Kent Birding Highlights for October 2025

                                              WORTH MARSHES  

                                                     2nd October

Been a very busy birding month for me , no new species this month but some quality species seen.

                                             

Red necked Phalarope  (Photo from 2022)

A visit to Worth Marshes was successful on the 2nd October with good scope views of a 1st winter Red necked Phalarope which was recently found by Martyn Wilson (great find Martyn).

It was doing what Phalaropes do , constantly spinning around in circles and feeding off the surface of water it had disturbed.

A little bit to far for a photo so i have used one from a trip to Pett Level in 2022.

SANDWICH  BAY 

Spotted Crake.

Also on the 2nd i headed to Sandwich Bay to visit the Dragonfly Pool to catch up with the very showy Spotted Crake.

Spotted Crake.

This bird showed very well and gave some excellent photographic opportunity's , it was especially impressive watching the Spotted Crake creeping through the reeds & foliage feeding unbothered by it's adoring onlookers.

Spotted Crake creeping through the reeds.

ANCIENT HIGHWAY

6th October

Covey of Grey Partridge.

A drive along the Ancient Highway between Deal & Sandwich produced a covey of 20+ Grey Partridge.

PEGWELL BAY

♂ Greater Scaup

From the Ancient Highway to Pegwell Bay in the hope of seeing the ♂ Greater Scaup was very successful as the Greater Scaup showed well close in.

We also saw a dark phased Arctic Skua resting on the sea & eventually chasing a Sandwich Tern over the point.

Another unexpected  bonus bird was a Pink footed Goose which was close in with the Wigeon.

Pink footed Goose with Wigeon.

Both the Greater Scaup & Pink footed Goose were new birds for my Thanet bird list.

OARE MARSHES

7th October

Clouded Yellow

A quiet walk around Oare Marshes on the 7th produced several Cattle Egrets & a Water Rail at Dan's Dock plus 2 Clouded Yellows along the seawall on the West side.

CHAMBERS  WALL

Record shot of the Pallid Harrier

From Oare Marshes we headed to Chambers Wall to try and catch up with the Pallid Harrier.

We spent an hour scanning from the railway embankment without success, then there was a report that the Pallid Harrier was seen near the fisherman's car park, we headed there but was to late, gave it another hour then time caught up with us and we had to leave, thankfully AE picked it out high above the farm on the way back to the car.

RECULVER   CARAVAN   PARK

13th October

Another trip to the Reculver area on the 13th, this time for a Raddes Warbler , unfortunately no luck with this superb bird which was a great find by MH.

I did have decent views of a Yellow Browed Warbler which was also found by MH.

Yellow Browed Warbler

WORTH MARSHES

16th October

Great Grey Shrike

I couldn't resist the chance to look for the Great grey Shrike that had been found at Worth Marshes.

I walked out to Roaring Gutter and after about 25 minutes i finally connected with this cracking bird.

Great Grey Shrike.

I also saw a Spoonbill feeding in a pool near Pinnock walk & a single Ruff on Minnis Flood.

Spoonbill

KING GEORGE VI PARK

18th October

Yellow browed Warbler (photo from Shetland)

A trip to King George VI park on the 18th was very good indeed , i saw  3 Yellow Browed Warblers & 2 Firecrests plus my main target bird Pallas's Warbler.

Pallas's Warbler  (photo from Swalecliffe in 2023)

As you can see by my use of previous photo's i failed miserably with the camera today.

MARGATE   CEMETERY

20th October

Red Flanked Bluetail  (Photo from Flamborough)

Margate Cemetery isn't one of  my most successful sites for birding , more dips then ticks to be honest & this trip looked like going the same way as i spent over 2 hours looking for the Red Flanked Bluetial without a sniff !!!

Anyway eventually the gods aliened and i got a glimpse of the RFB high up in the canopy !! 

The above photo taken at Flamborough was pretty mush the view i got but very briefly. Other birds seen were 2 Yellow Browed Warblers & a single Firecrest.

RECULVER TOWERS  (Seawatch)

23rd October

A very wet & windy seawatch on the 23rd  started off with great views of a close in juv Arctic Tern  (5 in total), there were 2 Arctic Skuas (both DP).

I picked up a Swift species flying in along the coast which eventually flew towards the caravan park behind the Towers, difficult to clinch any real ID , it look blunt winged & quite bulky , i didn't notice any moult in the wings , probable Pallid Swift was mentioned but all that were present agreed not a good enough view to be sure.

We picked up a probable juv Long Tailed Skua on the sea a very long way out towards Minnis Bay, eventually it flew towards the bay & out of view. 

LOCAL    WOODLAND

28th October

Siskin

A walk around a local woodland on the 28th produced 10+ Siskins, 2 Redpolls & 40+ Common Crossbills plus several Coal Tits & Goldcrests were heard.

Common Crossbill.

 

 

Shetland Trip...... 20th - 27th September

                                                         SHETLAND TRIP

                                    20th to 27th September 2025

Snow Bunting at Sumburgh Head.

20th

My annual trip to Shetland this year was a bit earlier then i would have liked but this last week in September can sometimes prove to be very good.

