Back up to date......The rest is history!!

STOP PRESS SWINGATES 8th MAY 2010. BIRDER HAS ONE COLD HAND WAITING IN LARGE QUEUE

I always find it amazing that people lose one glove and a kind hearted soul following on later, places it in an obvious place that allows either the glove loser or indeed a person that likes to only wear one glove the option of picking it up.
With a reluctance to post anything on the blog on late, I've been too busy with proper life and important stuff like work I thought I'd get things bang up to date as of this morning with this Nightingale that was singing at Swanscombe and fortunately showed well a few times for the above crap pictures to be obtained! There's been a few records of Nightingale here over the years but from memory this is my first and well worth the short walk across the rubbish strewn locality that is Swanscombe!

There's been few pickings of late in Kent that have been available for long but the reliable and easily found Iberian Chifchaff (subject to ratification by BBRC) has been performing well at that well known rarity hotspot............Walderslade. !! An interesting bird that if deemed the real deal will be the 17th for the UK and 2nd for Kent following on from the Dunge bird in 2001 pictured in the DBO report by Marcus. An obvious looking bird and distinctive song this bird has been faithful to a few chosen trees and at the time of blogging is still present...............unlike many Kent birders looking at the backs of other birders in a queue in Cornwall!!

Iberian Chiffy

During the Easter weekend I managed a bit of birding and as I hadn't seen a KP in Kent for years I decided to go to Shellness to see this very smart female Kentish Plover on the beach at Shellness. Once a more regular visitor to Kent this has become an increasingly difficult species to catch up with and often are only on one tide then gone the next

Findhorn Valley March 2010. The temptation of sledging down the valley was too much for me and as I'd never indulged in this fun pastime before ( I was a deprived child) it had to be done...........sod the Golden Eagles!! tough I did see a first year bird............More to follow the Doctor is on !

Ok, back to the story. A good week in Scotland, lots of snow, and a Lesser Scaup on the way up at Hogganfield Loch, Glasgow, a quaint little part of Glasgow complete with an ice cream and a cup of tea in the glorious sunshine, not what I'd expected in March !!

Lesser Scaup (drake) a bit too distant for a proper shot

Also over Easter news of an Alpine Swift at Chavford Hundred, Essex saw me admiring this great bird flying around the town not that far away from Swiftsure Rd, always a good omen on a twitch. Alpine Swifts are one of those really great birds that sadly often don't hang around long so this was most welcome and very close to home as the Swift flies. The first one I saw was way back in the 80's at Cromer, Norfolk from the belfry!!

Once I'd enjoyed the Alp it was back home 'eventually' courtesy of that Great British traffic jam, the Dartford Bridge !!

A photo from the winter post not seeing a Bittern at Littlebrook. The trio of Birding legends are from left to right, Andy 'Larid' Lawson..........(Tittletattler to you and me), Guy Bailey and Phil 'Woodlark' Royston sheltering from the cold at that well known beauty spot, Dartford!

Another bird from the May bank holiday, this cracking Hoopoe adjacent to the CTRL at Lenham Heath.how many of them roam the UK 'never to be found by birders' ?

last but not least, our cultural attache on location at Lenham Heath drumming up support for a well hung Parliament...............Our country needs him Vote for Gibbo!!

ps Curently residing in a queue in SW Cornwall taking a break from his beloved Kent