05/09/2009 - how much longer can this go on for!!!

Birding, and life in general is not going too well for me at the moment. After a less than fruitful summer holiday birding-wise, my mother is very ill and as well as this being very concerning it has brought around other burdons such as I can't really go birding much! I've missed untold lifers and year ticks because of this not least Alpine Swift and/or Glossy Ibis today (06/09/2009).

Because of me being pretty much grounded to the local area, I've done more patch watching than usual, both at the Downs and at Beddington, yet it has been TOTALLY fruitless.



Anyway, I'll go ahead and give you some of the ever so slightly interesting sightings I painfully scraped off the bottom of the bucket yesterday (05/09/2009):



A rather unexciting and overdue patch tick (67) came in the form of an adult/subadult GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL which flew NE at roughly 17:12. Even at the long range, the size and wing colour gave it away.

Three LINNETS were noted with two SE AT 18:31 and a singleton heard over ' Bikers' ' at 17:59.

Raptors were respresented by 1 female SPARROWHAWK flying low over the west enclosure and a male KESTREL over the 'North Dartford Scrub'.

GREEN WOODPECKERS were much in evidence with at least 5, of which at least 3 were juveniles. Two GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKERS were noted.

Warblers were represented just by 2 WILLOW WARBLERS and at least 4 COMMON CHIFFCHAFFS. A single STOCK DOVE circled the central enclosure for a short while before heading NNW and possibly landing by the A217 roundabout at Belmont. 1, 6 and 3 ROSE-RINGED PARAKEETS flew over.

A single BULLFINCH was heard and up to 9 CHAFFINCHES were seen.

Perhaps up to 50 WOODPIGEONS were noted and 2 FERAL PIGEONS flew north east.

2 possible, distant Common Gulls flew over as well as at least 2 LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULLS, there were probably many more that I didn't pick up amongst the Herrings. Up to 70 HERRING GULLS passed over, in the time I had my eye on the sky, on their way to roost. 1, probably 2 or 3 SONG THRUSHES were flushed in the North Wood.

Fairly good numbers of LONG-TAILED, BLUE and GREAT TITS were noted but no Coals were picked out, or, needless to say, anything better. 10-20 CARRION CROWS, 7 MAGPIES and 3 JAYS were the only corvids recorded.

Summary: another failure to find anything good