Spring 2009 highlights
Spring this year started well with sightings of bittern, barn owl, pintail duck, curlew, snipe etc and a close view of a little egret all at Oare Marshes, Faversham in March.
It had been a very cold winter and the first signs of spring were most welcome. Primroses at Chilham were a lovely sight on a north facing bank by a lane and of course daffodils giving a splash of sunny yellow.
Had a good view of a slavonian grebe at the RSPB Reserve at Dunginess swimming around on its own apart from the odd coot. It was in its winter plumage so not very inspiring to look at but in the summer it has reddish brown neck and under parts, dark back and black head with cream wedges running back from the eyes, quite striking. Another first for a grebe was a great crested taking off from a lake near Chilham, with its legs so far back it took quite a while before it got into the air!
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April brought a surprise for me, a good friend told me of a heronry she had found in Kelsey Park in Beckenham. On arriving at the park I was confronted by the sight of the heronry there on the island in the middle of the lake with people walking past and sitting around chatting, the last place I would have expected them to have nested! There were a lot of water fowl there and in particular a pair of mandarin ducks the male looking splendid.
In West Hythe along the canal there I spotted my first apple blossom, that together with the increasing bird song you could feel spring was well on the way. And on lakes in the area the coots were behaving in their mad fashion chasing each other around and fighting!
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May and the bluebells are appearing in the woods, spreading their blue/purple haze everywhere.
Over at the RSPB Dunginess the oystercatchers were displaying on the banks on the big lagoon and had my first sight of a little gull, you can see it here with black-headed gulls and you can see how small it is.
By the canal at West Hythe the water lily's were coming out and I saw my first dragonfly of the season a four-spotted chaser.
At Russel Gardens I had a charming view of a moorhen feeding its chick and a splendid view of a coot in all its detail, you can see how remarkable the feet are!
Wild flowers were making their appearance at St Margrets at Cliff, here are two the sainfoin and kidneyvetch.
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Into June and a great treat! A great crested grebe's nest which looked just like a soggy pile of weed, which in fact it was! I was able to follow the progress of the family from eggs to the chicks getting a bit too big to ride on their parents back.
At Langdon Cliffs the kittiwakes, fulmars and herring gulls were nesting, looking very precarious on the cliff face! And I got a very good view of a hobby there. The orchids were making their appearance, this one is a fragrant orchid. These are so nice to come across on your walk along the cliff top.
To finish June and spring, here is a charming shot of a goldfinch giving itself a shake.
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