Snow Arrives at Reculver

I awoke this morning at 6.30am to look out the window to see it had been snowing throughout the night. Luckily I was able to negotiate my way down to Reculver where I parked up near Brook. As I sat in the car 1 Woodcock flew over and Fieldfare could be seen flying over the car calling. I spent a few hours walking around the Brook area hoping a few birds would have been pulled into the area due to the cold weather. As I stood silently watching the day get lighter a fox passed by me at a couple of meters range and just looked with no worry at all. The weather had forced a few birds into the open to be seen and I soon noticed 4 Redwing (82) in with the Fieldfare. Birds noted were 1 Green Woodpecker, 1 Little Grebe, 2 Shoveler (83) 14 Tufted Duck, 1 Jay (84) 28 Gadwall, 5 Pochard, 2 Teal, 10 Mute Swan, 1 Grey Heron, 1 Water Rail heard, 4 Little Egret flew out of a ditch and 1 Barn Owl (85) quartered the area looking stunning against the snow covered grass. There was 1 Green Sandpiper (86) which flew low out of a ditch as I passed by and 1 Marsh Harrier and 1 Common Buzzard hunted in the distance. A check of the muddy fringes for birds provided me with 3 Snipe (87) and 7 Bewick's Swans appeared from an unseen pool before flying south. 5 Lapwing were in the fields and c40 Skylark passed overhead and towards the caravan park I noted 3 Curlew and 1 Peregrine (88). A quick look out to sea was quiet but on the shoreline were 4 Grey Plover, c50 Sanderling, 3 Ringed Plover, 1 Turnstone and c50 Brent Geese. As I returned back to the car I received a text from Chris Hindle alerting me to 3 Avocet in Coldharbour. I met Julian Perry en route back to the car and he jumped in and we then drove over to Chambers Wall where thankfully the 3 Avocet (89) were still in residence. Despite the beautiful snow the light was bad so just a couple of record shots of this scarce species which I missed last year. Whilst here a look on the beach provided Oystercatcher, Grey Plover, c60 Golden Plover and 4 Bar tailed Godwit (90) provided more excitement. On the way back to the car we noted 1 Sparrowhawk, 1 Kestrel, 1 Lesser black backed Gull (91) 1 Pied Wagtail (92) and a few Fieldfare and 1 Water Rail was watched feeding in a nearby dyke. Later on this afternoon I had a text from Derek Smith to say he was watching a male Yellowhammer near Brook, another scarce bird in the area. Not in the best of clothing I drove over quickly and met Derek but we failed to find it again. However we did see 7 Snipe, 1 Marsh Harrier and a few Fieldfare in the fields there. A cold but rewarding morning and with heavy snow forecast overnight and tomorrow I may not get out as planned.

Avocet