Trip reports

Evening trip along the lampen wall at Stodmarsh

Wednesday, 20 June 2007

Almost the longest day of the year, when 13 of us met at Stodmarsh for an evening walk. The day had been warm and it was calm, in total contrast to the night before. This had seen thunder and lightening storms, heavy rain with flooding in Dover and other parts of Kent. So suprisingley despite the rain the paths were fairly dry.
House Martins had been seen in the village and a party of Long-tailed tits crossed the car park as we assembled. A Chiffchaff was singing as we walked towards the Alder wood. By the ramp where the nature trail exits the wood, we stopped to identify a small bird flitting about in the willow as a Garden Warbler.
On the main lake there were Shoveler, Mallard, Tufted Duck, Great Crested Grebe and a number of Greylag Geese. Several Common Tern were flying around the raft. Over 40 Cormorants were roosting in the trees on the far side of the lake with 2 Little Egrets in among them. One swimming Cormorant amused us for several minutes as he struggled with a large eel, eventually getting it the right way round to swallow.
Sedge and Reed Warblers were flitting about in the reeds but not showing themselves very well. We were able to watch the Marsh Harriers hunting over the reeds for quite a while, always an impressive sight no matter how many times you have seen them before.
A male Cuckoo gave excellent views perching in the bushes and on bullrushes. This enabled us to find him in the telescopes and see the markings and its colours well. Even including the red inside of its mouth as he gobbled down a caterpillar. A second Cuckoo was calling from further away. While watching the Cuckoos we were delighted to hear a Bittern booming. He kept this up for over an hour and the sound seemed to be coming from the reedbeds between the Marsh hide and the Lampen Wall.
Grey Heron, Green Woodpecker and Stock Dove were seen flying over the reeds and Steve spotted a Barn Owl hunting just as it disappeared behind a line of bushes. Luckily it was seen again, hunting back and forth in the distance and eventually flying off high with prey in it's claws. Those who had been viewing Spring Watch recently remarked that there would be no excuse for chicks eating their siblings tonight!!
A reeling call from the reeds got us excited about the possibility of seeing Grasshopper Warbler. However, the reeling was quite distant and we were unable to locate it despite a fair bit of reed scanning. One Bearded tit was seen, and 4 Swifts flying over. Given the large quantities of flies about we were surprised not to see many hirundines.
A Jay was seen on the way back to the car park, our walk accompanied by music and shouting from the local Red Lion pub. The village was packed, and there were people dressed up with their faces blacked, possibly some celebration of the solstice we decided.