Wednesday 29th February 2012

A quick bike ride out at lunchtime to try and get Grey Heron, Skylark, Meadow Pipit or Linnet onto the West Malling/Mill St tetrad of the KOS winter Atlas.  Third attempt to do so, but I wasn't lucky - very surprising that these species remain absent despite some ideal habitat for these species.

I did see a Red Admiral in East Malling, woken from it's slumbers by the Spring-like sunshine.  23x Pied Wagtails shuffled around the newly-harrowed organic plot on the Research land, until a Sparrowhawk cast its shadow across them.  One of the Common Gulls that has been frequenting the research land was found dead, minus its head, probably a victim of a fox.  I was pleased to find a Kingfisher on the watercress beds, the first I'd seen on this part of the patch for a number of years, to be topped on my cycle home in the evening with a pair of Little Owls near Kiln Barn Farm.