Pett Level
3rd May 2009, SundaySaturday May 2nd
Nine species of warbler were present in the bushes in front of Toot Rock, the two more unusual ones being Willow Warbler and Garden Warbler, which are now just migrants in this strip of coast.
Sadly, no sound of Turtle Doves emerged from those bushes as it used to, neither did any Cuckoos call along the canalside wires.
In last week’s Times (click here to read), Simon Barnes described how his pleasure at the return of spring migrants is increasingly tainted by anxiety for those which fail to appear, and though that same weekend I found Whitethroats and Sedge Warblers - trans-Saharan migrants both - in near saturation densities at RSPB Dungeness, the situation at Pett was not encouraging. The barest trickle of Swallows, one or two Yellow Wagtails… a couple of Whimbrels.
Up until a few years ago, at this time of year I could find 85, 90, even a hundred species around the level at this time of year but this morning the tally ground to a halt at 78. There are species here now that were not around then, but the number and variety of migrants seem to get fewer.
I’m not sure whether it cheered me up or not to read the tally from Breskens (NL) from last Saturday, when 20,285 birds of 101 species were logged in a day’s migration watching (www.trektellen.nl)