West Kent wanderings

Last weekend, Sat 22nd Nov, I decided on a visit to Bough Beech to attempt to see the Great Northern Diver that had taken up residence, and also try my luck with the not so showy Bearded Tit. With a lack of news from West Kent I decided to go West anyway and give it a go. On arrival at the causeway I saw Miles who had failed to see the Diver so far but had only just started scanning. I wandered off to the Oast House past the feeding station and the gathered Tit admirers to begin my own Tit watch or to be correct, Reedling watch. This was short lived though as Miles had located the GND and I shot off round the Res to see it passing Josh on the way, see his excellent blog http://josh-birdbrain.blogspot.com/

Fortune way on our side and the GND showed incredibly well as reasonably close range allowing a few piccies to be snapped. Still a very rare visitor to the Res, and a BB tick for me though I'm hardly a BB regular!! Back down at the Oast House I heard the Bearded Tit briefly and saw a few Marsh Tits but nothing else very unusual. It was still pretty cold and I decided to go home the scenic route via Goathurst Common. Whilst driving down Back Lane a pair of Common Buzzards were hanging in the wind and a few groups of Fieldfare flew over.

Passing along the A225 heading towards Otford I noted that there was a large gathering of Gulls on the fields opposite the V W garage and I couldn't resist scanning them from the conveniently located lay by. Mostly Black heads, Commons, a few Lesser Blacks and a good gathering of Herrings to test the larid ID skills. Eventually I located a bird I was happy with as a Caspian, a 3rd year bird that eventually decided to have a snooze on the grass. The bird is depicted above. Not a bad mornings birding with a GND, Bearded Heardling, Casper and a pair of Buzzards.

The Great Northern in pre snorkeling mode in roughly the same spot shared by a Leach's Petrel in 2005 and Percy the Wandering Pelican a few years ago!! Bough Beech has it all, a birders dream!!