On the wires

There are , I suppose, few images more evocative of the arrival of autumn in the bird calendar than swallows on telegraph wires.

A Turtle Dove on a wire at Ripple

Starlings and a Wood Pigeon

This young Kestrel has taken to sitting on a flint on the cliffs at Kingsdown, just as one from last year's brood did before it.

Perches are useful to birds, and also to birders as the little blighters can be seen easier. At Foreness on Thanet, the water treatment work that has been going on for a couple of years is coming to an end - the fences that have surrounded the works have been good for birds and I've seen a peregrine, a merlin, kestrels, whinchats, wheatears, stonechats and many other birds using them.

Perhaps we should arrange for more fences, stumps etc to be set up, to replace those being taken down by the contractors?

The Foreness water treatment works, beyond the putting green. A great bird-watching area, right on the corner of Kent.