MORE SPRING SUNSHINE

Another sunny day and an brief walk along the Strood seawall on Easter Sunday. There is a bit of a lull in the bird activity with a lot of the winter birds now gone and the summer birds still to arrive. It was perfect conditions for hearing distant skylarks singing although not much else. The wind was negligible and with the tide coming in, lots of waders were dotted along the water's edge.

By far the most numerous were about 200 redshank, although one very pale individual really stood out on the far side and turned out to be a greenshank. This is the first returning bird to be seen here on its passage north. Two bar-tailed godwits called out as they took to the air, before landing close to two brightly coloured black-tailed godwits. It was interesting to see the two species side by side - the bar-tails appearing very pale and no hint yet of their normal russet breeding plumage. Bar-tailed godwits appear to have become regular visitors to the Strood Channel in recent years.

Other birds seen were ten oystercatchers, five grey plover and 30 curlew, 3 shelduck, while reed bunting and a meadow pipit the only birds of note inland. The peacefulness of the area was only broken by the many black-headed gulls calling to each other as the tide carried them up the Channel.

The recent warm weather has brought out the white flowers of the hoary cress on the side of the seawall. This plant was introduced into Britain at the start of the 1800's by a very unusual method. British soldiers brought back with fever from the Napoleonic war, were carried back to Kent on hay filled mattresses. This hay was given to a local farmer on Thanet, who ploughed it in as manure. The cress has since spread all over Thanet and the south coast, giving rise to its other name of Thanet weed.

Butterflies of note in Firs Chase have been small white, peacock and the first speckled wood of the season. Yesterday the first holly blue was seen fluttering past a tall variegated holly tree.