A Visit To Monkton Nature Reserve With Wendy

Today I made my four yearly visit to Monkton in Kent. I visited my Uncle's grave and then Wendy and I went to Monkton Nature Reserve to see who was about. I had heard about some friendly Robins, including Ruben, who usually hand feeds. The weather was pretty good, with a fair amount of sunshine, but that disappeared as the day went on. However, it was a full day, with several interesting finds.

A speedy water snail

A pair of Moorhens was also on the pond and seemed to have a nest on the go

One of many Jackdaws in the area

GT's seemed to have found a nice place to nest in the quarry wall

And so to the Robins. We encountered this female just a short distance from the visitor centre. I don't think it was Ruben as I had been told of his location and it should have been further along the path. The Robin that I hand fed was a female. She had a mate who followed her closely but kept his distance from me. He occasionally flew up into a nearby tree for a spot of singing. The female took a total of seven wax worms from my hand over a five minute period. She stopped for an intense preening session and I was able to get some decent pics. I think Wendy filmed her through the branches.

The right claw on her right foot was folded back. I only noticed this when I went through the photos

Her mate briefly came out into the open and I managed a couple of decent pics

One very distant male Kestrel

Rookery on the nearby roundabout

Heavily cropped pic of Jackdaw in flight

And one of a Rook

We were unsure as to what this Jackdaw had in its beak, but having broken off a few bits, it took it away

We uncovered a group of maybe half a dozen Slow Worms beneath an upside down wheelbarrow. Wendy has better pics. I had to change lenses!

Finally, one of several Rooks that invaded the feeders near the visitor centre. This was taken through the window and there are some reflections.

All in all a lovely visit. Hopefully Wendy will add her pics and video clips in due course.

  • Many thanks for the visit Paul, great company & certainly some wonderful pics you got there ... all I have managed so far is a vid of Mrs MNRR taking one of the waxworms plus Gonzales the water snail speeding along in the shallows!

    There will be more as soon as I work out how to post from Google drive to here???

    Btw, please don't leave it another four years ... not getting any younger here! Lol

    PS:  couldn't count waxworms ... they kept wriggling!

  • Nice to see/hear you had a great day out together Wendy and Paul with lovely photos/sightings and video clip of the hand feeding Mrs MNRR ! Wonder what the Jackdaw had, can't really tell but it looks somewhat like a cardboard lid its found, maybe taking it back for nesting material.

  • Lovely to see your pics MC and hear you and Wendy had a good day out and the weather stayed Springlike for you too.   Gorgeous Robin pics and the Moorhen would go well on the reflection thread.    Don't know why but I am not getting the video posts Wendy, maybe will on the laptop if and when I get it back.

  • Cracking shots MC. Looks like the Jackdaw has the bottom of a drinking cup. Would be interesting to see what else was in its nest.