EVENING STROOD WALK

By the time I got out for a walk by the Strood in the early evening of Monday 6th, most of the sunshine had turned hazy and the breeze stiffened. I took a closer look at this pond pictured above, recently dug out with all of the reeds and reedmace removed. It will be interesting to see how it develops and gets recolonised in the months to come. At the moment a little grebe and moorhen were the only occupants although a grey heron has been feeding here too.

Two corn buntings sang from the overhead wires near here and a handful of linnets were also seen over a rough set-aside corner. One of the winter wheat fields beside the seawall still had a small flock of brent geese in it, while one of the pools had a pair of shelduck and some gulls on it.

The tide was well out along the Strood but wader numbers and the variety of species seen, is a lot less than seen on the winter visits. Most widespread wader was the redshank with 300+, while 25 grey plover, 20 black-tailed godwit, 10 dunlin 10 oystercatcher and 20 curlew were the main waders noted.

A female marsh harrier was the only raptor seen, passing west along the Channel, it disturbed a few curlew from the saltings around the Ray Island. A distant hirundine flying across the Ray Island appeared to be a sand martin heading east. At dusk 15 linnets roosted in the thorn scrub along from the Dabchicks Sailing Club.

The only other migrants noted during the day were a chiffchaff and a blackcap singing in Firs Chase. The female sparrowhawk, green woodpecker and great spotted woodpecker were seen during te day here too.