15th May
Two days after getting back from Lesbos I had a planned date with a Da Vinci robot at Canterbury that's kept me at home for two weeks. Felt fit enough to get out so my first outing was to Seasalter for an hour finding 2 hobbys and a family of stonechats, their youngsters in close attendance, my earliest record of fledging. Common terns were flying up and down the main drain on the plots plus a few hirundines and c.20 turnstones on the beach.
16th May
Another slightly longer visit finding a few more species new to the year inc. Sandwich tern, reed warbler and 5 swifts. Whitethroats, chiffchaffs, sedge warblers, several cetti's made their presence known and a peregrine was high overhead. I managed to clock up 40 species before retiring home.
17th May
Over did a bit yesterday so told to just sit on the wall this morning but I managed to see half a dozen juvenile lapwings coming across from the fields behind the LNR plus a sparrowhawk and 2 sedge warblers. From the pumping station 'beach seat' 12 ringed plovers and 1 sanderling flew past plus a great crested grebe came in close to the shore.
Cut short and went home only to get out into the garden after a call from Chiddy about red kites he'd seen over his house. Sure enough 6 went past heading west, a couple very low, one even diving down into neighbours garden but swooping back up again. I stayed out another 20 minutes seeing another 7, three of which went right overhead giving good views to my neighbour who had never seen them before locally. For the last seven or eight years this has become a regular event from the garden, clearly a favourite flight path. Also a couple of buzzards.
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