Friday 5th February

This bird had me going for all of a couple of seconds this morning. I'd been scanning across the pasture just south of the railway bridge on Kiln Barn Road, Ditton - noting 5 Blackbirds when this little beauty dropped down onto a fence post and then onto the grass. A Blackbird with a dash of white - Ring Ouzel? Surely not in Kent in February? Of course not, just a Blackbird but an interesting one nevertheless. The photo doesn't show it too well but there's a clear white, albeit narrow, band just under the bird's 'chin' but no white on the on the opposite wing of the bird . Of course within a second I knew what it was, wrong shape, size, bill, stance, no broad chest crescent, but it doesn't stop me living in hope, a Ring Ouzel on the patch is long overdue. Elsewhere, an army of Fieldfares hopped across the pasture by Kiln Barn Farm and a record 14x Stock Doves picked through the freshly manured field on the other side of the track.