Gary Howard's birds and wildlife

New Year's day started grey and overcast but dry and we decided to have a family outing to clear the cobwebs and shed a few calories after the usual Christmas excesses. After a very lazy start we headed out to the North Kent marshes largely because it was the closest place likely to provide some decent birds and the kids like running along the sea wall. We didn't actually get there until 11.00 so our day out had quickly been halved before we started!

We walked out to Cliffe Creek and then followed the footpath to Cliffe Fort before looking at the Alpha Pool, Higham Bay and then retraced our steps back to the edge of the Flamingo Pool on the RSPB reserve. At this point I left Jenny to stroll the short distance back to the car with the boys whilst I birded my way to the car park alongside the pools. As I got to the car soon after 14.00 heavy spots of rain were falling.

Cliffe Creek

Overall Cliffe was rather quiet. An extremely mild start to winter has left most duck numbers at a low ebb and scarcer species largely absent. I had a Red-breasted Merganser on the Alpha Pool, 340 Avocet in Higham Bay and rather low numbers of duck on the other pools incuding 18 Goldeneye, 4 Pintail and a scattering of Teal, Wigeon and Gadwall. I had 4 Rock Pipit at the mouth of Cliffe Creek and small numbers of passerines including about 50 Fieldfare.

The rain got heavier and heavier and though we drove round to the other side of the reserve to look for owls from the track that passes the Black Barn it soon seemed rather pointless. Anxious to see something now that we were out I drove the short distance to St Mary's Island through the Medway tunnel and searched the old dock basins for the long-staying long-tailed duck but without success!

We drove home in some of the heaviest rain I've ever seen in the UK with traffic almost at a standstill at times on the A2 and M25.