👍 Luckily have full hearing still (tested a couple of yrs ago), and sound plays a big role if find a walk turns into a bit of #BareNakedBirding

1/2

Common Sandpiper, usual spot on town.

From Oare sea wall, seals on Horse Sands.

Another view of Oare Meadow.

Javelin train, Faversham station.

Just after boarding train, chap who'd seen me taking pics asked if I'd ever been to York. Explained not a ferroequinologist, talked on #BareNakedBirding / #LowCarbonBirding. Turned out chap had recently stepped away from birding, taking up metal-detecting instead.

We agreed- change is good.

4/4

And, finally, (3), the Art Fair at the Corn Exchange, where plenty of wildlife on show. (Stand pics w/ permission) www.rochesterartfair.co.uk

3 good reasons to visit Rochester today, w/ a few minutes' #BareNakedBirding thrown in for fun.

4/4

All moulty'n'orrible:
a Scandinavian Rock Pipit, mid-change of body feathers to the subtle colour washes of summer plumage.

(Bouncing around by my lunch-bench, Riverside CP, #Medway estuary.)

#BareNakedBirding
#KentNature

Great to bump into 2/3rds of 'Bird Wise North Kent' today. northkent.birdwise.org.uk/about/

Just as great to spot Eddie and Hayley were both #BareNakedBirding 😉

(Actually there for official opening of Riverside CP's 'Off-lead dog exercise area'. Fingers crossed it draws in a few of the locals👍)

Two's company, three's a crowd.
Mediterranean Gulls

#LowerHalstow
#KentNature
#BareNakedBirding

Short pre-brekkie walk thru' hilly orchards. Found excuse to keep to the bottom, to enjoy the winter thrushes and finches feeding up on the ridge.

Ground almost cleared of windfall now. A case of enjoy it while I can..

#Upchurch
#KentNature
#BareNakedBirding

A last knockings walk today. The local orchards held high nos of winter thrushes and Starlings .

One stuck-up Fieldfare was clearly feeling a need to look down on me. Alarming behaviour.
Don't you go "shak-shak" at me 🤫

#KentNature
#Upchurch
#BareNakedBirding

Bit of a blow straight at Ramsgate? I'm off the #bus, on a chilly lunch-bench, 100% sure Norman the Northern will show, 'cos

sometimes he wants to go, where everybody knows his name

"Norm!"

#GreatNorthernDiver
#BareNakedBirding
#KentNature
#BirdingByBus

Rock Pipit, nurdling in plastic. Fantastic.
Margate harbour

#BareNakedBirding
#KentNature
#BirdingByTrain

Sanderling roost site, ebbing tide.
Margate harbour

#BareNakedBirding
#KentNature
#BirdingByTrain

1/2

Redshank roost
Margate harbour

#BareNakedBirding
#KentNature
#BirdingByTrain

Begins? Heh, could claim we've had winters back from Africa for a little while now down here young Steph 😉 Even #BareNakedBirding I've seen stained Teal and Pintail whilst out this last week.

bsky.app/profile/lowc...

1/3

Sun?? Nice morning for a brisk walk.

Green Sandpiper, flood puddle paddllng.

#Medway #estuary
#BareNakedBirding
#KentNature

Short stroll to lean on gates and check in on the 000s of Stock Doves in local fields. Some pair bonds clearly still strong with bursts of (as BWP describes it) 'low-intensity courtship' on show.
Always a pleasure to stare at 'StoDos' this time of year.

#KentNature
#Medway estuary
#BareNakedBirding

And we're back ☺️
A v. short walk to view remains of local cover crops which, for most part, now cut back to gratten as gamebird nos. much reduced.
Lots of reed buntings taking advantage before final cut made and 'the hungry gap' arrives.
#KentNature
#Medway estuary
#BareNakedBirding

Pleasant stroll Rochester train station to Chatham train station. All the River #Medway Redshanks and Common Sandpipers busy working their patches.

#UrbanBirding
#BareNakedBirding
#BirdingByTrain

1/3

November 2017: a roost on the barges

How I enjoy my birding nowadays, #BareNakedBirding, no bins, no scope, often at 'wrong times' for good nos close, but meaning plenty of time to ponder qus on common species.

Meaning, once home, lots of fun reading up on things like how "mixed sediment biotypes" can occur patchily..

5/6

Later, after unpacking my vittles, thought enough time for a quick #BareNakedBirding jaunt along estuary as far as another chum, the gasometer (been there all my life, sadly going soon for housing).

Tide high when I first passed the nearby concrete barges, where got pics in opening post.

2/3

And, yup, they are back 😊

A quick shopping trip to Rochester this morning turned up a few Common Sands spread out amongst the creeks, feeding frantically on the cover tide before retreating to safer roosts.

