Trip reports
An evening at St Margarets
Wednesday, 18 July 2007
Twelve of us met in the grassed area used as a car park on the track up to the Lighthouse. While we were in the car park we saw evidence of movement of swifts and hirundines. Swifts, Swallows and even Sand Martins were flying over, mostly heading South-west. We could also hear birds in the bushes around the clearing, and were able to see Yellowhammer, sadly not as common as it was around this area a decade ago.
We had the South Foreland Valley to our selves except for a couple of dog walkers and walked along the track at the side of the woods towards the lighthouse, adding Wood Pigeon, Blackbird and then a Skylark, singing high above the field, to our list.
Walking down the narrow path towards the cliff edge saw Crows and Magpies, some of the latter obviously juveniles, and then we spent some time watching the sea and the shore below. A Lesser Blackback was among the Herring Gulls on the beach, a group of Black-headed Gulls flew past and the view of the sea was very pleasant. Fulmars nest on these cliffs. With their distinctive and graceful flight, they could be seen flying along and coming into sight above the edge of the cliff and disappearing again as they dropped in height.
Out to sea there were numbers of Gannets, flying singly or in twos and threes. We saw several quite close in and these included at least 2 juveniles. The adults were close enough to bee seen without binoculars with their wings shining white in the bright sunlight.
Leaving the cliffs to walk round the Valley we saw Greenfinches and House Sparrows around the lighthouse, Dunnock in the hedgerow, and a brief view of Sparrowhawk hunting over the adjacent field. Several Linnets were seen flying and in the bushes along the top of the cliffs. We heard a Green Woodpecker, and this bird seemed to follow us around all evening. We eventually saw what may have been the same bird sitting in the track as we were returning up the valley.
At the bottom of the Valley near to the Pines Gardens we came upon a flock of Long-tailed Tits, at least 14 birds, although difficult to count as they were so active in the trees on either side of the path. In among the flock we found a warbler and spent a few minutes trying to get a better view before we identified it as a Chiffchaff.
Our final bird of the evening as we were about to leave was a Jay which flew over the clearing.