I am a real sucker for a great sunrise or sunset photo, so I had to share this one when I saw it.
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A WALK ALONG THE RIVER
Posted: April 23, 2021 in Birds, Natural HistoryTags: Gravesend, Mediterranean Gull
It was good to be able to get back to visiting familiar haunts. It is probably a year since Keith and I walked the riverfront at Gravesend, so it was great to be able to visit on Thursday.
The normal wader population that we would see in the winter had gone to the breeding grounds but the highlight of the day was 7 Mediterranean Gulls in full plumage. Also 2 Blackcaps singing in the riverside park.
Mallard 
Cormorant 
Mediterranean Gulls 
Mediterranean Gulls (Photo by Keith Cutting)
It’s good to be out again
Posted: April 16, 2021 in Birds, Landscape, Natural HistoryTags: bough beech reservoir
A post-lockdown trip back to Bough Beech. The water level is still high and there is little to be seen on the reservoir apart from the resident geese and grebes. A couple of Buzzards drift aimlessly over the back of the north reservoir, but all is very quiet. still it is good to be out again.
I make my way down the road to the old Oast house. a party of Sand Martins and Swallows, my first this year, pass over the road and continue north. A Greater Spotted Woodpecker is the highlight of the birds on the feeders and a get a brief view of the Kingfisher as it darts past the bridge, whilst a Reed Bunting briefly emerges from the Reed-bed. No butterflies yet to be seen, perhaps still a little cold for them. A sparrowhawk drifts over on the way back to reservoir. 34 species is not a bad list for a couple of hours, but it is just good to be out again!
photo by Sue
photo by Sue
So that’s why its called Crittalls Corner
Posted: March 19, 2021 in History, Kent, UKTags: Crittalls corner
I have lived just down the A20 from Crittalls Corner for 21 years and wondered where the name came from? In the other direction we have Clifton’s roundabout, which was named after a garage that used to stand on the side of the roundabout. The garage is still there, but no longer called Clifton’s. A little further away is the Yorkshire Grey roundabout, named after a pub which occupied the south side. Again, the building is still there although these days it is a McDonalds restaurant. But I didn’t know anything about Crittall’s until quite by chance I came across this in a blog post.
Francis Berrington Crittall started his eponymous company in 1849, but it wasn’t until 1884 they started making their famous metal windows which even found their way onto the Titanic. The company has always been based around Braintree in Essex, so it is a bit of a mystery why a roundabout on the A20 near Sidcup where one of their factories stood on its north-west corner should have been given the accolade of Crittalls Corner.
I copied the text but sadly the browser closed before I could get the details of the blog, so a thank you anyway to the person who blogged it. great to finally know after all these years.
The Canada Goose is one of our common resident geese, Introduced from North America from the late 17th century it has spread across almost the whole of the UK and is often found on city lakes and in parks as well as in the countryside.
It is estimated that there are around 62,000 breeding pairs in the UK with a peak population of around 190,000 birds.
Bullfinch
One of my favourite birds but rare in my area now.
A new visitor to the Garden
Posted: February 25, 2021 in Birds, London, Natural History, UKTags: Fieldfare
Was surprised to find a Fieldfare in the garden the other day. This was the first record since we arrived here in 2000 and took the garden list to 46 species. I didn’t manage to photograph it but here are some pictures of Fieldfare taken at Bough Beech earlier in the year
Ring-billed Gull #3 (2017)
Posted: February 19, 2021 in Birds, Natural HistoryTags: Ring-billed Gull
I remember seeing my first Ring-billed Gull. It was the long-staying one at Copperhouse Creek in West Cornwall. Years later we had one that returned to Greenwich/Isle of Dogs in London. Like the Copperhouse bird, it returned to the site for a number of years running.
