At last…
13th May 2008, Tuesday
Lots of Red Kites have been seen in Sussex over the last week – even a flock of 9 reported at Northiam on Sunday. I was beginning to feel that I was the only person in the county not to have seen one until I noticed one flapping and gliding languidly over Guestling Thorn at 07.10 this morning, while I was out in TQ81M, doing the last of my Early Visits for the Breeding Atlas. I saw several Kites after that, which all turned out to be Herring Gulls, and felt sufficiently encouraged to re-interpret a Kestrel as a Red-footed Falcon (another species drifting westwards in large numbers). (It did look very dusky in the early morning light…)
Compared with other tetrads I’ve surveyed, the block between the A259 Road of Death and Three Oaks is definitely Yellowhammer City. I saw 7 in this corner whereas elsewhere I struggle to find 1 or 2.
Small farm ponds are often hidden from the casual glance by peripheral vegetation, but sustain a widespread rural population of Moorhens and Mallard. In the Guestling area, I was surprised to find a Little Grebe on one small patch of water, while the other day I disturbed a Common Sandpiper from an ornamental pond. At another, completely enclosed in a dome of Willow, a Garden Warbler was singing, Willow Warblers being in short supply.
Ravens fly over our house daily, and I am beginning to see them a little further inland. This morning, one was flying north over Guestling Wood.
Wild Hastings
wildRye
