Nethergong Birding

A weekend of complete weather contrasts. Saturday drizzly with a gale force wind whereas Sunday dawned windless and was quite sunny at times. Birding Saturday morning for a few hours in the wind only produced 2 Coot, 2 Skylark, 2 Cetti's Warbler, 7 Redwing, 28 Fieldfare, 2 Stonechat, 4 Greenfinch and 2 Reed Bunting, 24 Mute Swan, 32 Stock Dove, 18 Cormorant, 1 Common Buzzard, 1 Great spotted Woodpecker, 1 Green Woodpecker, 1 Kestrel, 31 Jackdaw and 3 Song Thrush. I was out early Sunday morning at 05:45 in the hope of hearing and maybe recording a Grey Partridge calling. Just before 6am, 1 Grey Partridge started to call briefly before taking flight calling which can be heard in the recording.

Grey Partridge 

A Barn Owl called in the dark as did c10 Snipe and 1 Lapwing. A brief drive around to Nethergong where after parking up, I spent a few hours walking around the area noting 53 species. Birds noted included 52 Mute Swan, 1 Teal, 2 Water Rail, 2 Coot, 2 adult summer Mediterranean Gull flew south calling, c100 Herring Gull, 148 Cormorant, 3 Marsh Harrier, 2 Common Buzzard, 3 Kestrel, 1 Jay, 1 Raven, 5 Skylark, 6 Cetti's Warbler, 5 Song Thrush, 9 Redwing, 60 Fieldfare and 6 Stonechat including a male with quite large white wing patches. A walk through the sunflower field produced 31 Chaffinch, c10 Linnet, 15 Greenfinch, 24 Goldfinch and an impressive 16 Brambling including a few males in summer plumage. Also seen were 6 Reed Bunting, 3 Yellowhammer including an obliging individual which allowed me to grab a few photos. 

Male Brambling

Yellowhammer 

On a different, note, I gave myself the challenge to see whether I could photograph the Northern Lights from inside the patch boundary and identified and area on quite high ground which through binoculars, I could see Reculver Towers in the distance. Last night gave me the first opportunity to see whether this would be possible and despite the heavy cloud in this part of east Kent, I managed to capture the Northern Lights just about. Hopefully you can just about make out a bit of red in the photos. It did prove to me though that with a clear night and a strong Aurora, I reckon I can capture a few decent images from here. Time will tell. Still not much to tell on the 'nocmig' front with just Tawny and Barn Owl heard. Things should pick up soon I hope. 

Northern Lights...just about!