Singing male Greenish Warbler showing well at the most north-west corner of the Trapping Area! #kentbirding

I started with Ophrys at 6:15am this morning with about 18 Bee Orchids (about 20% compared to last year). I went on to see about 40 Late Spider Orchids over a few sites - numbers seem to be down. I’m still getting confused with these however! Correction and guidance most welcome. #Orchids

I visited a few sites today and saw 12 species of #orchids by 2 O’clock. I didn’t see any more species after this but did see 75% of my meagre total of Fly Orchids for the day after this - 67% of those were rather green - yes that’s 50% of the Fly Orchids I saw today! Here they are. #KentNature

On what has been a remarkably slow day, an unexpected highlight just appeared in the form of a Minke Whale! It travelled east just c50yds offshore at 18:50hrs, from the seawatching hide.

I’d be quite content with a single bird…

Beachy Head: Song/call (recorded by DDL) and tail shot showing long white wedge in t5 (RL) of the Eastern Subalpine Warbler. xeno-canto.org/1133519

Black-caked Gull, that sounds interesting 😳 👓 would be useful perhaps 🤔

Eastern Subalpine Warbler at Cow Gap, Beachy Head this afternoon. Thanks to @beachybirder.bsky.social for finding it! Legs aching after steep walk uphill back to car! @sussexornitholo.bsky.social @birdguides.bsky.social @rarebirder.bsky.social

A couple of weeks ago now, but what a brilliant week!

Beachy Head: Just found an eastern subalpine warbler in cow gap @BirdGuides maps.app.goo.gl/aAtoKB3eZM31h6…

Even frostier this morning. Nightingale was either silent or departed but 7 Lesser Black-caked Gulls NNW over Dunorlan Park, #TunbridgeWells were noteworthy (in my little world). 37 species this morning.

It was certainly not ‘hanging around’ temperature this morning but a singing Nightingale in Dunorlan Park #TunbridgeWells ensured I paused briefly. 29 species noted.

A great start to the weekend at Whetsted GP’s with purring Turtle Dove, Nightingales, Cuckoo, Garden Warbler and so much more. A few other bits and the local year list is now up to #113 I’ve notched up just three species of orchid since we got back from The Gargano (where we had almost 50).

Best bird from my short walks around Dunorlan Park, #TunbridgeWells so far this month was the Cuckoo heard singing about 6:15am today - my first here for four years. Whitethroat, Common Terns and Firecrests also noted this week.

A week at Dungeness Bird Observatory ends - there may not have been many migrants but they did include an Iberian Chiffchaff and good numbers of Poms. Local inverts included Andrena vaga, Hister quadrimaculata and Mottled Shieldbug. A big thanks to David and Jacob at @dungenessbirdobs.bsky.social

I couldn’t sleep before reporting the result of our brilliant trip to The Gargarno: 3 species of Odonata, including a pair of Leates macrostigma (the last bit of action we had before downing the optics), A whole load of birds and a decent haul of other wildlife including a mega haul of 49 #orchids

745 Bar-tailed Godwits and 70 Whimbrel flew east past the seawatching hide this afternoon once the wind had swung round a bit. Hopefully the forecasted north-easterly winds during the next week will bring some more offshore passage. Why not come and join us by staying at the Observatory?

Willow Warbler & two Grey Wagtails notable at Dunorlan Park this morning 😀 Dipping a Reed Warbler at the dump yesterday afternoon less so 😢 #KentBirding

A jaunt across the border into East Sussex got my days warbler list up to ten with a vocal but very showy Garden Warbler. Hobby was also my first in 2026. I finished at the tip / sewage works, why do I keep going there? A good day though with 64 species noted despite a fair bit sitting at my desk.

52 species of bird around Whetsted GP’s and the walk from/to Sherenden Farm this morning including Greenshank, Cuckoo, half a dozen Nightingale, Sedge, Reed & Willow Warblers and a couple of Lesser Whitethroat. A single drake Mandarin flew east, the drake Wood Duck still looks lost.

Common Crane was an unexpected bonus while on a house hunting mission up Norf’ at the weekend thanks to @applewildlife.bsky.social

Firecrest singing its heart out again this morning - such brilliant birds. A frosty walk round Dunorlan Park: 32 species noted but nothing too noteworthy. Skylarks doing their thing and common stuff like Green Woodpecker always a pleasure. #TunbridgeWells #KentBirding

Whitethroat singing and showing well in The Shallows, Haysden, this morning - perhaps my earliest ever, maybe by some margin.

A male Wheatear at Haysden this afternoon was a welcome no. 98 for the 5 mile year list. Stock Doves are everywhere nowadays it seems but this one, seemingly growing out of a tree, needed snapping. Red Kites around including a small number over the back garden today. #KentBirding

Firecrest in a new place as I walked home from church yesterday and one singing in an expected spot this morning. Willow Warbler (and Swallow) at the local tip / sewage works this morning and another Willow Warbler at home when putting the rubbish out just now (my 2nd record here in 15 years).

