another good year at Whetsted.

...life ends.....but....

...life begins.....

Other birds around....

Ferrug Duck still on west pit....

Plenty of Cuckoo action....with a male and female in the reeds near west pit creating havoc.....poor Reed Warblers....but so it is....you have to be pragmatic with nature.....

2 Garden Warblers

2 Cettis Warblers

2 Willow Warblers

4 Lesser Whitethroat

...0930....time for breakfast...

The 17

 Whetsted GP 0600 - 0900 Cold, N f1-3

Ferrug Duck was not on west pit today, where it hangs out....still plenty of Tufteds though....maybe it was hiding from the cold...but more likely moved on....

Cold visit to the pits....northerly....thankfully eventually the sun came out and it was a tad warmer....just....hope it warms up soon....birds didnt seem to mind though...

So...good news....17 Nightingales....best total since i have been to the pits, about ten years or so....they are now spread out quite a bit and many now reside in the western end thanks to changin habitat....though of course it means there are less elsewhere....the habitat becoming not what they like....

White Dead-nettle

So what else was around....

Lesser Whitethroat 5

Common Whitethroat 15+

Cettis Warbler 2

Garden Warbler 2

Willow Warbler 2

Reed Warbler....lots...

Blackcaps and Chiffhaffs...even more lots

Pit

Swans nest right next to the footpath at west pit

Anything else of interest....yes....

I found a Mistle Thrush, always great to see.....north field....3 Med Gulls flew over calling...also over went one Great Black-backed Gull and later one Lesser Black-backed Gull....4 Egyptian Geese took flight from west pit....

There were plenty of Swallows and Sand Martins on west pit.....over on middle pit there werent so many, but with them was a solitary House Martin.....

Dead Grass Snake....not far from the heronry

Cold Whetsted

 Whetsted GP 0600 - 1020 WNW wind varying f1 - f4-5, cool to cold, soetimes warm in the sun

A chilly walk with DH for four hours.....

The Ferruginous Duck was still present on the western most pit.....looking rather velvety brown in the occasional....very occasional....sunshine.....we were lucky enough to get good flight views as well...

Photo thanks to DH

On West Pit with the Ferrug Duck and Tufteds was one lone Pochard and one female Goldeneye.  Seems a bit late for them as the ones that had over wintered here have been gone two weeks....

I mentioned the other day about the more recent habitat destruction that had occured north of the pits probably last year, which i photographed.....but I forgot to get a photo of the area I had mentioned they did a couple of years ago which is now a monoculture wasteland with few birds on it, in fact I saw one bird on it today, 2 woodpigeons the other day....but this area below was covered with scrub and would usually hold Whitethroats and more migrating birds,....anyway....so here it is...

I dont know who owns the land, theres a pretty big land owner along the road a way that has a load of oast houses to its name, maybe them?.....but they havent done anything with this bit of land apart from cut the grass that i can see....there are a few other species gradually coming back in the sward but I dont hold out any hope....I can only guess that someone, without any knowledge or understandign of ecology, simply wanted to 'tidy it up'....as humans like to do.....what a waste....

Other than that....

At west pit a few Swallows turned up....then a few Sand Martin....then one House Martin....they were clearly slowly moving in from the south....after another ten minutes or so a steady flow had begun and each species had numbers present, flying low over the water.....great to see all three species arrving at the pits on the same day....

13 Nightingales

5 Lesser Whitethroat

8 Common Whitethroat

1 Reed Warbler

3 Cettis Warblers

1 Cuckoo

Possible record year....Nightingales

 Whetsted GP 0620 - 0930 cool but warming, overcast, slight breeze

So lets start with the bad news....heres a nice bit of habitat clearance....not!.....

....this used to be covered in scrub, its on the northern side of the site and has suffered the same fate as the bit of land that I highlighted a while back.  Quite why they have cleared it like this is unknown.  The previous bit of land they did this too is now a desert of grass.  I should have taken a photo to compare I suppose but will do so next time.  They dont seem to have any particular reason to do this, the other bit has been cleared for some time and as far as I can see hasnt been used for anything.  I know humans seem to have some kind of habit of 'tidying'...hence the serious decline of flora and fauna in this country....heres a fine example, total destruction, zero birds using this as before, fewer insects no doubt.  Well done people.

And on to some not so bad news....the Feruginous Duck is still present.  Reported on a couple of sites on the net.  To the right in the photo is a Tufted male, the rarer bird on the left.  I only h ad my phone....so its what it is.....

Whilst I was on site a couple were indeed looking for the duck.  Its rare enough to find anyone on site if theres no rare birds to look at....so im sure there will be a steady flow...but hopefully it goes soon.  They will appear over winter in the UK but by around Spring will be gone again, so im sure this one wont be here too long.

Greater Stitchwort

Thankfully theres some good news.  Very good news.  Nightingales.....there are already 15 singing on site.  The best number counted in any year for me so far is...15....last year.  There has been a steady increase over the past three or four years of one extra bird a year....most years anyway....previously the best was 12, but as I say, it has been increasing gradually.  Along with this increase and probably due to habitat change they have been spreading west along the site and there are now 4 at West Pit, the most there has been.

So, this is really good news because migration is nowhere near over.  It probably leaves a week or two for more birds to arrive.  And fingers crossed, one or two more on site would be amazing.

Bluebells

Other birds that should not be forgotten today.....

2 Lesser Whitethroat

4 Common Whitrthroat

2 Willow Warbler

1 Sedge Warbler

2 Cettis Warbler

1 Yellowhammer

1 Cuckoo

1 Treecreeper

Loads of Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs..........

From 30deg plus...to....Whetsted....

 Back to reality.....Whetsted GP 0845 - 1100 cool but warming, little wind, occasional sun

After hearing Nightingale in Morocco over the past 9 days.....I was surely hoping to find one at Whetsted....

But I didnt find one....I found seven....which was a real surprise.  But a great surprise indeed.  And all 7 wanting to sing....the best bird song I have ever heard.....

It remains rather wet and muddy under foot at Whetsted and the pits remain rather full.

Other birds of note.....2 Willow Warblers, 2 Cettis Warblers, 1 Cuckoo....plenty of Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs.

Gypsywort