Friday 17 December 2010

Merry Christmas


As i am likely to be working from now until Christmas i would just like to say a BIG THANKYOU to everyone who has followed my blog and to  those of you have also been kind enough to have left comments ,  i would just like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and hope the new year brings you all some great birds and plenty of lifers .


very snowy garden shed.

Sunday 12 December 2010

Waxwing invasion ......... in Folkstone

Waxwings in tree.

I headed to Folkestone yesterday in the hope of trying to see some of the Waxwings that have invaded Folkestone , i arrived at approx 10am and parked up in the B&Q car park  and instantly saw a huge gathering of Waxwings in the top of a nearby tree. they eventually flew over my head and started feeding on some berries much lower down and really close , here are a selection of many photos i took.





They were constantly flying around and feeding i counted approx 200 birds but there was probably more.

In flight.

From here i headed to Dungeness and was treated to several good views of Bittern i had 2 perched in trees right out in the open and another bird in flight .

Bittern in flight.

I had some good numbers of winter ducks , 1 male and 6 female Goosanders , 1 male and 5 female Smew , plus plenty of Goldeneye ,  and large numbers of the regular ducks were everywhere , i also saw 3 Egyptian Geese from the viewing ramp , i was also pleased to see 2 Black-Necked Grebes from the denge marsh hide , a total of 3 Marsh Harriers around the reserve plus a very smart Tree Sparrow by the feeders was very good to see , then it was time to head home , a really good days birding.

Hot off the press : I have just checked my records and it turns out the 3 Egyptian Geese seen at Dungeness was a new site tick for me !!