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rsh harriers were everywhere on this particular day along with buzzards sparrowhawks kestrels and even the diminutive merlin who spend their time terrorising the flocks of starlings and the skylarks there was no sign of short eared owls from the car park area so despite the bitter wind i decided to walk down to the first hides about a mile or so down the track there were many wigeon shelduck gadwall and various other water fowl on the scrapes and hundreds of greylags all across the marsh i also spotted a small flock of godwits black tailed i think feeding not too far from the track and managed a quick picture below unfortunately there was nothing to see on the scrapes in front of the hides so i returned to the car park accompanied for a few yards by a hare which burst unexpectedly from the undergrowth and ran ahead of me for a short while before disappearing into the long grass as suddenly as it had appeared while driving back along the entrance track i noticed this common snipe hunkered down out of the wind alongside a small pool of water its cryptic plumage rendering it almost invisible to all but the sharpest of eyes little grebes are plentiful at elmley but being so small and wary are often difficult to photograph so i was pleased to spot one diving repeatedly in the reed lined margins quite unconcerned by my presence it soon managed to catch a perch which it eventually subdued enough to swallow spines and all before resuming its search for more prey at wednesday march 08 2023 1 comment monday 13 february 2023 new hythe 2023 the year so far it s been several years since i posted on my blog so i m looking forward to hopefully picking up where i left off the new birding year started for me on 2nd january at new hythe lakes it wasn t an auspicious start with a disappointing 38 species seen goldcrest and bullfinch were probably the highlights among the usual suspects like the redwing above it s fair to say i think that it s been a disappointing winter at new hythe with a single juvenile goldeneye on alders big lake being the only decent winter visiting duck so far although a smattering of firecrests and the first bittern seen on site for about six years have helped maintain some interest last week saw the return of oystercatchers on the tidal medway seen from our viewpoint at bucket wood along with redshank kingfisher several snipe and visits from the common seal which has been entertaining the regular watchers for several years now two mediterranean gulls over abbey mead lake were an unexpected surprise as well last week and this morning a red kite drifting high over the sunken marsh brought my total species for nh so far this year to 58 at monday february 13 2023 no comments sunday 20 january 2019 new hythe 14th 18th january 2019 some snipe from bucket wood in my last post i mentioned the large influx of snipe along the river at bucket wood here s a picture of some of the thirty or so birds that i could see at the time i subsequently heard a report of somebody else seeing approximately fifty fly from the river at high tide the following day i do wonder if these might be birds that were heading west away from the heavy snow across much of europe at the time drake ring necked duck i managed to locate the long staying ring necked duck on abbey mead lake on 14th january as ever it stayed well out of range for a decent picture so this one will have to suffice for now this bird has been around since glenn found it on 19th december long may it last i bumped into alan roman on the same day and while we watched in vain for the hen harrier to reappear we were treated to a fly past from a marsh harrier this was my 66th species at new hythe this year and was soon followed by a sighting of a water rail 67th in the nw corner of the sunken marsh common seal and flounder new hythe called once again on 18th january once again i found myself at bucket wood and once again i failed to find the hen harrier i haven t heard any reports of it now since about 12th january i hope i get to see it again but if not well it was great while it lasted my morning wasn t all unproductive though because around midday as the tide was falling i spotted a huge bow wave travelling fast along the side of the reedbed upstream from the wood i knew straight away that it was a common seal chasing fish i watched it patrol along the same stretch a few times before surfacing with a decent sized flounder luckily it decided to eat it there and then and although fairly distant i was able to get a few pictures while hiding behind the reeds they re easily spooked and if they see you they dive and disappear downstream last time i saw this happen i was with terry laws when a seal caught a large mullet just opposite bucket wood i hadn t got my camera with me that day terry had i wasn t happy distant redshanks also on the river that day were three redshank two green sandpipers water rail and lots of snipe and teal drake teal at sunday january 20 2019 3 comments saturday 12 january 2019 new hythe 2019 so far so good little egret from bucket wood the new year has started well at new hythe with hen harrier ring necked duck and goldeneye all making it onto the 2019 day list of 51 species recorded on january 1st other nice birds included kingfisher little grebe snipe goldcrest siskin and bullfinch although not a huge total i don t think this is too bad for a single inland site in the middle of winter my list has now reached 65 species the most notable addition being a female goosander which has been commuting between alders big lake and the motorway lake in recent weeks treecreeper green sandpiper common sandpiper little egret and grey wagtail have also been added on january 8th two peregrine falcons flew over bucket wood while terry and i were on duty there we also recorded at least five buzzards kestrel common sand and c 100 lapwings a huge flock by new hythe standards coot from alders trout lake i visited new hythe for a couple of hours this morning and to my surprise the hen harrier appeared once again as usual following the river from the south crossing the sunken marsh and flying low over the large reedbed on the east side of the medway the other surprise was circa 30 snipe along the muddy banks of the river exposed by a very low tide we don t usually see more than half a dozen of these birds at any one visit so this was exceptional the harrier appeared twice more giving glenn and john the chance to add it to their lists at saturday january 12 2019 2 comments wednesday 2 january 2019 new hythe year lists 2018 goldeneye at new hythe december 2018 i wouldn t say 2018 was a particularly straightforward year at new hythe the beast from the east followed by the long summer heatwave made life difficult for the wildlife and for me too at times it was a struggle to motivate myself to visit and when i did there was often nothing new to find sometimes for weeks and weeks on end thank goodness for dragonflies and butterflies during the summer months although it was a poor year for some butterfly species courtesy i expect of said beast i guess this was a good year for dragonflies though there was certainly lots of activity with migrant hawkers flying well into november disappointingly i was unable to find a willow emerald damselfly on the wing at new hythe in 2018 despite my best efforts this is only the second year they have been reported at this site glenn found the first in 2017 so it was very