Sunday 21 March 2010

Sunday 21st March

Down to New Hythe GPs again, this time with the kids.  Sand Martins were vagain my target after being informed by Eddie Denson that 8+ had been at Alders first thing.  With the kids in tow, I did the Brookland, Streamside, Tesco, Alders Lake circuit.  I was suprised to see the Whooper Swan on Steamside - the kids threw it some bread and it immediately made came towards us and out of the water to eat out the kids' hands!  Wild bird...mmmm.  A Mute Swan hassled it, and eventually it moved on.  I only had my mobile phone camera and thought I 'd got some shots of it out the water, but didn't, only the one above came out.

It developed into a lovely, sunny afternoon - warm and with lots of flies around to attract those migrants out.  Unfortunately I didn't manage to pick up a Sand Martin.   I somehow managed to pick out Terry Laws amongst the thronging crowd - he'd had a Sand Martin and 'Egret' and suggested I speak to Mr Bill Pattern at WWT about whether the Whooper was the one we had last year - that one went right over my head! 
Red-legged Patridge, Allington (courtesy of Richard Walker)
Back in Barming I received an email from Dave Walker to inform me the Harris Hawks that had been frequenting his road had disappeared on Wednesday, and another from his son, Richard, with some nice pics of a Red-legged Partridge that's frequenting a residential area in Allington!

1 comment:

Warren Baker said...

I noticed all those flies and insects out Adam. It looked set up for a hirundine - but nowt was seen.