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| Medway estuary looking east from Hoo St Werburgh |
Today was a glorious day in north Kent, the jubilation at not being smacked around by howling winds for the first time in a fortnight heightened by a liberal dose of winter sun. Conditions were ideal for my first Medway low tide count of the winter which I undertook this afternoon for three sections of the estuary off Hoo marina. These are the combined results for the three (consecutive) areas:
(Mute Swan 2 flew over)
Dark-bellied Brent Goose 9 (5+4)
Shelduck 195
Wigeon 39
Teal 164
Cormorant 6
Little Egret 1
Grey Heron 1
Little Grebe 2
Great Crested Grebe 4
Oystercatcher 130
Grey Plover 10
Lapwing 27
Dunlin 103
Curlew 36
Redshank 68
5 Gull species were listed but not counted. Also noted were a single Linnet that flew along the sea wall, while a Marsh Harrier was present before the count at Stoke Saltings, the other side of Kingsnorth Power Station.
The mid-afternoon tide time meant the latter half of the count was spent looking near directly into the sun but I feel this is a good representation of the area's bird life today. From this data and that compiled by others around the Medway (and around the country), we will in time be able to understand better the relative importance of different areas to wetland birds along with local, regional and national trends in numbers.
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| Redshank (Tringa totanus) today |
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