Kent Birding Highlights for February 2025

                                            ELMLEY MARSHES 

                                          1st February 2025

                                                        

Ruff.

A trip to Elmley Marshes on the 1st February was very rewarding with a nice view of a Ruff along the entrance track among 100's of Lapwing's .

Plenty of Marsh Harriers & Common Snipe were also seen.

On reaching the car park there was already Short-eared Owl activity with 2 birds roosting in plain sight.

2 Short-eared Owls.

I saw 5+ Short-eared Owls on my visit here giving a wonderful display, there was one which had damage to it's primaries but it didn't seem to hinder it at all thankfully.

SEO with damaged primaries.

I also saw 2 Brown Hares including probably my closest view yet of one.

Brown Hare.

OARE MARSHES

8th February 2025

Red necked Grebe

News of a Red necked Grebe at Oare marshes peaked my interest on the 8th February but i couldn't get there until later in the afternoon.

I finally managed to get there and picked out the Red necked Grebe just to the west of the slipway in the company of 2 Great crested Grebes, giving a nice comparison.

This is only my 2nd ever Red necked Grebe at OM.

I was also really pleased to see one of the three Barn Owls hunting over the back of the East flood.

Barn Owl.

RESTHARROW SCRAPE

18th February 2025

3 of the 4 Serins.

News of 2+ Serins showing near the 2nd hide at Restharrow Scrape had me heading there asap, Serin is a tricky bird to see in Kent often just fly overs on migration.

I had only ever seen 1 Serin in Kent before , a singing male bird at Littlestone.

However that was soon to change, as i eventually set eyes on not 2 but 4 Serins in flight, they had flown over the bank & out of sight which i was assured they did all the time but would come back !!!!!

Well i gave it a bit of time (roughly 40 mins) but they never reappeared so i headed off to try and see the SEO which i did, plus a Barn Owl was seen distantly.

I went back for another try for the Serins and after a few minutes 3 Serins flew in (2 males & 1 female).

It has since been confirmed there were 2 males & 2 females.

Male Serin

Female Serin

Male Serin.

PENSHURST CHURCH

22nd February 2025

Hawfinch

Penshusrt Church is not a location i have been to before and hearing that Hawfinch were being seen there most mornings made up my mind to try somewhere new.

4 of the 15 Hawfinch 

Hawfinch.

DUNGENESS & SCOTNEY

22nd February 2025

From Penshurst we headed to Dungeness and had a look over the sea adding, Fulmar, Gannet, Red Throated Diver & a 1st w Caspian Gull.

There was also a Black Redstart showing well on the power station wall.

Black Redstart

A look from Dennis hide on the Rspb reserve produced 2 more Caspian Gulls & a walk over to the Arc pit gave us a treat with a superb Redhead Smew !!!

Smew.

We were then informed that there was a probable female Scaup by the double bends on Scotney, so without haste that was the next destination.

And sure enough a female Scaup was soon being added to my days total.

Female Scaup.

OARE MARSHES

24th February 2024

Pintail

My final trip out in February was to Oare Marshes, very close views of the superb Pintails near the pull-in was great to see.

Pintail

The weather wasn't the best to start with , grey sky's & rain plus feeling quite chilly , we took shelter in the seawatch hide and added plenty of waders & Brent Geese.

The weather cleared up a bit so we walked around the East flood, a Cattle Egret was picked out flying overhead heading towards the West flood were it dropped down out of sight.

Cattle Egret (Photo from 2024)

On reaching the East Flood hide the first bird seen was a superb Water Pipit right in front of the hide.

Water Pipit

We spent quite a bit of time watching this bird plus there were a few Common Snipe showing well nearby.

There were 5 Spoonbills asleep on the island which got spooked by the volunteers doing some scrub clearance on the EF.

All 5 Spoonbills flew towards the pull in & thats where we headed to try and get a closer look.

5 Spoonbill

A final look from the slipway looking towards Sheppy produced 2 Barn Owls & just when we were about to leave Chiddy picked out 2 male & 3 female Red Breasted Mergansers near Horsesands.