A walk around New Hythe produced of interest.20 Teal.1 Kingfisher,2 adult Great black.backed Gulls,1 Common Snipe and 1 Great Crested Grebe,along the river.Two calling Water Rails (Sunken marsh).Three Bullfinches in the hawthorns along the river`s edge.A Stock Dove and 12 occupied Heron`s nests on Eccles island.Overhead there a Kestral and the local pair of Common Buzzards.A total of 4 calling Cetti`s Warblers and just 1 Chiffchaff.Wintering wildfowl have decreased further since my last visit (I saw no Gadwall).

March 6th (Garden)

The tristis Chiffchaff was back in the garden again today.It was first seen and ringed on February 12th.

March 3rd (New Hythe)

Male and female Tufted Duck (Brook House)

I parked at Brooklands lake and walked towards the river.Noting on the way,8 Siskin,1 Chiffchaff and 1 Pied Wagtail.On reaching the Bucket wood,Phil Sharp and Terry Laws were already in residence.They had been there for a while and had seen 2 Common Buzzrds,high over the valley towards Burham and a Kingfisher that had flashed across the river.In the short time that I was able to spend there we added of interest 2 adult GBB Gulls,which were flying up and down the river (these birds are only rarely seen in the lakes complex these days) and 2 more Buzzards.I then left them to it and headed off towards Abbey Meads.Seeing on the way,2 Cetti`s which called from within the depths of the Sunken marsh and a flyover Reed Bunting.On the lake winter wildfowl numbers were now greatly reduced(unusually this winter they peaked during December and then quickly fell away during late January,early February).Six Gadwall and 8 Teal were present in Eccles creek,where overhead I saw 2 more Buzzards.On the island I could see 10 occupied Heron`s nests and I heard 2 Bullfinches calling from the riverside hawthorns there.The remainder of the walk was rather uneventful.Except perhaps for 3 more Chiffchaff,none of which were singing and two Treecreepers.The latter of which were in the willows at the southern end of the streamside lake.When I arrived home,I saw another Buzzard,which was being pursued by two Herring Gulls.

During the afternoon a female Blackcap turned up in my garden net.This was a nice surprise as it was the first I have seen in the garden this winter.It was putting on weight and had a fat score of four.

Of interest a Wryneck was reported this morning,somewhere in the Snodland/New Hythe area.Its a very early record,

Common Treecreeper (streamside lake)