frustrating not to get it on my nh list this year especially since glenn and terry did having said all that my new hythe bird list eventually finished on 105 species compared to only 99 in 2017 i was pleased to see five new site species during 2018 these were hawfinch curlew dunlin hen harrier and ring necked duck thanks in part to a little help from my friends whooper swan at nh the whooper swan pictured above and below turned up on brooklands lake at new hythe on or around 13th october 2018 it s a super bird but unfortunately appears to be quite tame and therefore is probably an escapee from a collection somewhere because of this it also escaped my year list too which would have been 106 had it been wild it s still at the lakes now by the way at wednesday january 02 2019 4 comments tuesday 17 july 2018 news from the garden a lot of people have said that house martins seemed to arrive late this year ours were right on time and wasted no time in raising their first brood they left the nest under the eaves of the gable end of our house and spent a few scary moments hanging on for dear life and still begging for food every time the parent birds flew past having found their wings they moved halfway up the roof where they stopped for a rest before finally reaching the top last year we lost one at this point to the local sparrowhawk but thankfully all went well this time and they were soon fully on the wing flying around the house with the adult birds as far as i can tell the next brood is well on the way they might even make three this year nuthatches are great and we re lucky enough to see them in the garden almost every day a couple of weeks ago there were at least four a family group i think the parents bring the fledglings to the feeders to show them how it s done their cousins the great spotted woodpeckers did the same with their red crowned youngsters this year and they are still visiting but look more like adults now and finally on sunday afternoon i had one of the best sightings i ve ever had from the garden when no less than four great white egrets flew over the house heading roughly north a few years ago a single great white would have sparked a significant twitch such was their rarity in england to have four flying over my house together is astonishing to say the least at tuesday july 17 2018 2 comments saturday 16 june 2018 old lodge reserve ashdown forest green tiger beetle it was a bit chilly when i arrived at old lodge reserve in the ashdown forest on wednesday 6th june i made my way across the reserve to the first of the small peaty black ponds where i was hoping to see and photograph some dragonflies i stopped for a while to snap this green tiger beetle which like me was only too pleased to start feeling the warmth of the suns rays despite the still cool northerly breeze i like these little beetles they make a change from the usual black shiny ones we usually see they fly too although not usually too far so you can usually track them down again when like this one they re a bit camera shy and keep buzzing off down the track i was disappointed to find the first two ponds almost devoid of dragons just a few large red damselflies were willing to defy the coolness of the morning male redstart i headed off towards the last of the ponds but was distracted by this super male redstart who together with the female was busy catching insects to feed their demanding brood i perched myself on a log at a respectable distance and spent a very pleasant half hour or so watching them and eventually worked out the location of their nest in a nearby tree i didn t disturb them which is why the picture is a bit of a poor long distance shot common lizard by now the temperature had risen nicely and this meant that the dragonflies were more active on the third pond four spotted chasers broad bodied chasers black tailed skimmers and emperors were all on the wing busily defending their territories and steadfastly refusing to stop for more than a second or two the common lizard above though was more than happy to sit still basking in the warmth of the sheltered undergrowth to the back of the pond golden ringed dragonfly there s a stream at the bottom of the valley in the middle of the reserve and i headed there in the hope of seeing a golden ringed dragonfly one of my favourites i saw a couple there last year and watched one ovipositing into the stream unfortunately i didn t find one on this occasion maybe a little bit early in the season so here s a picture of one from last year beautiful demoiselle the time spent wasn t wasted though because i found this little beauty sheltering among the reeds that line this very pleasant little stream it s a male beautiful demoiselle a stunning cousin of the banded demoiselle and the first one i ve seen on this site what a stunner wren and finally just as i was photographing the beautiful demoiselle this wren popped out of the undergrowth and checked me out before flying off into a nearby tangle of low lying scrub clearly some very hungry mouths were waiting to be fed at saturday june 16 2018 no comments thursday 31 may 2018 new hythe and garden update grizzled skipper it s been a good year for grizzled skippers i usually only expect to see one or two of these tiny low flying butterflies each season but this year new hythe has hosted very good numbers still no sightings of dingy skippers on site though it s been some years since the last record and it would be interesting to know why this species doesn t or can t sustain a colony on what looks like a reasonable habitat for them green veined white my new hythe butterfly list is faltering at the moment partly due i think to the vagaries of the english weather and partly down to time spent on site or lack of for various reasons at the moment i have seen ten species including brimstone peacock small tortoiseshell comma red admiral green veined white speckled wood common blue orange tip and small white absent from this list is the green hairstreak but i still have a chance to see one if i get my proverbial finger out it s that time of the year when the birding goes quiet or at least it does at new hythe so it s eyes down now instead of up as the search for dragons and damsels begins providing a fresh challenge and the chance to point the camera at something that sometimes even keeps still for a little while large red damselfly the large red is the first damselfly to emerge and in no time at all they appear to be everywhere we completed a small garden pond at home a few weeks ago and within a few days the reds arrived paired up and began their familiar in tandem ovipositing which hopefully will lead to fresh emergence in the pond during spring of 2020 hairy dragonfly the first of the dragonflies on the wing is the hairy dragonfly so called because it has a hairy thorax unlike other hawker species the suggestion is that the hairs are to give extra warmth as their emergence time is early may and it can be quite cool sounds fair enough but who knows funnily enough i found the individual above fairly early on a cool morning and it was too cold to fly i picked the nettle and took it to a sunnier spot took an upside down shot and within a few minutes it was off like a rocket i was lucky really this species is not one to stop and pose so are notoriously difficult to photograph banded demoiselle my dragons and damsels list for new hythe this year is coming along slowly and is running pretty much true to form the banded demoi...