At last some blue sky and a pleasant walk in to work. Everything was in song and I was lucky to see 34 species en route, the highlights being: a pair of Kestrels (Oaken Wood), Little Owl, 2x GS Woodpeckers, 2x Grey Herons, Linnets, Common/Herring/Black-headed and LBB Gulls and a lone Brambling (opposite Ditton Lab) - everything seemed to be paired up. Best of all, and you'll probably laugh, were a pair of Mallards (no 52 for Oaken Wood if you can count fly-overs) that zipped in, over Oaken Wood and onto Gallagher's pasture just S of Kiln Barn Farm. As rare on this part of my patch as a 'Coot in Pittswood'.
When you've got no water on your patch this is as exciting as it gets!
By lunchtime the sun had disappeared in East Malling and it looked like Armageddon was on it's way.
I covered another section of the West Malling & Mill Street tetrad, taking in Clare Park and Broadwater, and was lucky to add an elusive Coal Tit to the BTO Atlas. Both Skylark and Pheasant which I expected to easy ticks today failed to materialise.
There, on the nuts, best I could do without invading a resident's privacy
By the time I came to go home the sky had once again changed and a dramatic sunset was forming, hopefully indicating fair weather tomorrow?!
3 comments:
Adam ,
Good to see you out and about again .
Only yourself and Warren could enthuse so over a pair of Mallard and a Coot .
Hi Adam.
Ditto what Greenie says. You never know where Mallards are going to turn up
Yesterday was a great evening for sunsetsYous looks like a shot from Mars ar somewhere in outerspace.
Adam - Lovely to be able to read your blog again and sense your excitement over what for many would be LBTs. Thanks also for your help the other week regarding the Waxwings.
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