Medway RSPB Local Group Walk. Cliffe Pools.

Our first walk since the start of the pandemic and we had decided to take two groups of 6, 5 plus the leader, on a walk round RSPB Cliffe Pools. Adrian Olsen had kindly agreed to open the car park for us which was a great help and allowed us to meet in the car park in a socially distanced way. We then went off in our two groups.

I led my group from the car park along the main path. We stopped to look over Crystal Pool where we saw plenty of black-headed gulls along with a few Mediterranean gulls, greylag geese, Canada geese and tufted duck. We turned the corner and up the central path, again stopping to look over the pool from a different angle. We added great-crested grebe, little egret, coot, pochard and mallard to the list. Continuing up the path we heard chaffinch. We took a slight detour to overlook the righthand pool which added avocet, oystercatcher and lesser black-backed gull.

Back on the track we spotted a common whitethroat and up to the end overlooking the fields we added Egyptian goose, lapwing and shelduck. We walked along the path and spotted two redshanks, one of which we think was a spotted redshank and a curlew flew overhead.

At the top of Flamingo Pool, we stopped for refreshments and spotted more avocet, a ringed plover, kestrel and lapwing.

The other group appeared from the other path and I briefly exchanged notes with Warren. We then took another look at the pool and added whimbrel, dunlin, grey plover and bar-tailed godwit before making our way down the track

On the track we had a lovely chiffchaff singing its heart out and briefly heard a nightingale and sedge warbler. There were mute swan, tufted duck, avocet and great-crested grebe as well as the gulls. At the bottom of Radar Pool, we added a flyover Common Tern. We made our way back to the car park but didn’t add anything else to the list.

Karen Snow

The second group started out a little later and we also stopped first at the Crystal Pool and saw pretty much the same birds, but after that our routes diverged. We made our way past the Pinnacle hearing blackcaps and seeing a singing chiffchaff, and on to the observation point at the bottom of Radar Pool. Where we saw and heard much the same as the other group, but we also saw gadwall, great black-backed gull, herring gull, marsh harrier and black-tailed godwit.

We retraced our steps and made our way up to the top of Flamingo Pool. When we tried to view the pools, we were surprised how cold and strong the wind was in the more exposed spots. As we went along, we too got a brief hearing of a nightingale, whitethroat and several Cetti’s warblers and a sighting of a pair of pheasants. After swapping info with Karen both groups eventually saw all the waders in Flamingo Pool. Our group made its way to the sea wall at the mouth of Cliffe Creek where we had a break, but all we could add to our list was a cormorant and a brief glimpse of a pied wagtail. Following Karen’s tip-off, we made our way down the perimeter track and found the Egyptian geese but not the redshanks or the curlews.

We made our way back to the carpark down the Conoco track (the other group had walked this in the opposite direction) where we heard or saw a few garden birds, but we also heard a skylark and some of the group saw a couple of linnets and a swallow. As it was quite warm and sheltered, we also saw several peacock butterflies and a single comma.

It was a really enjoyable walk with plenty of birds – between us all we saw or heard 55 species, and the weather was fine as we were all wrapped up well. Best of all was the company, as it was a chance to meet together after more than a year since our last Medway Local Group walk.

Warren Mann

Thanks to Warren and Warren for the walk and for the report.