The North Kent Marshes in winter is a magical place, where you can see winter thrushes, Redwing and Fieldfare in huge numbers but, many other birds like Lapwing in good numbers.
So onto this week what birds are about? So let’s start at the top and go for it and that has to be James McCormiskey’s sighting of a Bittern at Shorne Marsh yesterday. The Bittern a ‘bogey bird’ for quite a few birders, fairly frequent at Dungeness and Minsmere, so really nice to see so locally.
Today it was a pleasure to join the RSPB Medway Local Group on a walk round Northward Hill, I could only join the at Sweeney View Point. There I spoke to Warren the group leader and he informed me he had been to Cliffe Pools, specifically Alpha Pool (slightly off the reserve, I know) yesterday and had seen all five Grebe species i.e. Great Crested, Little, Red-necked, Black-necked and Slavonian, so not a bad record and certainly beating my efforts to see all five species of Owl on the marsh in a day, I saw four in a day, dipping on the Shortie
What else was around on the 16th, a Common Buzzard on a post at the entrance and 26 Curlew probing and feeding on the ploughed field opposite the main gate, very nice to see!
Scanning out onto the distant marsh over the River Thames to Essex and beyond a flock of @ 600 Lapwing went up, so distinctive in their aerial formation and the dual flapping of black and white as they twist and turn in the heavens almost as spectacularly as the famous displays of starlings.
Elsewhere on the reserves, huge numbers of coots have been recorded, nearly 50 at NwH and a few hundred at Cliffe, mainly on Flamingo, where it is nice to report at least 7 or so Goldeneye. Two Marsh Harrier quartered the distant winter reed beeds. Amongst the Greylag geese was a lone Egyptian Goose. Many other waders and ducks are to be found in good numbers on the entire North Kent Marsh complex, especially at Cliffe Pools, Pochard, Tufted Ducks and Widgeon, All in all as a Kent RSPB Reserve Northward Hill and Cliffe Pools take some beating.