We started off with a seawatch from the view point at Sumburgh head, ton's of Fulmars & Gannets as you would expect plus several Black Guillemots & Shags riding the waves.

The excitement level went up a notch with a close in Manx Shearwater which was quickly followed by an adult Pomarine Skua !!

Next bird to be added to our start of the trip was a superb Sooty Shearwater giving close views once again.

The star of the morning however was at least 3 Orca's which surfaced twice approx 400 meters out.

We then headed off to Tesco's to get some supplies for the week and then called into Tingwall Loch to see the Ring necked Duck which was a bit distant for photos.

21st

Snow Bunting in flight

Our first full day on Shetland and we started off down south with another seawatch, bit quieter today , Great Skua being the highlight, there was also a very showy Snow Bunting near the car park.

Always good numbers of Hooded Crows on Shetland.

From Sumburgh we headed to Isbister to look for the Hornemann's Arctic Redpoll, the news was negative when we arrived , very elusive & not been seen for an hour , we spread out checking various areas for it or anything else that might appear without success.

Back at the car deciding what to do when we noticed another birder taking photos , Yep he had the Hornemann's Redpoll in his sights !!

Hornemann's Arctic Redpoll.

Delightful looking 'snowball', we watched this bird for sometime before a Rabbit flushed it out of the paddock.

On the way to Eshaness we called into the cemetery and had superb views of a Common Redstart.

Common Redstart.

22nd

Wheatear at Quendale Mill

A trip to Quendale Mill produced decent views of a Pied Flycatcher in the sycamores near the road along with Goldcrest & Willow Warbler and a very tame Wheatear nearby on a post.

A very brief flight view of the Blue-winged Teal at Hillwell Loch was good to see plus a Slavonian Grebe was also present.

On to Geosetter Burn and finally i managed a photo or 2 of the splendid Wood Warbler that had been found earlier in the day.

Wood Warbler.

A look over the rocks from Fjara Cafe near Tesco's produced 7 Purple Sandpipers.

Purple Sandpiper

23rd

The Big Day

Shetland normally has at least one day on most autumn weeks when the Mega alert goes off,  you always hope you choose the right week (unless you are able to go for the whole month). 

Well a Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler had been found at Baltasound on Unst which is the most northerly island on Shetland & takes two ferries to get to.

We all had fantastic views of a PGW last year but fancied another look so off we went,.

On arrival at the PGW site news broke that an Eastern Bonelli's Warbler had been found just up the road at Houland !!!!

What to do, talk about head spinning, we decided to stake out the PGW first and it was hard going, i did see it briefly along the base of a tree in the grass, then it popped up on a low branch then disappeared into the grass again.

My friends never saw it and were quite keen to go for the EBW which would be a lifer for both of them.

Thankfully  we had great views of this superb bird.

Eastern Bonelli's Warbler.

24th

We started the day off at Wester Quarff and had some really good views of a Yellow-Browed Warbler which was very vocal at times.

Yellow-browed Warbler

News broke of a 1st winter Citrine Wagtail on the playing fields near Tesco's at Lerwick, so that was our next destination.

On arrival once again the news was negative, been no sign for over an hour, we had a decent walk around checking the bays & fields with no joy , we walked down to Fjara cafe and had another look at Purple Sandpipers, Turnstone, Knot & Ringed Plover.

Ringed Plover.

We decided to walk back the way we came checking the seaweed as we went just in case, as we reached the bay by the horse riding paddock there were 2 Wagtails on the pebbles & seaweed, the furthest one away was the Citrine Wagtail , i managed to get a couple of birders onto it as it moved along the beach, eventually it flew around calling , sadly no photo but great to see, all but briefly as it flew further away out of view.

25th

Birds were few and far between today, we checked out several areas , Siskin & Yellow-browed Warbler at Michealswood plus another Yellow-browed Warbler at Kergord was about the best of our efforts .

So we decided to twitch the Short-toed Lark on Yell.

Digi scoped Short-toed Lark

Short-toed Lark

26th

A few more birds around today, Spotted Flycatcher was good to see at Grutness & a Merlin overhead at Quendale were both new birds for the week, we also saw a single Barnacle Goose on Hillwell Loch.

Barnacle Goose 

27th

13 of the 30 Barnacle Geese

Our last day on Shetland for another year started of at Hoswick and we saw a flock of  30 Barnacle Geese flying south.

We had a walk around the Orca Inn and  added YBW & Goldcrest, a single Redpoll flew overhead followed by 5 Siskins.

We walked towards the bay and were delighted to see an Otter swimming and feeding happily along the tide line.

Otter.

We left the Otter in peace and headed of to Quendale Mill where we hoped to catch up with the recently found Red-Breasted Flycatcher.

As luck would have it we pretty much saw it straight away on arrival !!

Red breasted Flycatcher

We had a walk around the iris beds but other then a Willow Warbler we didn't add much else.

Willow Warbler

 Our final stop off was back at Fjara Cafe where one again had superb views of Gannet & Purple Sandpipers.

Gannet

Purple Sandpiper

Well done if you managed to read all this long blog post, hope you enjoyed it !!!