Good Friday. Do you think the weekend birding gets any better? A walk to Whetsted GP’s produced a cracking drake Wood Duck looking rather confused on the path between two pits and when I was wondering how I hadn’t managed to see any new summer migrants, and then a forlorn-looking Muscovy Duck 🤷🏻‍♂️

The weekend gets off to a rubbish start with just 15 species (plus a White Stork which flew SSW reasonably high) at the tip 😲 / sewage works. I keep visiting the site in the hope of finding something interesting but tend to come away empty handed most of the time. #KentBirding #TunbridgeWells

3 Firecrests locally before I started work today. Good.

Thank you Jacob @dungenessbirdobs.bsky.social - this was excellent! Trustee meetings aren’t so bad.

The day started with Firecrest and Redpoll at home. Then my first Wheatears, Sand Martins & Sandwich Terns for 2025 at Dungeness + Black-necked Grebe at Lade GP’s, 7 Stonechat and a couple of Black Redstarts. Non-bird highlights included Harbour Porpoise and Early Purple #Orchid rosettes.

Thayer’s Gull, Minsmere, 10 years ago today. The drive up in a storm avoiding trampoline, walls and trees (or driving over them) was interesting. I’ve watched birds in appalling weather but really needed wiper blades for the optics that day! With JT, Guy & @birdingbazzer.bsky.social

@docmartin2mc.bsky.social has sent me the DNA results of the Lesser Whitethroat wintering in my garden and confirmed it as S c curruca, not what I expected, but more unusual than the Eastern races. Many thanks to him and his staff for all their work. The bird is still present for its 88th day.

The scenery is not too shabby in the #LakeDistrict either.

A weekend seeing my folk but we managed to fit some wildlife in. Dippers and 27 Black Grouse (17 male, 10 female) on the way here, Otters, Red Squirrels, Red & Roe Deer, a couple of Pintail, Great White Egret and my earliest ever Osprey (yesterday) from the cottage overlooking Bassenthwaite Lake.

A frosty start to the day.

More standard fare photography… … three Roe Deer at sunrise and a male Common Crossbill, the only one seen today. 143 Fallow Deer just outside #TunbridgeWells yesterday afternoon is probably the largest herd I’ve come across Highlight today: single Jack Snipe, #94 for my ‘5 mile year list’.

As someone who benefited from such a post at DBO many years ago I can highly recommend this opportunity!

Come and volunteer at Dungeness Bird Observatory this year! We have a couple of positions available to help out with the monitoring of the wildlife on the Dungeness peninsula as well as helping in the running of the Observatory!

Come stay at the Observatory this spring with the season being well underway with plenty of offshore passage the last couple of days! Theres plenty of availability and for a very reasonable price of £15 per night for friends, and £20 per night for others! Come along and see some migration in action!

2 Blackcaps, 1 Chiffchaff, usual Redwings, Mistle Thrushes and stuff. 40 species noted, 88 minutes. #TunbridgeWells #DunorlanPark #KentBirding

Some analysis on a Kentish 'Iceland Gull', Originally photographed last month to the north. Flew past me y'day along the cliffs at South foreland. perdixbirding.com/2026/03/04/0...

Vis-mig? northdownsandbeyond.blogspot.com/2026/03/a-du...

40 species around Dunorlan Park today including Peregrine (my first in #TunbridgeWells this year) and singing Chiffchaff (my first summer migrant of the year a few days earlier than usual). Seeing red too: a bit of Redpoll action, Red Kite and Redwings - and sun, two days in a row!

Come stay at the Observatory this spring with the season being well underway already! We have plenty of availability and for a very reasonable price of £15 per night for friends, and £20 per night for others!

Finally after 7 weeks of watching and photographing this Lesser Whitethroat)halimodendri)? it gave me this look and I just knew it was going to do the deed 💩, safely collected into a moth pot. #UKBirding

4 adult Med Gulls at Whetsted GP’s this morning. Little Owl calling at Haysden this evening was my first within 5 miles of home this year and that brings me up to 91 species now having, at last, also added Peregrine today. Looked for Hawfinch today without luck which is probably not surprising.

I was pleased when I saw Crossbills and Woodlarks locally this morning (albeit just into Sussex) but then spoke to Tracey who has seen Egyptian Plover, Senegal Thick-knee, Little Green & Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters and a list of various other reasonable birds this afternoon (and a load of tombs).

The two Shore Larks reappeared for the first time this year, while the other overwintering rarities in Kent (Bluetail, American Wigeon and Pallas’s Warbler) remained on show. For full weekly highlights see kentos.org.uk. #kentbirding

The house has just gone on the market, shout if you want it or call up Sumner Pridham. #TunbridgeWells has lots going for it. We plan to move to Norwich and Taverham is a favoured area - it’s also where we saw an overwintering Hoopoe on this day 1994 (on a school playing field, no idea which one).

My first days birding away from the local area in 2026. A certain warbler the main target (after 6 weeks 🤷🏻‍♂️) but it was great to see the American Wigeon, drake Goosander, 3 Whooper Swans, 32 Bewick’s (backlit with an awesome lightening display), Tree Sparrows, etc. Good to catch up with folk too 👍🏻