Page 5 - Lydden News Letter 2025.cdr
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NATURE NOTES



       Occasionally  there  are  days  when  interesting  nature  sightings  occur  in  a  lovely
       sequence.  One Monday in mid-February I opened the bedroom curtains to look down
       at a firecrest feeding with a couple of blue tits in the willow and laurel in the back
       garden.  On stepping out of the back door to leave the house a male blackcap was
       singing in the field maple tree in the garden and on the car journey a cattle egret was
       feeding in the field adjacent to the A2 at the top of Coldred Hill.  The first I have seen
       near the village. All delightful sightings, but indications of a changing climate.

       This one morning of fortuitous observations could not have happened when I was a
       teenager.  Firecrests were a rare bird normally encountered on coastal areas in spring
       and autumn, they have now become widespread through out east Kent.  Blackcaps
       were mainly summer visitors with very few being seen in winter.  The UK has now
       become the wintering ground for many blackcaps that breed in parts of Germany,
       saving the effort of a migratory flight to and from southern Europe or North Africa.
       Cattle Egrets were once very rare birds with one or two records in the UK in a year,
       being  a  resident  species  only  of  southern  Europe.  They  have  now  become
       established as a breeding species in the UK. On a recent birdwatching visit near to
       Wingham I saw a flock of 21, not far as a bird flies. So, it was only a question of time
       before the first one was seen close to the village. They differ from the more common
       little egret by having a yellow bill and pale yellow legs.


       This year January and February have seen significantly more rain than an average
       winter.  These wet winters are when the normally dry valleys of the Downs are turned
       into 'river' valleys with the rising of the winterbournes.   In the Alkham valley it is the
       Drellingore and the Nailbourne flows from Elham down to Barham.  There probably
       was a bourne flowing through the village but fortunately it has not appeared in recent
       times.
       Enjoy the early Spring.
       Paul Holt










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