Quick trot around the Bourne walk

Plenty of Blackcap, Whitethroat and Song Thrush song. Blue Tits collecting insects.

Variable amounts of Chalara, some tricky trees along the path. A Buzzard being mobbed by two crows. Still no sign of the Grey Wagtails on the weir, I think they must have moved on.

Large amounts of leaf gall mites on the Elm leaves again.

A yellow-flowered crucifer, unidentified once again!

Laurel bashing at Dene

Hard work this morning, clearing and burning laurel, lots of interest in whether the burning of laurel is dangerous to people. And then a nice Comma Butterfly to reward me as I left.

Had a good go at Laurel pulling in the afternoon while walking Toby.

Dene Park on a sunny and warm February day

What a lovely few days, it really helps raise the spirits at this time of year when warm dry weather lasts for at least a few days!

I went down to the Alders, by the stream at the edge of the wood.

The first bird I saw was a Greater Spotted Woodpecker, but it was quickly away - too quick for a photograph.

This Blue Tit was searching the bark of an Alder tree, with the orange of the catkins forming a bit of a background to the photograph.

There were also Great Tits in the canopy - these seem to be commoner than the Blue Tits - or just louder or more visually obvious!

There wasn't much else in the woods today - lots of dog-walkers and families - but there were still Blackbirds and Robins, and of course Wood Pigeons overflying.

Birch Wood on a cloudy Sunday

I spent some time with Toby reviewing Birch Wood. There about two and a half hours, moving very slowly.

We started at the Ash tree by the path entrance, and up in the canopy there was some dead twiggery and a hung up broken off branch, with the oak tree behind. I am still worried about the pedestrians on this footpath.

There are some large Sweet Chestnuts to the northwest of the pond, variously damaged, possibly by squirrel.

There are some lovely tall "valley Alders" just by the main streamside, with mophead top shapes, but these are intermixed with a lot of tall Ash with a bit of dieback.

I added a moderate sized Oak towards the north as a notable tree but didn't get a good position fix.

I thought there were likely to be some large Birches and Cherries on the northern boundary that might be worth recording, away from the path, beyond the three Birches at the path junction.

There are a few Hornbeams mainly in the north, of various sizes.

As you move south through the mixed woods there is a patch of about half a dozen large tall Beeches.

Just to the south the tall trees change to a mix of Ash, Oak and Sweet Chestnut.

There must be half a dozen large Sweet Chestnut coppice stools on either side of the path by the eastern entrance. These, with the Beeches to the southern gate, are probably the most ancient trees in the remaining wood.

Oare to Uplees

Dunlin, Golden Plover, Redshank, Curlew, Oystercatcher, Grey Herons, Little Egrets, Black-headed Gulls, Herring Gulls, Little Grebes, Shelduck, Shoveller, Teal,

A cold Leybourne

Long-tailed, Blue and Great Tits moving around the shores of The Ocean. Black-headed and Common Gulls, Larus canus.

Greater Spotted Woodpecker at far side of the Ocean at the cross-roads. Still relatively few fungi.

Oare to just beyond Uplees

I disturbed half a dozen small finches from the salt marsh by Uplees Copse, and they ended up in the top of one of the trees in the copse. The one pictured turned out to be a male Linnet, Linaria cannabina.

  
There was a Grey Heron standing on the edge of the muddy shore:

As we walked along, individual Common Redshank, Tringa totanus, were regularly startled from their feeding points along the mud, and here is a nice view of one in flight, showing the barred tail. You can just see part of the white back stripe.

There were lots of Black-headed Gulls, feeding on the mud and flying around. By now the light was so poor that the ISO was preventing much cropping in the photography.

There were some Herring Gulls along the shore, as well as over-flying. This one appears to have a dark tip to its tail, and a blackish gonys spot on its beak, with no brown obvious on its wing, but a good yellow iris to its eye, so just possibly a fourth winter bird.

Lesser Black-backed Gull I think,

Greater Black-backed Gull on the channel marker,

Curlews in flight over The Swale

The first of two female Marsh Harriers flew over The Swale, possibly to roost on Sheppey.

On the far side of The Swale there was a very large raft of Teal and Wigeon apparently resting quietly, probably well over a thousand birds in total. This is a small part of the raft

There were Shelduck scattered around the Swale, sometimes feeding, sometimes flying. Here is one flying in front of the raft of duck in the background

On the way back, we came across a group of about a dozen Black-tailed Godwits, exploring the mud. They are often a bit later getting out on to the estuary than some of the other waders, after roosting at high tide.

Walking back towards the copse, a single Turnstone was very busy, examining a clump of seaweed and stones:

Got a little crustacean, or something else?