Friday, 11 February 2011

Friday 11th February 2011


Approx 150 Starling lifting off.  North Downs as a backdrop.  All browns and greys today.

Wet drizzle again.  Only a short trip out at lunch (surreally passing a group of rifle-carrying officers from the City of London Police...I didn't dare take a picture!).  I cycled up Easterfields and Sweets Lane round the back of East Malling to try and add some records for the NE corner of the Oaken Wood tetrad.  Target species were Common Gull, Stock Dove, Meadow Pipit and Skylark which were all distinct possibles on the small corner of farmland in what is predominately a wooded tetrad.  Well I scored one out of four, but it all adds to BTO records - a Skylark exhalting the smallest patch of blue that broke through the greyness...lovely!  A large flock of Fieldfares were feeding with 200+ Starlings on a newly cultivated field, and a lone Herring Gull and Cormorant flew over west.


Moving onto the N end of Oaken Wood proper I quickly picked out the Gallup of Redpolls, at least 25 with a few Goldfinches associating with them.  Long-tailed, Blue and Great Tits were also feeding on the Birch seeds.  The Little Owl sat out in his usual position near Kiln Barn Farm.

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