Dartford Waffler

From mid August to the end of September 2011 I spent six weeks staying with my family in southeast England. Whilst many British people head to Thailand for some warmth it was nice for me to get out of the humidity and heat for a while and experience some cool weather; in fact apart from […]

Back in Thailand I have been going over my notes from my 5 week visit to England. It wasn’t really a birding trip, just a visit home, although I did go out birding a fair bit.
In total I saw 129 species. The best of which I suppose were Red-backed Shrike, Great Egret and Glossy Ibis. […]

There seems to have been a mini invasion of Glossy Ibises into Britain over the last week with around half a dozen birds present. Last Thursday I caught up with one at Stodmarsh in Kent, the first time I have seen this species in Britain. However, I have seen plenty of them in India and […]

Back in the UK it is always nice to catch up with some birds that I haven’t seen for ages due to being in exile in Thailand. Having been back for a few weeks and already met up with most of the commoner birds I decided to head to the shingle headland of Dungeness on a […]

Recently I was thinking of how to pass on tips on how to be a good birdwatcher onto other people and how to get feedback and more suggestions from a wider audience. I settled on making a page on Squidoo.com which gives a few tips on the subject and contains a guest book where people […]

Crows and other corvids have long been recognised as being among the most intelligent of birds, indeed among the most intelligent in the animal kingdom. When I was young my father used to tell me stories of a pet Jackdaw that he had which had learned to say a few words and on “The Life […]

This afternoon I went for a stroll along the Darent valley at Lullingstone hoping to find Lesser Spotted Woodpecker which I have seen there before in winter. No luck with that species and very little else was to be found on an extremely quiet and cold day.
Along the valley and in the woodland higher up […]

Beginning a new year list always gives me fresh enthusiasm for birdwatching - I guess I shouldn’t be such a listing freak, but I am!
Today I headed down to Greenhithe on the River Thames and walked along to Swanscombe Marsh, or what is left of it. This is a good site for Water Pipit and […]

Yesterday afternoon I found an hour to visit Dartford Marshes. I headed straight for the riverfront and as the tide was out, large numbers of gulls were present on the mud. Unfortunately, very shortly after my arrival a large ship passed along the river and its bow wave scared off most of the large gulls. […]

This afternoon I went for a quick visit to Sutton-at-Hone watercress beds - Sutton-at-Hone is a village a few miles south of Dartford in Kent, along the Darenth Valley. This little spot is always good in winter for birds and an hour spent there at this time of year is bound to turn up something […]