I trapped one more Reed Bunting in the garden this morning,which now makes 30 since the beginning of the New Year.I hear that Sandwich Bay has also had its best winter on record for the number of this species ringed.If any of these birds are recovered it will be interesting to know from where they came from,perhaps more birds than usual came in from northern Europe.Many of my birds though are probably quite local,it will be interesting later when I visit the marshes to see how many have rings.
The Nyjer seed feeder in the garden attracted 5 Goldfinch on February 23rd and on the 25th a male Blackcap was seen.

March 2nd (New Hythe)

8.30am-10.am another very nice clear and calm day.Birds noted - a Shelduck and 4 Teal were seen on the river. A water Rail and a Cetti`s called from the sunken marsh.The brown-head Goldeneye was present again on Brookland,along with 8 Pochard and 20 Tufted Duck.Four Shoveler, 26 Tufted Duck and 8 Pochard were on Abbey Mead from where a second Cetti`s was heard,a third was calling along the western edge of Brookland.The east scrub held small numbers of both Chaffinch and Fieldfare and more unusually a pair of Mallard,the last of which were on a small water flash.Best of all however was another sighting of a Bittern.The bird appeared as I was climbing the mound at Brookland.It came over from the direction of Burham,flew across the lake and went down in the reeds along the western edge of the lake.I didn`t however have my camera out of its bag and by the time I was ready to shoot it was flying away from me,another good photo opportunity mist.I also forgot to put the camera onto auto tracking,so hence the out of focus shot.

March 1st (New Hythe)

14.00-15.00 a much better day than yesterday,clear and calm.After yesterdays rain and talk of flooding,I wanted to see just how high the Medway was.So I parked in the Brookland car-park and walked out to the river from there.As I neared the sunken marsh I could see a flock of B h Gulls flying around over it,so I guessed the river must have gone over the bank and flooded the marsh (which happens quite frequently) but this time the marsh resembled a lake rather than a marsh,very much higher than I had seen it before but apart from the gulls very little else was to be seen,although one Chiiffchaff was of note.I then walked down the bank in the northeast corner of Abbey Mead which was also higher than usual and just as I reached the bottom I flushed a Woodcock from the waters edge.I then moved a few more steps and had the fright of my life as a Bittern flew up from very close by,luckily I had my camera handy and managed to fire off a few shots as it flew away towards the southern end of the lake.