A TASTE OF THE ORIENT.

Meeting Marc at just before 7.00 a.m. we had decided on a little tour of East Kent.  We first dropped in at Kent University which some Mandarin Duck had decided to adopt recently.  Amazingly, several students were up by 7.30 a.m. in the hope of using the gym and we filed past them respectfully to the pond where only 20-25 bored Mallard were mooching about.  We then moved onto Bossenden Wood in the hope of connecting with a few species rarely seen at Reculver.  After expert directions from Steve Ashton we were strolling through the area to the sound of .....silence.  We fortunately found a Firecrest and as Marc went to copy the bears a single call from a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker rang out in the gloom.  We felt a little like Hansel and Gretel as we moved on and we came to the conclusion it was a fairly pointless exercise in the gloom and wind.  However, we will return on a better day.  Returning to the University 5 Mandarin had arrived and we spent the next 45 minutes trying to photograph them in the gathering gloom.  With Marc in need of a Reculver fix we finished up at the Towers where nearly 200 Red Throated Divers sped past in groups of up to 20-25 in only 40 minutes, 6 Shelduck and 2 Great Crested Grebe also made the notebook.  Not too bad a day and hopefully something will arrive next week.  Every other County in Britain seems to have an Iceland Gull except us !