not very showy, even 🤷🏻‍♂️

I only saw one Red Lite today and that was just over the border into in East Sussex.

I like Redpolls. 2 noted this afternoon.

My first Hobby of the year, honest.

Woodlark, despite the business of the place.

A jaunt across the border into East Sussex got my days warbler list up to ten with a vocal but very showy Garden Warbler. Hobby was also my first in 2026.

I finished at the tip / sewage works, why do I keep going there?

A good day though with 64 species noted despite a fair bit sitting at my desk.

A drake Wood Duck through the trees.

Fallow Deer

Yellowhammer

Reed Bunting

52 species of bird around Whetsted GP’s and the walk from/to Sherenden Farm this morning including Greenshank, Cuckoo, half a dozen Nightingale, Sedge, Reed & Willow Warblers and a couple of Lesser Whitethroat. A single drake Mandarin flew east, the drake Wood Duck still looks lost.

Cracking pic’ Phil and yes, a brilliant record for a Red-spot’ for this time of year!

You said it was good. It is 👍🏻

It’s on the list…

We are planning to escape the rat race at some point soon and hope to find an under-watched patch local to the our home when we get there. My son and his wife live up there and it’s flatter so walking around should be easier and I might even get back to (e-)cycling.

A drain certainly Steve, not too sure about the brain bit though 🤔

Common Crane, Norfolk

Common Crane was an unexpected bonus while on a house hunting mission up Norf’ at the weekend thanks to @applewildlife.bsky.social

View over the fields from Dunorlan Park, Tunbridge Wells, this morning.

Firecrest singing its heart out again this morning - such brilliant birds.

A frosty walk round Dunorlan Park: 32 species noted but nothing too noteworthy. Skylarks doing their thing and common stuff like Green Woodpecker always a pleasure.

#TunbridgeWells #KentBirding

oof, another cracking hybrid

Smashed even!

Incredible!

Double wow 😮

Whitethroat singing and showing well in The Shallows, Haysden, this morning - perhaps my earliest ever, maybe by some margin.

I need to be working but am always captivated by your writing Steve!

Wheatear, Haysden

Stock Dove, Dunorlan Park

A male Wheatear at Haysden this afternoon was a welcome no. 98 for the 5 mile year list.

Stock Doves are everywhere nowadays it seems but this one, seemingly growing out of a tree, needed snapping.

Red Kites around including a small number over the back garden today.

#KentBirding

#KentBirding

Firecrest in a new place as I walked home from church yesterday and one singing in an expected spot this morning.

Willow Warbler (and Swallow) at the local tip / sewage works this morning and another Willow Warbler at home when putting the rubbish out just now (my 2nd record here in 15 years).

These are pretty cool 👌🏼

My visit didn’t start well today. I don’t think this male Sparrowhawk will be resurrected on Sunday.

A path between two pits which held a drake Wood Duck this morning.

It might not look like one in this picture but this is the drake Wood Duck 😲

My morning didn’t get any better when I walked back along the River Medway - a dark phase Muscovy Duck (honest).

Good Friday.

Do you think the weekend birding gets any better?

A walk to Whetsted GP’s produced a cracking drake Wood Duck looking rather confused on the path between two pits and when I was wondering how I hadn’t managed to see any new summer migrants, and then a forlorn-looking Muscovy Duck 🤷🏻‍♂️

The weekend gets off to a rubbish start with just 15 species (plus a White Stork which flew SSW reasonably high) at the tip 😲 / sewage works.

I keep visiting the site in the hope of finding something interesting but tend to come away empty handed most of the time.

#KentBirding
#TunbridgeWells

3 Firecrests locally before I started work today. Good.

My first Night Heron wasn’t too far away (Cheddar Village). It was found to have originated from Edinburgh Zoo 😢 but that was a lotta years ago. I think we’d just seen a stonking adult Laughing Gull in a paddling pool at Butlins, Burnham in Sea (1989, maybe).

My memories may need correcting!

Half eaten fab chocolate cake ✔️😀

Thank you Jacob @dungenessbirdobs.bsky.social - this was excellent!

Trustee meetings aren’t so bad.

Doh, so it’s 2026 already.
#KentBirding

Early Purple Orchid - coming soon.

The day started with Firecrest and Redpoll at home.

Then my first Wheatears, Sand Martins & Sandwich Terns for 2025 at Dungeness + Black-necked Grebe at Lade GP’s, 7 Stonechat and a couple of Black Redstarts. Non-bird highlights included Harbour Porpoise and Early Purple #Orchid rosettes.

Ophrys mammosa, Rhodes, 2025

Ophrys omegaifera, Rhodes, 2025

Ophrys sitiaca, Rhodes, 2025

Ophrys bombyliflora, Rhodes, 2025

But rain won’t stop play of course. So much brilliant stuff seen that day rather damp day!

Thayer’s Gull, Minsmere, 10 years ago today. The drive up in a storm avoiding trampoline, walls and trees (or driving over them) was interesting.

I’ve watched birds in appalling weather but really needed wiper blades for the optics that day!

With JT, Guy & @birdingbazzer.bsky.social

Lesser Whitethroat (S c curruca) on a bird table

Lesser Whitethroat (S c curruca) eating a Rowan berry

Lesser Whitethroat (S c curruca)

Lesser Whitethroat (S c curruca) on a bird table

@docmartin2mc.bsky.social has sent me the DNA results of the Lesser Whitethroat wintering in my garden and confirmed it as S c curruca, not what I expected, but more unusual than the Eastern races. Many thanks to him and his staff for all their work. The bird is still present for its 88th day.

That’s certainly pretty interesting reading there Andrew / Richard 👍🏻