AUTUMNAL WIND

It was a cold morning walk along the Strood seawall on Friday 3rd. Not many small birds to see over the fields in the strong wind although pair of stonechats along the edge of the dyke were a sign of autumn. A grey heron stood in the middle of one of the big fields and was strangely joined by a kestrel, who stood nearby for company for several minutes. Four kestrels were seen hovering and hunting over various fields to the east of the Strood Hill area.
A few meadow pipits flew past and 10 linnets also headed off the Island.

In the borrow-dyke a pair of mute swans were present as were a couple of the resident little grebes.



It was a bit windy to scan all the waders along the Channel thoroughly but in the brief search, only the usual selection of species were noted. Several hundred redshank were scattered along the length and were the most numerous. Grey plover numbers seemed higher than recent visits with over a hundred present. Small numbers of the other regulars were noted too such as black-tailed godwits, golden plover, lapwing, ringed plover, curlew, oystercatcher, dunlin and turnstone.

There was the familiar winter scene of wildfowl resting along the bottom of the Channel with at least 30 wigeon and 50 teal counted, along with a few shelduck. Three little egrets were noted as were 2 common terns flying past. Five little grebes were seen amongst the boat moorings just up-channel from the Dabchicks.