Bird Watching

Posted on Tue., Apr. 21, 2009

 April 16th 2009

I heard the cuckoo today for the first time this year. On Monday a Radio Four reporter informed me that the cuckoo had just arrived in Kent and in a matter of days he would be working his way up through England. In this respect he was spot on - moving north at about 30 miles per day.

Swallows are just returning this week

Our rooks are as busy as ever in the tops of the trees just alongside the park. It is always amusing to watch them settle down for the night at this time of year. Sometimes it can take over an hour and several massive disruptions where they all fly off in a panic and gradually return to the place they set out from. We can sometimes put on an extra display for visitors by clapping hands sharply just when they have all gone quiet for the night. Our picture shows some of the rookery at dusk.

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At the top of the hill we can often see buzzards circling. I always think of them as lazy birds because they just drift on the upward air currents as the westerly winds hit our escarpment edge. I rarely see one making an effort to fly in any particular direction.

Thrushes are getting more noisy in the tops of the fruit trees as the days get warmer.

There are plenty of pigeons, crows, blackbirds and pheasants about as well. The cock pheasants are amusing to watch as they do their "boy" thing preening and looking big and threatening to do such terrible things. They are all bluff and hardly any action. In these encounters they eventually decide who is the main man and the loser slinks off to find another piece of territory. The winner then sets himself up with a whole harem of lady pheasants - I have counted more than 20 with one gent on our front lawn - when he has good cause to puff out his chest and look regal.

A few years ago a caravan owner gave me a list of over 40 birds he had seen on or near the park.