Monday 19th April

Back on patch today after a 2 week holiday - and what a difference.  Blossom everywhere, the first Bluebells emerging and some new patch/walk-in ticks...and not just for the year!  Walking from Barming to East Malling on my usual route I was suprised to hear a Nuthatch calling as I approached the allotments at the top of North Street, Barming.  What's unusual about that I hyear you say - well I've never seen a Nuthatch in Barming in the 5 years I've lived there!  There's plenty of suitable habitat, but I've just never seen or heard them.  It got better - as I approached the track I saw not one, but two birds calling loudly to each other and chasing each around an oak.  A GS Woodpecker was equally vocal and joined in the chase - fighting over a nest hole?! 

Moving on a couple of Chiffchaffs called along Gallagher's Gallop and a Song Thrush sang from alongside the quarry.  Then my second new tick for my 'walk-in' route - a lone Greylag Goose flying low west.  As I approached the underpass a couple of Blackcaps could be heard, with one bird showing briefly - a new patch tick for the year.  A male Bullfinch also called.  The Little Owl was in his usual spot at Kiln Barn Farm, and just a bit further on a couple of Swallows (another patch tick for the year!) sat on the wires near Kiln Barn Cottages.  I'd seen loads of these in Cornwall, but always reassuring to see them back on patch!  A couple of Lesser Black-backed Gulls sat out on Kiln Field (just west of the East Malling Conference Centre).

At lunchtime I paid a brief visit to the Paris Farm paddocks, East Malling, hoping for a migrant.  A couple of Stock Doves sat out on land at the back of East Malling church with a crowd of Wood Pigeons.  A GS Woodpecker drummed away from within a nest hole near the railway crossing and a Coal Tit flitted around the pines at the east end of the railway station.  No migrants were seen in the paddocks, only a Mistle Thrush hoped around on the turf, and a Peacock butterfly basked in the sun.

Tuesday 18th August

Connected with one of my favourite butterflies today, a pristine Clouded Yellow flew acroos my path as I walked the strawberry fields at East Malling Research. My first for the year, but it flew with purpose and strongly of towards Hermitage Lane, Barming.

Cycling home I glimpsed the Little Owl in Kiln Barn Farm cattle shed and the juvenile Bullfinch calling along the bridleway leading from the water tower (off North Street, Barming)

Wednesday 20th May

3x Painted Ladies on strawberry flowers at East Malling Research this afternoon.

Monday 2nd March

A new month and weather to match. The frosty start evolved into a warm, sunny Spring-like day. It felt like the sort of day that Ross might phone to say he'd happened upon the first migrant of the year, a Wheater hoping around the lawn at Bradbourne or a Sand Martin flitting overhead, so I was suprised when he called mid-morning to tell me he'd heard Waxwings trilling in the area of Garner Drive, East Malling. We'd kinda presumed they'd moved on - the research site has been pretty barren since the orchards were cleaned up a few weeks ago. Most of the Fieldfares have moved onto the nearby grazed areas with 100+ seen on my cycle in, south-east of Kiln Barn Farm. A rapid cycle down to Bradbourne House at lunchtime turned up a blank - Blue Tits tittered, Woodpeckers drummed, Coots called but no Waxwings trilled. So instead I kicked through some of the leaf litter still hoping to find the elusive East Malling Woodcock. I disturbed a butterfly but frustratingly it was off, up and over the windbreak before I could ID it It was brown/dark, not Brimstone Yellow, so most probably a Comma or Small Tortoiseshell. I'll never know what my first butterfly species of the year was! Bees busied themselves in some of the more sheltered corners of the orchards and a couple of Herring Gulls loafed around briefly on Bradbourne Lake. The Barnacle Goose was glimpsed amongst the gaggle of Canada Geese on the opposite bank.