RXwildlife Sightings

Curious? click here for BBC report.

The hybrid Pochard x Ferruginous Duck that has frequented the Long Pit for the last few winters was again in amongst the Pochard flock recently. To see previous pictures and discussion, copy and paste the word Ferruginous into the “search” box in top left corner of this page.

It seems to me that the Rother Valley deserves much more birding attention. The area between the Blackwall Bridge and Maytham Wharf Farm to the north-west is a flood reservoir, and when it floods the birding can be spectacular. On the 18th Jan the wildfowl included over a 1,000 Wigeon plus Teal, Gadwall, Mallard, Pintail, Shoveler, Tufted Duck and Pochard, over 400 Greylag and Canada Geese, plus lots of Lapwing and even 2 Ruff. So far the Winter Atlas has turned up nearly 80 species in that square, highlights being Water Pipit, Peregrine, Goosander and Green Sandpiper.

I had a very interesting 3 hours at the hide yesterday. The Bittern was giving fantastic views as it walked from the reeds on the left right through to the reeds on the right and back again over course of my time there. At the same time another was in full view ‘feeding’ over the far bank. Also present were 2 male Smew and 4 females and 1 Scaup. Marsh Harriers giving good views also.

Ray Barry by e-mail