Gary Howard's birds and wildlife

Andy Lawson, James Hunter, Richard Bonsar and I set off at 0600 to try our luck and gather a big-list on New Years Day. The freeze looked to have wiped out our chances of a really good tally but we still fancied getting out and starting the year with a serious birding session.

Our first port of call was Bedgbury and it was rather magical walking in moonlight over snow covered ground listening to Tawny Owls soon after 0700.   

Bedgbury did not disappoint and we'd recorded Redpoll, Siskin,Hawfinch,Crossbill,Brambling,Bullfinch,Marsh Tit and Treecreeper before we headed off at 0830.

We drove into a blizzard at Flimwell but kept adding common species and stopped briefly at Northpoint near Rye as the weather cleared. Soon after 0900 we stopped at Scotney and added another dozen species before we headed down to the sea across the ranges.  At Galloways Common Scoter, Gannet and Red-throated Diver pushed the tally to 70 and it was barely 0930.

Onto Romney Marsh we found the Bewick flock but failed to locate the reported Bean Geese nor any Corn Bunting or Tree Sparrows and began to loose a bit of enthusiasm. Driving back across the marsh towards Dungeness we drove down Caldicott Lane and then towards Belgar Farm where we stumbled upon 2 Ravens at point blank range! Buzzard, Corn Buntings and Stock Dove quickly took the count to 85.

Onto Dungeness and a stop on the road between the ARC pits and New Diggings turned up Smew and Goosander and a few more wildlfowl which saw us hit 90 species as we neared midday. Ray Turley told us that the snow bunting were still at the point and we headed that way but as we arrived Andy's phone rang and everything changed.

Barry Wright rang and said he'd had a probable Gyr Falcon in the flooded quarry adjacent to the Bluewater Shopping Centre. It was a no-brainer. We were on target for a reasonable count but our mate had probably had a bird that everyone needed for their Kent list!

About an hour later we'd swapped the relative tranquility and rugged wildness of Dungeness for a slip-road overlooking a water filled pit next to one of Europe's largest shopping centres. My wife would struggle to get me near Bluewater and here we were after a mad dash!

Suffice to say nothing more was seen of Barry's Gyr Falcon.  We added Scaup, Sparrowhawk and Yellow-legged Gull to the day count but failed to cross the 100 mark. 

We didn't stay until dark but instead spent the last few minutes of useful light checking an equally depressing bit of Dartford wasteland looking for Woodlark that had been present yesterday but we failed there too.

It had all started so well........