17th August 2018

A quiet day today with very few grounded migrants, we only found three Wheatears, a Whinchat, four Lesser Whitethroats, seven Whitethroats, two Willow Warblers and a Nightingale.
Moving through overhead were five Swifts and a Yellow Wagtail. Phil and Jack

14th August 2018

Highlights today included a Spotted Flycatcher (in the Paddock), a Garden Warbler (Gun Emplacement), 4 Reed Warblers, 2 Whinchats (Clifftop & Gun Emplacement), a Black Redstart (Leas), Hobby, 22 Willow Warblers, 17 Whitethroats, 17 Lesser Whitethroats, & 2 Blackcaps.

There was a small trickle of Swallows moving south  29,  and a couple of Sand Martins with them.  11 species of butterfly were recorded including eight Walls and many Chalkhill Blues at Hope Point.

Spotted Flycatcher -Paddock

Whinchat- Gun Emplacement

Garden Warbler- Gun Emplacement

Wall

13th August 2018

Phil and I walked the area today and had a reasonable count of migrants with seven Reed Warblers, two Blackcaps, 21 Whitethroats, eight Lesser Whitethroats, nine Willow Warblers, a Chiffchaff and a Whinchat. Overhead, moving W, were 186 Swifts, 40 Swallows and a Sand Martin. Other notable birds were singles of Green  and Great Spotted Woodpeckers, two Ravens, eight Bullfinches and 10 Yellowhammers.

10th August 2018

A Wheatear was around the monument when we arrived today raising hopes of an arrival. However it was all downhill from there with a selection of birds similar to yesterday including 26 Whitethroats, five Lesser Whitethroats, four Willow Warblers and single Reed Warbler and Whinchat. 13 Swifts past south and a flock of around 40 House Sparrows in Amy's Field was the largest gathering that any of us could recall for a number of years. Jack, John Cantelo and Brendan.

9th August 2018

My first visit of the autumn to Bockhill produced 34 Whitethroats, 18 Lesser Whitethroats, three Blackcaps, eight Willow Warblers and single Reed Warbler and Whinchat.

8th August 2018

Around the area Richard and I had quite a good number of warblers today. We recorded 45 Common Whitethroats, 23 Lesser Whitethroats, a Reed Warbler and eight Willow Warblers. In addition to these we had six Grey Partridges, a Turtle Dove, three Whinchats and three Wheatears.

Seawatching, however, was pitiful with only two Little Egrets, a Whimbrel, 11 Mediterranean Gulls (all of them juveniles) and a Kittiwake moving down channel.

4th August 2018

It was a beautiful sunrise this morning looking out over The Channel towards France. Unfortunately I didn’t manage very much at all, just the usual breeding families of Sylvia Warblers in Kingsdown. Jack, however, had a Spotted Flycatcher, five Willow Warblers, 13 Whitethroats, three Blackcaps and at least 15 Long-tailed Tits at The Gun Emplacement.

3rd August 2018

Jack covered Bockhill this morning and had three Pied Flycatchers, eight Whitethroats, three Willow Warblers and a Blackcap. He also counted 84 Herring Gulls on the ground in The Paddock. This is almost certainly the highest count of Herring Gulls on the ground in The Paddock on 3rd August 2018!

In Kingsdown there was a Reed Warbler feeding in my garden first thing this morning. Later in the day two Pied Flycatchers were in and around the garden, with a Willow Warbler, a Lesser Whitethroat and 200 Swifts over late afternoon. Three Humming-bird Hawk-Moths were feeding on Buddleia this evening.

Yesterday 200+ Mediterranean Gulls flew S over Telegraph Hill in Deal.

30 July 2018

From 08:00 - 10:00 a seawatch in the Bay produced 194 Gannets down channel, two Whimbrel, four Mediterranean Gulls and 15 Swifts. After being joined by Phil we walked around the area but had no migrants apart from one Reed Warbler.

29th July 2018

Nigel and I did a seawatch from 09:45 - 11:00 this morning and had 134 Gannets and a Balearic Shearwater moving down channel, other than that there were very few birds apart from four Mediterranean Gulls on the rocks and a Shag fishing close into the beach.

28th July 2018

Early morning conditions were very different to most days in the last few weeks. Much breezier from the SW and significantly cooler. Five Willow Warblers, four Lesser Whitethroats and eight Whitethroats across the golf course. Little else was across the area and the wind was increasing so Phil, Jack and I descended to St. Margaret’s Bay.

Two of the first birds we saw at 09.50 were Balearic Shearwaters which moved extremely rapidly up channel. Over the next three hours we had seven Common Scoters and a Whimbrel down channel, 19 Mediterranean Gulls, including a colour ringed individual, two Gadwall and two Shags. Overhead and out to sea Swifts were moving. We were up to 1 404 by the time we left. As I sit and write this now at 1500, they are still going in small numbers. A Common Seal and a Grey Seal were also present in The Bay.

This colour ringed juvenile Mediterranean Gull is from a Belgian ringing scheme. The bird was ringed in Antwerp on 9th June and seen at Thames Barrier Park on 16th July (Richard Heading)

25th July 2018

Willow Warblers are starting to come through in small numbers now. 15 were at the bottom of Queensdown Road throughout the afternoon and a Garden Warbler was also present. On the Golf Course a Turtle Dove was singing early in the morning and a Hobby flew over.

19th July 2018

The early morning mist was hanging in the dip between Kingsdown and St Margaret’s this morning. This week has seen the first signs of autumn migration. A pair of Turtle Doves were near The Rough for a couple of days but appear to have departed now. A Cuckoo was on the golf course along Granville Road and a few Willow Warblers have been in the area. Hopefully we will have another post in less than a month’s time!