I had a brief walk at Bishopstone yesterday afternoon in differing weather (sunshine, cloud and then rain). Birds noted included 14 Grey Partridge in fields to the south, 101 Woodpigeon, 3 Collared Dove, 81 Herring Gull, 5 Cormorant, 5 Jackdaw, 23 Rook, 1 Swallow, 2 Chiffchaff, 1 Blackcap, 10 Starling and 12 House Sparrow. This morning in quite calm conditions, I had a brief seawatch and then a walk around the bushes at the Bishopstone end. Birds seen included 63 Oystercatcher, 6 Turnstone, 1 Arctic Skua east, 31 Black headed Gull, 1 Mediterranean Gull, c80 Herring Gull, 4 Great Black backed Gull, 2 Lesser Black backed Gull, 96 Common Tern mainly west, 66 Sandwich Tern east, 11 Cormorant, 3 Peregrine and 3 Little Egret. I make sure normally to check every Cormorant in the hope that I will get a Shag and this morning, I picked up two birds flying east that through the binoculars looked good. I rattled off a few shots a little later than I wanted but they did show the thin bill and neck, steep sloping forehead and pot bellied appearance. I was pretty sure they were 2 Shag and after putting them on social media, everyone replied agreeing with my initial thoughts that they were indeed 2 Shag (139). A good bird to get here I think. A quick walk around a few bushes in the area produced 3 Chiffchaff, 1 Blackcap, 1 Lesser Whitethroat, 8 Whitethroat, 21 House Sparrow, 1 Grey Wagtail west, 5 Swallow west and 3 Linnet. I returned back to Bishopstone a little later for an hour or so and noted c10 Grey Partridge, 1 Mediterranean Gull, 47 Herring Gull, 2 Sandwich Tern, 2 Little Egret, 2 Common Buzzard soaring to the south, 1 Great spotted Woodpecker, 1 Green Woodpecker, 2 Jay, 1 Sand Martin, 7 Swallow west, 1 Willow Warbler, 2 Chiffchaff, 1 Long tailed Tit, 1 Blackcap, 2 Whitethroat, 4 Chaffinch, 3 Linnet and 1 Goldfinch. Nocmig recording on Friday night was again very quiet, no hoped for Dotterel flying over yet, just a Teal of note.
Grey Partridge and young
Shag
Shag - Back of camera crop
Just to note, the Red Listed Grey Partridge is on the verge of extinction in our area, the last single bird I saw was in February 2018, prior to that March 2016. So your 14 GP's in Kent is an exceptionally good record for me to see.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget, back to work this week Marc!
Regards....Pete.