Roosting waders at Botany Bay

I am fortunate in working in the middle of the Isle of Thanet, as this gives me the opportunity of choosing one of a number of good birding sites during my lunch break - Ramsgate harbour or West Cliff to the south, Broadstairs bays and North Foreland cliffs to the east, and Foreness to the north, with either Margate or Ramsgate cemeteries for woodland birds.

My favourite place is Botany Bay, just south of Foreness, which may turn up anything during migration and during the winter. With high tides at lunchtime, yesterday and today were best for checking the wader roosts below the waterworks and Fayreness Hotel.

The high tide roost below the Fayreness yesterday numbered 20 Curlews, 25 Redshanks, 62 Oystercatchers, 11 Grey Plovers, 1 Purple Sandpiper, 8 Turnstones and a Little Egret, along with around 50 gulls (mostly immature but with some adult Great Black-Backs).

Today, a few hundred yards to the north, were 132 Sanderlings, 54 Ringed Plovers, 49 Turnstones,12 Knot and 4 Purple Sandpipers. Assuming no double-counting, that's 378 waders in total, with remarkable social divisions - only the turnstones and purple sandpipers were present at both sites.

The video clip shows the waders strung out along the beach - on the cliff-top I also saw 5 Stonechats and a Wheatear.

Sussex Downs and more wild carrots

A walk over the Sussex Downs and the Seven Sisters reminded me of the similarity between these hills and those closer to home. The same plants and birds (namely wheatears and stonechats), although the grass was generally cropped shorter, presumably by a higher density of rabbits.

One plant that puzzled me was this furry clump, which I don't recall on the North Downs. It's like a lump of soft moss on a stem up to 6 inches tall.

At the Seven Sisters Countryside Museum and Shop, I found a book of a type I've been searching for - Downland in Flower by WN McLeod. Living in Eastbourne, the author spent a year wandering over the South Downs with a camera, and he provides a month-by-month account of the changing flora and fauna. Unfortunately, however, I couldn't find the aforementioned mossy clump in there.


A reference in this fascinating book was to the alternative name for the wild carrot, of Queen Anne's Lace. There are a number of suggested reasons for this name, of which my favourite is that Queen Anne of England pricked her finger while lace-making, and a drop of blood landed on her work, which then looked like the red floret in the centre of each flower-head.

This nugget of information (and more than you could ever want to know about carrots) is on this site, which is a classic of its kind.

Curlew bill

I saw this bill with a Curlew attached to it - isn't it just huge? There were plenty of curlews on the beach at Pett, but none had a hooter as large as this one.

Do curlew bills grow with age - does this signify a venerable bird, or jut one with an outsize schnoz?
A more normal sized bill is seen in the background, emphasising the impressive snout of the other.
One final thought - is there any subtle difference between 'bill' and 'beak'? Thompson's Dictionary of Birds says that the words are synonymous, but to me 'beak' tends to be more passerine-sized.

Kitty's

Kitty's Tearooms are a touch of class in Kingsdown, providing good quality food and drink, and friendly service. Nina cooks with local produce, supporting Kentish farmers from the growing network that has been encouraged by the growth of farmers' markets.


The inside is cosy, and with its jams, bottles, fruit and vegetables, reminds me of the Brambly Hedge mice books.

The home made fruit cakes reflect the changing seasons, although chocolate cakes seem always to be available! And the cream teas are to die for.

Free range eggs, of course - how can we justify any other kind?

Migration

Signs of bird migration are frequent this week, and there have been reports of large flocks of Goldfinches today, including 1,076 over Sandwich Bay. This charm numbered about 30, feeding on thistleheads on the cliff side.


There have been interesting sightings of various migrants on Thanet, so I strolled around the George VI park in Ramsgate, which has the advantage of being one of the few areas of trees on the Thanet cliff-edge (and so should provide a good resting and feeding place for birds flying onto or along the east coast).

I found chiffchaffs, a willow warbler and a redwing, along with a possible (but unphotographed) yellow-browed warbler, and also this strangely-plumaged blackbird - is it a young male gradually developing its grown-up plumage, or just an aberration?

Kestrel

A Common Redstart was a pleasing sight, as it tends to be considerably less common on the East Kent coast than the Black version.

Stubble

This weekend, while idling watching a warbler on the clifftop, I noticed that the field of stubble had developed a rich variety of low plant life - weeds, in other words. It was clear that there was plenty of grain and other seeds for passing migrant birds, as flocks of them flew up as I walked across the field.
Along with the mayweed and late poppies, the most stiking was the wild carrot, which had appeared in a compact form accentuating the main umbel around which side shoots had branched.
Looking closer, field pansies had appeared...
...with seed pods ready to send the new generation into the earth, ready to appear after the next harvest.

Dove's foot Cranesbill

No doubt Redshank drove farmers to distraction before the arrival of chemical herbicides, but thankfully the National Trust-managed Bockhill Farm allows this delicate plant to grow in the stubble.
Small sow-thistle - an arable weed introduced - like many others - from southern Europe, probably in seed and grain.

Oh, and the warbler? A Paddyfield Warbler that sportingly stayed in the same place after it was found, giving excellent close views (although I should point out that there are far better photos posted elsewhere).
I cleverly managed to find this bird by following the trail of panting twitchers, after I had given up looking for the shrike on Friday afternoon.

Wheatears and other foods

Wheatears have been flying south, stopping off at the coast, since the late summer, calling to mind a chapter in W.H.Hudson's Nature in Downland, in which he describes the taking of the birds by shepherds on the South Downs.
The most successful of them made up to £50 a year in this trade, 'more than their farmers paid them for the whole year's shepherding'. He describes the wheatears as being 'very fat when they arrive on the downs, and the season during which the shepherds look for them, from mid-July to mid-September, must have been a blessed time for gourmands in the past'.

'Coops' about 14 inches long were made to catch the birds, giving a high point to perch on and a hole to shelter in. When startled, the birds would scuttle from the perch into the hiding place, and so be caught. Apparently even a cloud passing in front of the sun is enough to worry them, so a breezy day of passing clouds was best for the catch.

At the time that Hudson was writing, in 1899, it was clear that the numbers of birds had substantially reduced, for which he blames less on the shepherds' trade than 'the continual spread of cultivation and the consequent diminution of the barren, and stony lands that the bird inhabits'.
'The wheatear is a pretty, interesting bird, a sweet singer, and dear to all who love the wildness and solitude of hills and of desert, stony places. It is not fair that it should be killed merely to enable London stockbrokers, sporting men, and other gorgeous persons who visit the coast, accompanied by ladies with yellow hair, to feed every day on 'ortolans' at the big Brighton hotels.' Amen to that sentiment.
Other food-related things that caught my (hungry?) eye today included....

Wild Parsnip

Wild Carrot

and a covey of seven Grey Partridges, unusually in arable fields near Ripple, which is a more usual habitat for the Red-Legged variety, as the Greys normally prefer a more meadowy land.