31/05/20

My early morning walk today was to Orlestone Forest where I have not visited for sometime.  I pulled up in the car park and started off with a Pheasant walking in front of my car and opening the door to the sound of a Turtle Dove, a good start.  I found the Turtle Dove but it wasn't showing well enough for a good picture. 

With the good start I was hoping for better things.  I started to hear and see all the usual migrants, Blackcap, Chiffchaff and then a nice Willow Warbler.  Half way round it started to get bad with mosquitoes and being in shorts and always having the body and blood that the mossies seem to adore I was soon having to swipe them off my legs every time I stopped.  I then heard and found a Garden Warbler, my first of the year and this took my mind off them for a while.  Eventually it got so bad I had to give up stopping and keep walking until I got to higher ground when thankfully they then seemed to go away.  The last part of the walk I came around a corner and found a fox sitting in the grass, he run off quickly but I managed to get a quick shot away.  The last highlight was a Nightingale on the trail back to the car park.

Not long after I arrived home I heard a commotion and looking up saw a Red Kite flying over and being hassled by a Herring Gull, quick run to get my camera and managed to get a couple of quick shots before it passed over.  This is my 2nd Red Kite over Hamstreet in as many weeks and with the reporting of many sightings, sometimes as much as 10-14 at once I am sure it will not be the last.

I was thinking that 3-4 years ago the only chance to guarantee a Red Kite was to go over to Oxfordshire and up the M40, now they are everywhere, but how long before they start getting persecuted for being a pest I wonder