What a fantastic way to spend 4 hours! Walking around Northward Hill RSPB reserve.

Still only the first week in April, butterflies were on the wing alongside bee- flies and hoverflies, not forgetting bees of course.

So a walk straight down the track from the office found Green-veined White butterflies, Speckled Woods and those wonderful Beeflies, so called because they are flies that look a bit like bees or bees that…

The long awaited return of this iconic bird  at one of its' most important sites in Kent, let alone the UK was confirmed, when local  North Kent Marsh, BTO ringer Andrew netted a Nightingale yesterday at Lodge Hill, Chattenden.

This precedes their return to Northward Hill RSPB Reserve by 5 days or so, this evening I went to Lodge Hill to listen for singing males, a little early, and alas no Pavorottis were limbering…

The results of the Big Garden Bird Watch are in and the scores on the doors from Kent one to twenty with last year's ranking are as follows:-

House Sparrow (1)

Starling (2)

Blackbird (5)

Blue tit (3)

Wood pigeon (4)

Collared Dove (6)

Robin (8)

Goldfinch (11)

Magpie (10)

Great tit (7)

Chaffinch (9)

Dunnock (13)

Feral Pigeon (12)

Long tailed Tit (14)

Common Gull (15)

Carrion Crow (16)

Jackdaw (17)

…

Yesterday I took my 20 month old grandaughter to Grain to collect some shells. The fog was thick and horns echoed across the estuary like forlorn moans of a lost soul.

As luck would have it a man turned up in the carpark and unloaded three mysterious boxes from his boot onto the gravel base, and proceeded  to call on his phone, as a natural busy body, I was intrigued!

My GD is, to my delight fascinated by ber-bers as…

Nestboxes are excellent substitutes for the holes found in old trees. In young woodlands and plantations, and in many parks and gardens there may be plenty of food for small birds but nowhere for hole-nesting birds to nest.

Over 60 species are known to have used nestboxes. Regular residents include blue, great and coal tits, nuthatches, house and tree sparrows, starlings, spotted and pied flycatchers, robins, house martins…

Today was a Wetland Bird Survey day on behalf of the BTO and RSPB.

So I started from the newly named Sweeney Viewpoint looking out over Gordons' Hide to the scrapes and reservoir with the magnificent marshes seemingly endlessly stretching into the distance, in reality the mighty Thames curtails its' progress.

From here could be seen dabbling, dozing or probing :-Coot (73), Wigeon (70), Pochard (4), Shelduck…

RSPB Medway Local Group Photography Competition

 

We are pleased to announce that the RSPB Medway Local Group will be holding a Photography Competition again this year. The theme is 'Birds on the Reserves' so any genuinely wild bird on any recognised RSPB, BTO, or Wildlife Trust property in the UK can be entered. The competition will be open to any member of the RSPB Medway Local Group. Entrants will be allowed to…

Gravesend RSPB Local Group - In Memory of David Arnold 

In Memory of David Arnold

Posted: 05 Mar 2017 05:44 AM PST

The Northward Hill RSPB reserve and CliffePools, not to mention really the whole of the North Kent Marshes complex would be hard-pressed to manage such a large area without the massive input of RSPB Local Groups. Not only for fund-raising and local awareness, but for hands-on practical husbandry of the vast swathes of diverse habitat we are privileged to inherit from our forebears in relatively untarnished condition.

…

Sunday 26 February             10am - 4pm

OARE MARSHES KWT

Meet at the car park, TR013647 (ME13 0QD).  Large roosts of wintering waders on the pools, avocets, godwits, dunlin & plovers. In the reed beds stonechat, bearded tits and reed bunting.  Bring binoculars if you have them and a packed lunch.

 

Tuesday 28 February           2pm - 4pm    

Masonic Halls, Wrotham Rd, Gravesend, DA11 0PA

“A LOOK AT GARDEN BIRDS & VISITING …

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…

St Mary's Marsh, 15:00 to 17:45, Sunshine with clearing cloud, decreasing WNW breeze.
65 Mute Swan (18 on grazing marsh and 47 feeding on adjacent arable field), 2 Buzzard, 1 Stonechat, 19 Linnet.]

Cliffe Pools, 12:30 to 14:00, Sunny with cloud. A mod chilly WNW breeze. A visit to the Timber Lake and Alpha Pool after a quick scan of the RSPB reserve from Allen's Hill. No sign of Bewick Swans in the area today, or…

A timely reminder of what is about on the  Peninsular section of the North Kent Marshes Including Salt Fleet,

75 Dark-bellied Brent Goeee, 50 Shelduck, 500 Wigeon, 200 Teal, 50 Shoveler, 3 Marsh Harrier (2 male, 1 female ), 2, Common  Buzzard,, 2, Kestrel, 1 Merlin, 1 Peregrine Falcon (excellent view sitting on gate.), 400, Golden Plover, 3,000 Lapwing, 200 Knot, 2,000 Dunlin, 300 Curlew, 1 Green Sandpiper, 3 Short-eared…

Last Wednesday I saw two Honey Bees on my dried, dead and desiccated Lavender flowers and today I saw a butterfly flutter by, judging by its' darkness and time of year I guess it was a Red Admiral.

Last Sunday was a Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS) count day at Cliffe Pools and Northward Hill (NwH) and the numbers of birds on both reserves continues to be pretty impressive. At Cliffe Murray Orchard recorded the following:-

1 Mute Swan, 10 Bewick's Swan (inc. juv, on Flamingo Pool - flew in about 10.45 and remained rest of day.), 1 Canada Goose, 47 Shelduck, 91 Wigeon, 72 Gadwall, 64 Teal, 43 Mallard, 21 Pintail, 307…

The Buzzard is one of the larger raptors you'd be pretty unlucky not to see on a trip to Northward Hill Reserve, in fact I see them regularly patrolling the skies over my own area in Chattenden,  over Hoo village and even over Rochester town centre. Common, but that hasn't always been the case. Not so many years back you would have to go west to see one.

I went on a Medway RSPB Group walk about ten years ago to…

Today I went up onto the newly named 'Sweeney Viewpoint' with its magnificent vista to the the marshes, Thames and onto Essex. It was bitterly cold and I was already wishing I'd put on more  layers. Down at Gordons' hide there was little evidence of the recent vandalism.

The only difference was the leader board hadn't been up-dated since the 29th of January, a visitor questioned as why that was. How can…

With the snow and freezing temperatures of the last few days it's even more important to make sure that plenty of food is available to our wild birds, at the local garden centre in Hoo there was a surprising variety available from fat balls to seeds and peanuts. I thought it might be timely to post the RSPBs advice as to which to choose.

Bird seed mixtures 

There are different mixes for feeders and for birdtables…

Many of you will be aware that a couple of weeks ago the hide was vandalised necessitating its' temporary closure. The repairs reqiuired were painting out the obscenities and replacing the smashed viewiing window panel. So many thanks to the painters and especially to Trade 2 Trade, a family business from Rochester, who very kindly and most generously supplied and fitted the glass for the viewing window. I am pleased…