Brian's birding blog: Update: Bramfield, Dungeness a London tick and Fishers Green

Tuesday, 20 January 2026

Update: Bramfield, Dungeness a London tick and Fishers Green

The 16th saw me take the Jims to Bramfield in the hope of ticking Hawfinch which we dipped but we did add Green Woodpecker and Yellowhammer to the year list. Other birds of note were a pair of Sparrowhawk, Red Kites, Nuthatch, Goldcrest and lots of Fieldfare/Redwing.

Yellowhammer

On the 18th I headed down to Dungeness for first light on my own. At the hide I quickly year ticked Gannet, Razorbill, Guillemot, Kittiwake and Red-throated Diver before Owen popped out of the hide to out me onto a Red-breasted Merganser for another year tick. A Peregrine was on the pilons and I found three Great White Egrets around Burrows and Boulderwell. Two Whoopers were with the Mute Swans near Cockles bridge. At Midley I found a herd of c40 Bewick's Swan and lots more thrushes. At the railway crossing I found a large flock of seed eaters which contained c50 House Sparrow, 8 Tree Sparrow, 6 Yellowhammer, 2 Corn Bunting and 2 Reed Bunting. I drove back down to Lydd looking for White-fronted Geese and stumbled on 15 Cattle Egrets at Whitehall Farm.

Whooper Swans amongst the Mute herd

The journey home took me close to the Red-flanked Bluetail site so I opted to give that a go and ended up giving it more time than I wanted for what would turn out to be four fleeting flight views although I did add Blackcap too as a bonus. Crockham hill in Kent just about fits in the London recording area so the Bluetail makes it onto the Kent list and the London list although I've seen them better in Norfolk.

With news that a Bittern has been seen over the last few days at Fishers Green I took Jim over this morning whilst Dad went for a blood test. We quickly found the Bittern and Dad arrived in time for the year tick too. They picked up two more on me with Water Rail and Rook and we found 32 White-fronted Geese down by Holyfield farm.