Thursday 29th November

Nothing much to report over the last few days. The heavy rain overnight encouraged 5x Grey Herons to feed in the field between St Margaret's Church and the A26, Barming this morning. A Skylark sang above the car park as I arrived at work despite the gloom.

Tuesday 20th November

Not much outside in the rain today, but a Blue Tit came into the building via an electrical conduit and caused havoc in one of our growth rooms! It was captured and assisted back out to it's rightful place!

Friday 16th November

After a bout of gastroenteritis it was actually nice to get back to work, although I've not had much of a chance to get out. A trip up and around Sheppey was very productive on Sunday (see KOS website NW sightings for details).

Today had the real feel of winter - most of the leaves have fallen a hard frost had much of the site sparkling white. I had an apointment with a falconer at 12:30 to look at control corvids next summer using falconry. We visited the Upper Grub site on the east side of the research station nearest Hermitage Lane. A Saker was flown, but there wasn't much for him to scare off, however we did eventually notice 2 crows high, mobbing a third bird (12:45). Luckily the falconer had a pair of bins with him and immediately announced it to be a Red Kite. I then checked, and yes it was fantastic Red Kite, drifting slowly west-north-west, high, but the clearly discernable as a kite. Eventually it was lost to view, but seemed to be following the path of the A20/M20.

Thursday 1st November

A call from Ross informed that there were three strangers in the flock of geese at Bradbourne Lake, East Malling. 3x Barnacle Geese were found amongst the 100+ Canada Geese that frequent the lake and surronding fields. An added bonus was my first Ring-necked Parakeet on site, seen flying over the lake as I photographed the geese, being mobbed by a crow. Two new site birds in one day!