1/4
#KentNature
#BareNakedBirding

Common Sandpiper, covering tide, base of Lime Kiln Wall (Peters village)

View from river bank to railway line (w. train) over Holborough marshes

Reedbeds alongside the River Medway at Holborough marshes. The North Downs beyond.

Map of vacant count sites (BTO's WeBS) https://app.bto.org/websonline/sites/vacant/vacant-sites.jsp#lon=0.4556760&lat=51.3343475&zoom=15 overlaid w. walk route (yellow) from Snodland station, plus (as memory serves me) all my Common Sandpiper encounters (yellow blobs plus any flightlines).

Quoting from 'Common + Spotted Sandpipers' (P Holland):
re wintering "I took up watching them near the south coast.. typical place is a few km up a tidal river (and not counted by estuary bird counters).. where they lurk under banks.."

A #BareNakedBirding walk by #train - Holborough marshes.

1/6

Meadow Pipit on damp mud.

Rock Pipit on low wall of wharf. Non birders, this is a darker Pipit than Meadow, with v dark legs. But you can think of both as LBJs (Little Brown Jobs).

Managed a hobble down to Bloors Wharf (back finally on the mend) to lean and admire the Meadows and the Rocks.

The two spp. of Pipit most easily found at high tide around the (just) moist pools found on the concrete standing. Yup, I really am this easily pleased.

#BareNakedBirding
#Medway estuary

Waders arriving to roost, water lit by rising sun.

I'm still getting out for some dawn #BareNakedBirding walks. Just barely anything of note. Mainly end up pondering wider views.

1/3

Arrival on Bloors wharf, Medway estuary. Bike handlebar against seawall, birds in background as tide covers mudflats.

During #BareNakedBirding bike ride, interesting exchange w. birder.

(birder) "Duck numbers rubbish apparently, WeBS guys tweeted none at weekend."
(Me) "When did they tweet?"
(c) "What did they tweet?"
(m) "No. When."

Pause

(c) "6th,"
(m) "Time?"
(c) "00:43."
(m) "Ah. So Fri the 5th.."

1/7

The grassy edge of saltings at Deadmans island, scattered with Curlews. Beyond, shimmering in a heat haze, rotting stakes marking out Shepherds creek (also no apostrophe). Medway estuary.

More Curlews, saltings and looming black stakes.

And more.

Getting to the end (the seawall of Tailness marshes looming in the background).

On wiki, there's an apostrophe. Someone thinks it should be 'Deadman's island'.
But on Govt/OS maps, there's no apostrophe; 'Deadmans island'.

Me, I just add a curlew roost. And maybe a bit of heat haze.

#Medway estuary
#KentNature
#BareNakedBirding

1/3

A Grey Heron stands on the deck of an old rusted boat that, as goes under with the tide, is rusted and covered with green algae.

An on-deck wreck heron.

#Medway estuary
#KentNature
#BareNakedBirding

Two Spotted Redshank, about to be passed by a Black-tailed Godwit.

Tide higher, same Spotted Redshanks. In foreground, blurred, one of the hundreds of Common Redshanks that whizzed past to roost.

Same Spotted Redshanks, their mudbank soon to go under, about to be passed by a family of Mute Swans.

Same Spotted Redshanks. Tide is in, nothing passing now. As soon as water reached their bellies, they were off.

A good breakfast. Spoilt.

Seawall walk, rising tide. As sat down to snack, a pair of Spotted Redshank dropped in. Decided best not to disturb them.

110 mins later, they finally flew off.

It was horrible (I'd run out of food after first 15 mins 😇).

#Medway estuary
#KentNature
#BareNakedBirding

Wigeon

Spoonbill in flight

Collared Dove feeding on saltings

Green Sandpiper in pool

Sept 1st, tide a neap high during hour after dawn? Duck-shuffling time.

You always get one or two optimistic wildfowlers out for start of their shooting season, so you always find more wildfowl popping up on the quieter stretches.

#Medway estuary
#BareNakedBirding
#KentNature

1/2

Horrid Hill causeway. How not-so-obsessed birders carry their bins - by a lengthy strap, dangled from the wrist. Hope they enjoyed their walk as much as I enjoyed my #BareNakedBirding.

2 1/2 hrs, one birder. Hope enjoyed what saw thru' swing-bins as much as I enjoyed a bit of #BareNakedBirding:
Calling Whimbrels, high inland.. Ringed, Grey Plover flocks searching to settle.. Noisy warblers in seawall bushes, even some out in the saltings.

That'll do..

A close-up of a trio of Little Egrets intent on wading after fish, in a fast-drying pool.

I always prefer a march past to a fly by.

Little Egrets
#Medway estuary
#KentNature
#BareNakedBirding