As I said on my comment on the last blog of Murrays' sighting at Cliffe, I think it is fairly safe to assume the Bewicks' are on their way back to Siberia now
As to Northward Hill there is still plenty to see and hear for that matter. Walking up to the viewpoint as the sun desperatly tried its' best to peep through the cloud, every now and then it burst forth for ten or fifteen minutes, prompting the seranaders to burst into song like singers on a stage when the spotlight is suddenly on them, The tiny wren, the magnificent song thrush and blackbird. Joining in the chorus was a great tit, no two GTs ever sound the same.
Out on the marsh from Sweeney VP any amount of ducks and waders could be spied, huge numbers of Wigeon,whistling their unique call, Teal, Gadwall, Lapwings in their hundreds if not thousands. Mallard and Tufted ducks were also present.
Every now and then up they went, swirling, whirling around en-masse. Generally put up by a passing buzzard or marsh harrier or even a distant peregrine unseen to the human eye.
All four commoner corvids were scanning the grassy marsh for a tasty morsel.
A female kestrel hovered above, eyes focused on the below for a mouse, vole or at a pinch worm or snail. In the winter beggars can't be chosers. Out on the marsh Grey-lag and Canada geese with Mute swans tugged at the grass.
Far out across the flat lands a large flock of birds congregated in a pirouetting cloud. Their positioning on the southern shores of the Thames spelt dunlin, but dunlin they weren't, no black and white contrasting as they twisted and turned this way and that. It was our very own murmeration of starlings.
Ok so not in the millions or even thousands, but certainly several hundred, brilliant.
The North Kent Marshes are a very special area and worth preserving at all cost.