Thursday 8 January 2009

Thursday 8th January

After dropping off my youngest at nursery in East Malling I acted on a tip off from Ross and drove through the East Malling Research Station via Bradbourne House in search of a Barnacle Goose and Lapwings. The Barnacle Goose was easily found, lying on the lawn in front of Bradbourne amongst a mixed flock of 200+ Greylag and Canada Geese. A Grey Heron stood statue-like in the stream alongside the entrance track and eventually I saw the desert of Lapwings- 32 in total sitting in the inappropriately named Rookery Field. They can be easily seen on the east side of the public footpath that traverses the Research Station between East Malling and Ditton churches.

I took part in the monthly EMR running club race at lunchtime, which yielded a couple of Goldcrest en route, but precluded me from checking out the Bramblings. In my abscence Ross, The Bald Birder (http://baldbirder.blogspot.com/), managed to find eight, and photograph them, within a stones throw of my office! I'll be loitering outside his office tomorrow (although I'll never beat the Hoopoe he got from his office window in 2005)!

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